A Council Decision to Make Cycling Safe

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Editor,

 

Bike counts on weekends on Coast Highway show a peak of 70 riders per hour and Laguna Canyon road 100 riders per hour, yet there are no provisions in all of Laguna Beach for cyclists. Not a shelter, not a route sign, not a bike lane, or sharrow or a descent warning anywhere.

 

Laguna’s hills are a magnet to cyclists just as they are for skateboarders but speedboarders are now banned from skating on six hilly residential roads by city ordinance because the city feared a speedboarder would be killed if “nothing be done”.

 

Will the city now ban cycling for the same reason or will “nothing be done”? Local bike riders are aware of dangers descending Laguna’s hills and where to use extra caution on Nyes Place, Summit Drive, Bluebird, Temple Hills and Park Avenue. Riders from out-of-town are unaware of these hot-spots. Mark Leones of Costa Mesa was killed when descending Park Avenue on Oct. 16. Simple painted road markings cost very little (25 cents per foot in Long Beach), are easy to apply, are quick to identify, and serve as tools to teach drivers and cyclists the imminent dangers on our hilly residential streets. A simple road-grade stencil might have spared Mark Leones his life.

 

Les Miklosy, chair, Task Force for Complete Streets

 

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