Centennial Bike Tour: Tall Order for Traffic Controllers

A surging river of bicyclists, 9,000 to 10,000 strong, will flow from Anaheim Stadium early Sunday, challenging the ingenuity and patience of traffic engineers, police and weekend motorists.

How do you control so many bicyclists? How do you guard their path, keep auto traffic flowing and, in short, prevent bicycle gridlock? It’s not easy but it can be done, say organizers of the Orange County Centennial Bike Tour and Festival, the kickoff of the county’s 100th birthday celebration.

Using traffic cones, signs, traffic-control officers, course marshals and escort vehicles, organizers hope to shepherd the two-wheelers along the 10-, 25-, 50- and 100-mile courses with a minimum of contact with the four-wheelers that normally rule the road. Water stations, fruit stops, first-aid stations and festivals along the route are intended to ensure safety and fun for cyclists and spectators, tour officials say.

“We’re doing all we can to provide for the safety of the bicyclists in the road,” said Sgt. Art Romo of Orange, where streets will be closed to handle the flood of cyclists as they leave the Anaheim Stadium parking lot and pour into neighboring Orange. “We’re going to have all intersections manned, so we will be there to direct traffic and give instructions.”

Though the Orange County bike tour won’t be the nation’s largest bicycle event--New York City attracts about 22,000 cyclists for its 35-mile ride through five boroughs--local riders will pass through 19 cities on the 100-mile route.

“As far as number of cities goes, 19 is probably a record,” said Jim Wurster, director of operations for B & P Group of Newport Beach, which was hired to organize the bike tour.

Orange County centennial organizers decided to launch the county’s yearlong birthday party with a bicycle ride because they believed it was an event that would draw people out of their houses--on two wheels as participants or on their feet as spectators--and allow them to enjoy the goings-on at a minimum price, said Darrell Metzger, president of Orange County Centennial Inc.

Organizers took a lesson from the united spirit of the 1984 summer Olympics torch relay, which “got people out of their homes and let them see a piece of the Olympics run past them,” Metzger said.

While a bicycle tour may have little to do with the county’s incorporation on Aug. 1, 1889, “it’s a feature event that will get everyone’s attention,” Metzger said. The event pulls the cities together while allowing them to express their individuality, and alerts residents to the coming year of centennial activities, he said.

Involving Public

“We’re getting everyone’s attention, getting them involved and then they can focus on the guts of the celebration to come,” Metzger said.

As of Thursday, about 4,500 people were registered to ride in the tour, and at least double that number are expected to pay the $20 fee by the morning of the race, said Bonnie MacDonald, director of community

relations. Although the bike tour begins at 8:30 a.m., late registration will begin at 6:30 a.m. and entertainment will begin at 7 a.m.

The 25-mile ride appears to be the most popular, with slightly more than half the bicyclists registered for it, she said. About 13% had signed up for the 10-mile ride, and about the same number have registered for the 50-mile route. The 100-mile ride--a tour category appropriately known as a “century ride” among bicyclists--has attracted a little more than 20% of the entrants, MacDonald said.

Streets will be closed to all but bicycle traffic along the 10- and 25-mile routes because of the volume of riders. In addition, MacDonald said, casual bicyclists and families with children are expected to make up the majority of riders along those courses, and “we want them to feel totally safe.”

Cyclists on the 50- and 100-mile routes will ride on city streets, alongside automobile traffic. “People who do those rides are accustomed to following traffic regulations,” MacDonald said.

Just getting past the starting line will be a challenge for many. The cyclists will be grouped by their routes into four “corrals,” with the 100-milers leaving first, followed by the riders on the 50-, 25- and finally 10-mile courses. The timing is intended to prevent slower riders from being overrun by the experienced cycling enthusiasts, MacDonald said.

It should take half an hour to an hour to get all the bicycles past the starting line, she said.

Impact on Orange

Riders will exit the stadium onto Orangewood Avenue, which will be closed to motor vehicle traffic, according to Anaheim officials. They will almost immediately enter the city of Orange, which will be hardest hit by the deluge of cyclists. The first 9 1/2 miles of the 10- and 25-mile courses are through Orange city streets, mainly on lightly traveled industrial streets. But the route also takes cyclists on the main thoroughfares of Katella, Collins and Taft avenues.

The Orange Police Department sent advance flyers to area churches so that Sunday worshipers would be forewarned about closed streets, Sgt. Romo said. The streets will be closed until the majority of cyclists pass by--probably about two hours--and then a patrol car will follow the last rider on the street, he said.

Although the streets will be closed off, cars will be allowed to cross at the major intersections when traffic builds up, and experienced traffic officers will be strategically positioned to stop cyclists and let cars pass, according to Romo. About 130 traffic control workers, including patrol officers, reserve officers, crossing guards, Explorer scouts and other police personnel will be stationed along the route, he said.

Even with the streets closed off, bicyclists should keep their eyes open, Romo warned.

Caution Urged

“The bicyclists, I hope, will be aware . . . that cars may be able to sneak onto the course unknowingly,” he said. Although there will be motorcycle officers “going up and down the course trying to spot any cars” that slip onto the course, the cyclists should not forget they are on city streets, he said.

The long-distance riders are expected to compete less with auto traffic because there will be fewer of them, according to organizers.

“Obviously, at the beginning (of the bike ride) there will be quite an impact on the cities,” said Wurster, the bike tour organizer, noting that the packs of cyclists should be more dispersed, blending in with normal Sunday bicycle traffic in the latter part of the longer routes.

Riders on the 100-mile route will reach the finish line at the Irvine Spectrum office complex. (AT & T, which is presenting the bike tour with the Bank of America, has broken ground for an office building at the complex and has erected a huge tent for the bicycle tour festivities.)

Route Was Revised

“I’ve dealt with 19 city councils and 19 mayors,” Wurster said. The original route drawn for the cyclists was continually revised as one city made changes, which then required changes in neighboring cities, he said.

“We re-did the route probably 50 times to make it work,” Wurster said. “I can’t believe the cooperation.”

All of the cities are footing the entire bill for traffic control except in Orange and Santa Ana, which will host the greatest numbers of cyclists. In Santa Ana, the event organizers had to post a $20,000 bond, from which costs will be deducted. In Orange, centennial organizers reimbursed the city “a couple thousand dollars” but the city still will spend about $5,000 on traffic control, Sgt. Romo said.

Each community has also planned its own festival, and they vary from a pancake breakfast in Tri-City Park in the north part of the county to a costume parade and bike decorating contest in La Palma’s Central Park.