April
2001

Lompoc petitions for safer bike conditions



This section of Ocean Avenue west of Lompoc is where two cyclists have already fallen because of the missing bikelane and grooved pavement in the outer travel lane. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• In late February, County Supervisor Joni Gray was presented with a 350-person petition by Lompoc businessman Tim Brummer. The petition requested that three problem situations for bicyclists in the unincorporated county near the city of Lompoc be addressed and corrected. The petition was reinforced by a letter from the Lompoc Chamber of Commerce, stressing the importance of bicycling to their local economy. Gray wasn't at her office at the time, but her staff received the petition and letter.
• Brummer reported that two cyclists had already fallen in the most dangerous area on western Ocean Avenue, and it was important to fix the pavement there before a more serious accident occurs. The three problem situations are these:
• Ocean Avenue just west of the entrance to Vandenberg Air Force Base. Apparently, roadway drainage in the two traffic lanes was poor, so the shoulder was ground down and the outer lane deeply grooved. The grooves run parallel to the direction of travel and are about the width of a road bike tire, trapping and throwing cyclists.
• Ocean Avenue west of the City of Lompoc. This is an agricultural region with heavily irrigated fields. The farm trucks and vehicles frequently track mud and dirt onto the road shoulders where bicyclists ride.
• San Miguelito Road, on a 1.7-mile section from the Lompoc City limits to the diatomaceous earth processing plant entrance. There are bike lanes in this stretch, but the road was repaved and the bike lanes left untouched. They are rough and full of gravel from the deteriorating asphalt. This road goes to the popular Miguelito County Park.
• Brummer has sent copies of the requests to the County's Public Works Director Phil Demery and Alternative Transportation Coordinator Wilson Hubbell. We're watching to see how soon responses come and hoping they're before more serious accidents occur.

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Santa Barbara stripes bikelanes on Cabrillo Boulevard



New bikelanes on the mountain side of Cabrillo Boulevard help increase bicyclists safety on the scenic street. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Over the past several months, the City of Santa Barbara has been treating many streets with asphalt overlays that provide better and safer surfaces for motorists and bicyclists alike. Even more significant is the opportunity that the City has taken to change lane striping on the streets.
• The March issue of Quick Release reported that three blocks of Downtown State Street had been restriped with wider bike lanes and narrower motorist lanes. Just wonderful! Last month another significant change was made to the newly-resurfaced Cabrillo Boulevard. The motorist lanes were narrowed, resulting in a wide outside lane on the ocean side of the street. Striping a new bikelane on the mountain side of Cabrillo between State and Milpas Streets was just as beneficial. These changes improve street safety and relieve congestion on the parallel Cabrillo Beachway.
• If you wish to thank the City for these changes, and encourage more, write to:
• Mayor Harriet Miller & the City Council
  PO Box 1990
  Santa Barbara, CA 93102
• You might mention that Public Works engineer Derek Rapp was instrumental in designing the improvements. Thanks everybody!

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Jackson proposes school safety bill

• A new state bill by local Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, designated AB 19, has been designed to make it safer for children to walk and bike to school. In submitting the bill, Jackson pointed out that California has the 12th highest rate among states for child pedestrian fatalities.
• AB 19 proposes to increase fines for traffic violations in school zones, and allow school districts to use the resulting money to hire crossing guards in school areas with heavy traffic. Fines imposed within our county would be used locally. On March 21, the bill unanimously passed the Assembly Committee on Transportation. It has a long way to go before becoming law, but it looks very promising.
• Although the intent of the bill is to improve pedestrian safety, it will also make conditions safer for kids biking to school.

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Roll bikes onto new Amtrak Surfliners



Here a new Surfliner train loads passengers at the new Carpinteria Amtrak station. Interestingly, kids from Ventura travel to Carpinteria to use the adjacent skateboard park. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Amtrak has nearly finished converting its old San Diagan trains into bicyclist-friendly Surfliner trains. Within three months, all nine trains on the Southern California corridor should be the new Surfliners.
• The new trains represent an Amtrak investment of $125 million for eight trains sets, and the State of California has purchased a ninth set so that the entire regional fleet will be Surfliners. There are four daily Surfliner trains that enter Santa Barbara County from Los Angeles, one of which connects north to San Luis Obispo.
• This means that you will be able to bike to one of our five county train stops, roll onto a Surfliner—at Guadalupe, Surf/Lompoc, Goleta, Santa Barbara, or Carpinteria—and be on your way. It also means that visitors from LA and elsewhere with bikes will be able to come here and have mobility to campgrounds, hotels, or to start touring.
• Roll your bike on the lower level of the train, lock it, and then you can sit nearby, go upstairs, or visit the cafe car. You don't have to stay with your bike.
• Amtrak offers regular coaches that are very comfortable and roomy, and also a "business class" coach with even roomier seats, audio and video systems, and complimentary beverage, snack and newspaper service. Reservations are needed for business class seats. If you're used to tiny bathrooms and cramped economy conditions on airplanes, you'll be astonished with the dreamy luxury on these new trains.
• For more details and reservations, check out the Surfliner web site at: www.amtrakwest.com/pacificsurfliner. Why not plan a multi-modal bike/train trip and tell us what you think?

