Cycle Task Force Look For Bike Racks and Come Up Empty
Bike racks are so few and far between in Newport Beach that cyclists use anything they can find to stash their bikes — even at popular outdoor destinations like Big Corona State Beach, members of a cycling safety task force reported at the group’s fourth meeting Monday afternoon.
“There’s not a single bike rack at Big Corona,” said Frank Peters, a Corona del Mar resident and member of the Newport Beach Task Force on Cycling Safety. “I’ve lived here 11 years and just discovered that.”
City Councilwoman Nancy Gardner said that surprised her, but the general lack of bike racks throughout the city was something she was well aware of.
“I’m always chaining my bike to a palm tree, and I keep waiting to get a ticket,” she said. “There should be bike racks as many places as we can put them.”
The task force discussed bike rack styles, whether restaurants should be required to provide racks, and then decided to come up with a list of places that need racks and currently don’t have them.
The group also discussed an email that a resident sent to Gardner, saying that “sharrows” would be better than bike lanes. The group discussed sharrows — marked lanes for areas where cars and bicycles share the road — at the second task force meeting.
One task force member, however, said he would “go to Vegas” that county transit officials would not permit sharrows to be painted along East Coast Highway. Members discussed whether it would be a better idea to add sharrows along Seashore Drive on the Balboa Peninsula, where there already is a popular bike lane.
The task force will hold its next meeting at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 25 in City Council Chambers.
Read our earlier cycling task force stories here, here, here and here.
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“I had such high expectations when I joined the committee,” I shared with a fellow Bike Safety Committee member after Monday night’s meeting, “now I’m increasingly discouraged”. A few of us gathered outside the City Council chambers after the meeting to lick our wounds.
We recognize the obvious: there’s little political will to make any serious changes. A new bike trails map is looking like it will be our most substantial accomplishment. Any visions of a Newport Beach that’s more bike-friendly, with more bike paths, that has a greater commitment to share-the-road, well, a vision is all it will ever be during the short term of this committee.
The lament of a political newbie you say? Maybe so, but picture the make-up of this committee:
3 council members, an Asst City Manager and a City Transportation engineer, that’s a lot of defenders of the status-quo. Six citizen cyclists are no match for this group. I’m sure they wish for a better outcome, but they can’t help themselves; all this institutional thinking can’t easily flip into brainstorming cycling innovations.
Resistance to change is obvious during every discussion, no matter the issue.
Take bike racks. How can bike racks evoke such Neanderthal remarks from Councilman Webb? When presented with snippets from the 157-page Los Angeles Bicycle Plan’s Technical Design Handbook which unequivocally presents an ideal bike rack design, supplemented with photos of their implementation in Huntington Beach, yet when told there isn’t a single instance of one in all of Newport Beach, and in fact every bike rack in Newport can be found on LA’s list of Unacceptable Bicycle Racks, his reply: “these 50 year old designs are easier to install, you only have to drill two holes”. Well, at least you know where you stand with Don Webb; that’s typical of his interest in most proposed safety improvements.
Last night we had the largest audience yet, but unless the cycling public comes to these next few meetings and voices their concerns and throws their weight behind our more critical initiatives all we’ll end up with is a new bike trails map.
The next meeting is 4:30pm Monday January 25th in the City Council chambers.
If you care about a more sustainable, bike-friendly city please come and be heard.
