Cycle Safety Meeting Today; Leaf Blowers Before Council Tuesday
Two hot topics for residents of Corona del Mar will be discussed at City Hall this week — bicycle safety and leaf blowers.
The Task Force on Cycling Safety meets at 4 p.m. today in the Council Chambers of City Hall. The meeting will begin earlier than usual in order to accommodate a presentation by Brian DeSousa of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition.
The group also plan to discuss costs of printing a bicycle map, as well as updates on sharrows (marked lanes where cars and bikes share the road), bike racks and “hot spots” that are especially dangerous for cyclists. East Coast Highway in Corona del Mar is frequently cited as a hot spot. Click here to see the agenda for today’s meeting; click here and here for earlier task force stories.
The topic of leaf blowers will be on the City Council’s agenda for its study session, scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers.
The question of whether Newport Beach should ban leaf blowers came from a few private citizens along with members of the Corona del Mar Residents Association. Some residents have complained of noise and air pollution from leaf blowers, and pointed to cities including Laguna Beach that have full or partial bans.
The CDMRA conducted an online poll, with 85 percent of respondents saying the wanted a full or partial ban. Read more about the poll results here.
According to a city staff report, however, further research and analysis should be conducted — which will be difficult with city departments like General Services working with reduced work forces. One option would be for the Council to vote to direct staff to take no further action on the subject.
Read our earlier stories here and here.
Both meetings are open to the public.
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Brian DeSousa’s video-capture technology bolstered the agenda of Cycling Safety Task Force beyond selling maps and buying bike racks.
Because of the non-detecting traffic signals and NBPD chasing bicycles, always ride with a freshly charged camera phone. If chased by the NBPD, do two things. Firstly, observe the condition of the NBPD officer. Ask questions to test if the officer can communicate. Secondly, check the functioning of the traffic signal. The city engineers and the traffic signal vendor might have disconnected or unprogrammed the bicycle button with the control unit. And the embedded wires probably will not detect the lighter mass of a bicycle. Be aware that with a single car alongside the traffic light will only have a few seconds of green and yellow. When riding at sunset, besides the camera phone, carry an extra light in case the NBPD detainment puts you into darkness. Ride safely and be prepared with backup technology.
The previously disconnected bicycle button going south on San Joaquin from Newport Coast to the Back Bay is now functioning. In fact, Newport Beach’s vendor programmed the button with the control unit to allow enough time for a bicycle to cross all six Jamboree lanes even if there are no cars. The next review for Newport Beach traffic engineers are the traffic signals through the Spyglass and Harbor Ridge area. A frequent bike route is cyclists riding round trip from the Bluffs apartments to Newport Coast. The hilly terrain has the same risks as Tesoro and Ridge Park of last summer’s cycling fatality. We look forward to 2010 be a safe cycling year throughout Newport Beach.
A stronger reason than noise and pollution to ban leaf blowers is the safety hazard of debris on windshields for driving visibility. The debris also glazes windshields with damage. And a citywide ban is necessary because leaf blowers are being used heavily on private property. Cars parked all day on a property with leaf blowers drive on to Newport Beach roadways with poor visibility. An example is Park Newport and Nieves Landscaping in the use of leaf blowers on everything from leaves to branches and rain water. The contractor Nieves even uses leaf blowers in the garages. There is so much dust that the workers wear goggles and a mask. Take a drive through the Park Newport garages and notice windshields covered with brown dirt and carbon soot that becomes smeared if windshield wipers are applied. And the Park Newport Clubhouse has senior gatherings for card games during the weekdays. These windshields are an unsafe condition for Newport Beach motorists.
Newport Beach appears to have increased bicycles on crosswalks with maneuvers ranging from dismounting to riding, running and weaving in and out of the crosswalks. The concern is that right turning cars do not expect bicycles either ridden or walked to enter a crosswalk. A motorist is less likely to react to a bicycle as a pedestrian. Also, more cyclists are using sidewalks to get around traffic. It is a motorist distraction to be watching for bicycles leaving sidewalks to the roadway. And the obstacles to bicycles on sidewalks are runners, dogs, cellphone talk, and music headphones. Could the Task Force please review if increased bicycles in crosswalks and sidewalks is due to roadway congestion, lack of bike lanes, undetecting traffic signals, police vehicle citations to cyclists, etc.? And more specifically, is Newport Beach trying to keep bicycles on roadways or offloading to sidewalks?