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Grants for safe routes to school

• Six South Coast schools were awarded "mini-grants" by the Safe Routes Through Safe Communities project. The six schools are Carpinteria Middle School, plus five elementary schools: Cold Springs, Ellwood, Franklin, Vieja Valley, Brandon, and El Rancho. The grants will be used to initiate small-scale improvements. A second round of applications will be taken in late April for use next fall. For more information, contact Dru van Hengel, 564-5544.
• The local PTAs and the Safe Routes group will be working together to plan the Santa Barbara Safety Fair as part of our Bike Week Bike Expo on May 19. Then, they will promote the Bike-to-School Day on May 22 with posters and help to all participating schools.

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Where's the bikelane?



The bikelane ends and parking begins on Hot Springs Road. Motorists usually park totally on the road. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• In Montecito, according to the Santa Barbara County Bike Map, there are bikelanes striped on Hot Springs Road between East Valley Road and Old Coast Highway.
• Something has happened to the lane, however, across from the Von's shopping plaza. The lane turns into car parking. Signs posted in the last 200 feet or so of the road have been changed from "NO PARKING ANY TIME" and "BIKE LANE" to "NO PARKING 7:00 A.M. TO 9:00 A.M."
• This change occurs at a bad place for bicyclists—at the bottom of a mile-long downhill and just before a complex intersection. Without warning, bicyclists have to suddenly merge with roadway traffic.
• After being alerted to the situation by the Coalition's VP Ralph Fertig, the County's Wilson Hubbell started investigating in late March. We'll let you know what happens.

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Santa Barbara Bikestation

• Since the conception of a new parking structure in Santa Barbara on Anacapa Street across from the County Administration building, a "bikestation" has been included in the plans. The proposed structure would have 575 parking places that replace 215 spaces currently available in Parking Lot #6.
• The bikestation, as proposed, has 1370 square feet of space and would face Anacapa Street, next to the Coffee Cat. Public restrooms would be adjacent. It's estimated that the bikestation's guarded bike storage and bike maintenance facility would entice 27 motorists to become bicyclists.
• There are aspects of the whole project—like height, view loss, inclusion of housing, and use of a nonprofit area—that people have found controversial in the project, but nobody has objected to the bikestation.
• Currently, the project is stalled due to a disagreement between the City Council and Planning Commission. The latter recently rejected the proposal because it didn't include public housing. Things will probably be resolved, but it's looking like we might get a bikestation much like those in operation in Long Beach, Berkeley, Palo Alto, and Chatsworth. Just be patient.

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IMBA offers trailbuilding clinic

• The Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Trail Volunteers are hosting a two-day sustainable trail workshop. The trail school will be conducted by Joey Klein, a trail crew member of IMBA, the International Mountain Bike Association. You might recall Klein at IMBA's booth at last year's Bike Expo.
• The school includes classroom training along with on-trail assessment and work. The emphasis is on sustainable trail design and maintenance, tool usage, and tips on conducting productive volunteer trail days. It's not just for mountain bikers, but for hikers and equestrians too. A well-built and maintained trail can serve all conscientious individuals. For information, contact Chuck Anderson, director of the Mountain Bike Trail Volunteers at 893-4616.

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Velodrome position

• After a flurry of email weighing the Bicycle Coalition's position on a possible velodrome on the South Coast, it was decided at the Coalition's March 6th meeting to defer any position until plans progress further.

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Carpinteria bike route signs are up



Here's one of the 19 Coastal Route signs given to the City of Carpinteria by the Goleta Valley Cycling Club in order to complete the South Coast bike route system. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

County lists road improvements

• A 22-page list of upcoming roadway and bikepath surface treatments by Santa Barbara County government is an impressive document. Alternative Transportation Coordinator Wilson Hubbell is busy scrutinizing the list for bicyclist-favored routes for a number of reasons: so he can warn us of closures, watch out for our interests, and restripe lanes more favorably.
• There are a number of treatments that the county is applying, listed here in order of decreasing necessity: rehabilitation, recycling, overlay, thin lift, slurry seal, and fog seal. Of special interest to South Coast bicyclists is upcoming treatment of bikepaths. The Atascadero Bikepath will receive a slurry seal, and the Maria Ygnacio Bikepath will get a more substantial "thin lift."
• Below is a list, broken into districts, of bicyclist-important roadways that will be treated. Sometimes it's the entire road length, other times it's just a segment.
• 1st District: Hot Springs Road, San Ysidro Road, North Jameson Lane, Mountain Drive, Via Real, School House Road, Olive Mill Road.
• 2nd District: Cathedral Oaks Road, Patterson Avenue, Berkeley Road, Calle Real.
• 3rd District: Hollister Avenue, Los Carneros Road, Refugio Road, Central Avenue, Harris Grade Road, Alamo Pintado Road, Floradale Avenue, Grand Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Jalama Road, Pacific Oaks Road.
• 4th District: Blosser Road, Bradley Road, Constellation Road, Constellation Way, Foxenwood Drive, Orcutt Road, Rice Ranch Road.
• 5th District: Clark Avenue, Foxen Canyon Road, Orcutt Road.
• If you have particular concerns or questions about a road, contact Hubbell at 568-3046.

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Bikepath bridge to be rebuilt



This old wood bridge will be completely replaced with a new one this summer. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Bicyclists who use the popular Maria Ygnacio bikepath in Goleta will be faced with a detour in the upcoming months. The old wooden bridge over the creek between Hollister Avenue and Highway 101 may be rustic, but it's also falling apart and will soon be replaced.
• The County's Wilson Hubbell is working on a suitable detour for those traveling on the bikepath between North Goleta and UCSB or Santa Barbara on the connecting Atascadero bikepath. Just be prepared for a longer trip this summer and a nice new smooth bridge this fall.