Bike racks are irrelevant and sharrows too contentious to immediately face the safety risks to Newport Beach. Similar to the Ridge Park fatalities, Spyglass Road and the Harbor Ridge entrance is like Tesoro. And similar to Jamboree’s tragedy, Bison Road could have an accident with the FJM shuttle, Calty Design workers and Belcourt visitors. The problem is road design, traffic engineering and the unexpected presence of bicycle riders. Newport Beach can practice for the “unexpected” with the simple measures for safety awareness. The Safe Cycling Task Force could culminate its recommendations in the Springtime with a series of Safety Rides. The rides could be timed with the National Bicycle Commuting Week at the beginning of May. For example, a Single-File Ride could be held at various neighborhoods such as Eastbluff, Mariners, or Newport Coast. The Safety Rides will build Newport Beach motorist’s awareness of bicyclists, and cyclists can practice safe riding skills. The Safety Rides could include the NBPD both in uniform on their police bicycles or as off-hours citizens. Within the ranks, the NBPD can refer to the events as Safety Enforcement Bicycle Rides. The NBPD presence would certainly be more meritorious than motorcycle police chasing bicycles and contriving motor vehicle citations at the non-detecting signals into the Back Bay. Also, the city traffic engineers like Tony Brine and George Bernard who have been setting back traffic signals could gain field experience from the Safety Rides. The Safe Cycling Task Force is inadequate for major changes but should be a safety initiator. For the long term, Newport Beach has to use the revenues from a Mercedes and Lexus dealerships to design roads and buy traffic signals that both accommodate bicyclists and efficiently move car traffic. Newport Beach sells cars and creates speedy traffic, and just needs to spend for safe bicycling. It has to be remembered that Don Murphy’s death was on a roadway that once had regular bicycle commuting engineers to Ford Aerospace and the Rockwell plant. Newport Beach’s Jamboree Road became wider over two decades, but no room was made for safe bicycling.
How did the urgent safety issues of Cycling Task Force become identified with a council member that has a Schwinn in the garage, as reported by the OCRegister?
In reply to the preceding comments about volunteers, the Newport Beach bicycle safety is a matter for the courts instead of volunteer effort. The Orange County Superior Court – Harbor Division has consistently defined bicycles as vehicles instead of applying CVC 21200-212. The Harbor Court has collected vehicle fines from bicyclists for three years. Accordingly for consistency, Newport Beach is liable for accident claims in which bicyclists were denied vehicle rights. The city of Newport Beach has not designed roadways to regard bicycles as vehicles. And signage should warn about non-detecting signals, narrow lanes and blind hills as well as disclose that bicycles are subject to vehicle citations. Let’s watch for filings in 2010, and future litigation about the implementation of AB-1581 for the traffic signal detection of bicycles.
Bike racks would embellish the elegance of Newport Beach. Bicycles should not be chained to posts in a city of Newport Beach’s affluence. The bike racks could be designed with mini-sails to match the motif of the new City Hall. The bike racks could also have dispensers to sell the proposed maps. And the design could be high tech with an interactive sign to send coupons via SMS text messages to a cyclist’s cellphone. Balboa Island trialed such a window sign. Please comment if Newport Beach should commercialize bike racks. Also, the Don Murphy memorial on Jamboree Road with the frame locked to the lamppost and the attached warning sign should have an appropriate rack or pedestal stand. Our respect for his commuter cycling and deep sympathy to his family.
The next meeting of the Safe Cycling Task Force should end with a moment of silence praying that a student bicyclist is not injured at CDM during 2010. While bicycling on Eastbluff Road today, I stopped at a stop sign with three cars. The first car rightly acknowledged me, but the second car never looked at me and the third car accelerated non-stop through the crossing as if to beat me out. The problem is car speed. At the posted 40 mph coming off Jamboree, cars are going 50 mph and just tapping the brakes at the three stop signs. Cars are accelerating from the stop signs to resume 50 mph and will trample a student. In later afternoon after school hours, the narrow sidewalks are unrealistic for bicycles because of dog walkers. Eastbluff Road needs attention from the NBPD as well as a review of the speed limits and traffic loads.
I watched a near-miss this week that could have been a cyclist crush at San Joaquin and Jamboree in Newport Beach. A group of four cyclists that looked like young professionals were taking a midweek fitness ride down to the Back Bay. They barely made the short-interval green light across six lanes. The bicycle button is disconnected and the inductive embedded wires do not detect bicycles. The first cyclist motioned to the oncoming traffic. The second and third cyclists let up to shield the fourth bicycle. Let’s hope the Newport Beach Safe Cycling Task Force becomes more forceful for safety.
[...] our earlier stories about task force meetings here, here and [...]
[...] bike racks in Newport Beach, including at City Hall and at Big Corona State Beach. (Read our story here.) Fitzpatrick called Peters to obtain copies of the materials, then he began talking to business [...]