7 Responses to “Cycle Task Force Has One Meeting Left”
Comments
Report Cyclist
March 9th, 2010
Newport Beach’s safe cycling report should match cities such as Boise, Portland and Green Bay. Newport Beach is differentiated by the large number of private communities. The cycling report should include the following ten items: 1) Road design that integrates the traffic patterns of both motorists and cyclists; 2) Warning signage for community entrances to roadways; responsibilities of private communities for signs and obstacles on the property such as chains across pathways; 3) Traffic signal engineering and management; 4) Vendor selection and budgeting for traffic signal inductive wires and control units; 5) NBPD police behavior in chasing and detaining cyclists; 6) Orange County Superior Court – Harbor Division defining bicycles as vehicles despite California having no such statute except 21200-212 for rights and duties; 7) Newport Beach’s position on Caltrans implementing AB-1581 for signal detection and timing clearance for bicycles; 8) Criteria for a neighborhood to apply for the city budgeting of sharrows, bike lanes, road widening, signs or other capital expenditures for cycling improvements; 9) Education on cyclist groups sharing roadways, solo cyclists being visible, bicycles entering and leaving crosswalks, and the multi-use of sidewalks; 10) Process for timely review of safety conditions after a bicycle injury accident. Today almost one year after a fatality, cars still cut across Ridge Park Road from the recreation center to the Tesoro community as cyclists descend the hill from a blind curve.
Newport Cyclist
March 9th, 2010
I suggest that the Task Force report including reviewing the Test-and-Dismount policy for left turn lanes. NBPD commanding officers have mandated test-and-dismount in letters to cited cyclists. In trying Test-and-Dismount, motorists have given me unfavorable reactions. Does Newport Beach want to be responsbile for cyclists standing dismounted in left turn lanes and trying to go across traffic? Also, bicycle accidents occur in private developments. The city's safety rules such as signage should include private property. I have a smashed helmet from flipping over an unmarked road barrier at the Ziani townhomes in Newport Coast as an example.
Report Monitor
March 10th, 2010
The Safe Cycling report begins the process of Newport Beach settling claims for narrow roadways, lack of bike lanes, inadequate signage, traffic signal engineering, NBPD detainments to confirm cyclist's identification, and unlawful collection of vehicle citation fees from bicycles.
Safety Voter
March 10th, 2010
During past discussions with the NBPD about safe cycling, including bicycle accident scenes, both commanding and field officers have laughed. Concerned residents should not waste time in meeting with the Newport Beach Police Department. Voters with family members that ride bicycles should only vote for a city council candidate who has a plan for improving roads and signals for cycling. Newport Beach's laxity for bicycle safety began under Ed Selich and continues with Nancy Gardner.
Eastbluff Cyclist
March 15th, 2010
The next Task Force on bicycle safety has to take a simpler mission such as improving school areas. Here's an example. On Friday March 12th at about 5:30, I was bicycling from Vista del Oro on to Eastbluff Drive next to the track at Corona del Mar High. A group of young children with midde sized bikes were at the four-way stop that does not have a cross walk. The children appeared to have been visiting friends in the Bluffs and returning home to their Eastbluff neighborhood. A younster yells out to me "Mister, can we ride across with you." The problem was that cars speed at 50 mph during evening rush hour and only tap the brakes at the stop signs. I held up the traffic in the middle of the road while the children went across Eastbluff. When I biked down the road, the NBPD car was is in its usual place of being parked in the Ralph's lot. A cyclist directed the traffic for children bicyclists while the NBPD officer browsed the dashboard notebook.
Island Cyclist
March 15th, 2010
Newport Beach traffic engineers and their signal vendor have struggled with programming sufficient green clearance for cyclists. For most of 2009, the bicycle button at the downhill San Joaquin-Jamboree was disconnected. The ten-lane throughway had only a four second green clearance and one second yellow pause if only one car was present. The Jamboree hill on to Balboa Island has the same flaw, but even more hazardous because of the extreme downhill. The downhill cyclist has the brief 4 sec/1 sec clearance if only one car is turning from the opposing direction off of the Island. Similarly flawed signals are across Spyglass, Bonita Canyon and Newport Coast. The solution is not for the NBPD to chase and detain cyclists to relate vehicle information to a bicycle. The Safe Cycling Task Force was a generous effort by volunteers and a forceful initiative by Nancy Gardner. But the next election calls for City Council members who will reform road design, traffic engineers, signal vendor and police behavior.
backbaybuff
March 26th, 2010
Let's hope that the Newport Beach Cycling Report explains why the San Joaquin-Jamboree bicycle into the Back Bay button was disabled for about nine months. For about two years, the NBPD has been chasing bicycles at the other south entrance to the Back Bay for a signal that apparently also does not detect bicycles. The Back Bay is a cherished nature preserve for Newport Beach and should have safe access for all visitors. Of course, we expect sensible and safe sharing of the single-lane Back Bay roadway. And the NBPD should respect night commuting bicyclists after dusk in the Back Bay by not driving with their headlights turned off to sneak up on youth drinkers and potsmokers.
