Mulholland Is Open Road Again : Motorcycles: A two-mile stretch was barricaded last year to reduce the number of accidents. The carnage is down and the highway has reopened.

Looking out from atop Mulholland Highway in the cloudless quiet--broken only occasionally by the throaty whine of a climbing motorcycle or the nervous giggle of a teen-age girl--it’s hard to imagine that this scenic vista once was a scene of weekly carnage.

Watching the motorcyclists lose control and slide across the asphalt and over the edge of the treacherous road was like witnessing Christians being fed to the lions, said frequent visitor Lisa Loving as she surveyed the highway, which spills down the mountainside like a discarded length of gray ribbon. Nearly every weekend, paramedics were called out to scrape up unfortunate riders.

The human toll became so bad, and the complaints from residents so frequent, that the California Highway Patrol closed two miles of the roadway on Sundays last summer between Seminole Springs Road and Kanan Road near Agoura Hills to all but residents and those with business in the area.

But that was last year. And the CHP, residents and motorcyclists agree things have improved considerably since then. So far this year, there has been only one accident involving motorcyclists racing on the road. Two riders suffered minor injuries in the May 20 crash, CHP Officer Dave Grajeda said.

“I think most people have slowed down or gone to other places,” Larry Grenville, 44, of North Hollywood said as he snacked on a cookie and Diet Pepsi Sunday outside the fabled motorcyclists’ hangout, the Rock Store.

A constantly changing crowd of 100 or so motorcyclists lounged in the shade outside the cafe and grocery on the first weekend of summer, swapping stories and laughing. It was an eclectic mix: young men on sport bikes, middle-aged pleasure motorcyclists, Hell’s Angels, yuppie bikers--called “rubbies” for rich urban bikers--and Hollywood types such as comedian Jay Leno. It was quite a change from late last summer, when CHP roadblocks were positioned just a few hundred yards from the store.

“So far, it’s been great,” Rock Store owner Ed Savko said as he surveyed the scene. “Ain’t no paramedics running up and down the road.”

And the CHP said it is watching the area to make sure it stays quiet. Authorities do not plan a repeat of last year’s unpopular road closure.

“The road will not be closed, except as a last resort,” Grajeda said.

The decision to close the road rests with the Board of Supervisors, based on a recommendation from the CHP. Short of such a drastic move, Grajeda said, the CHP will increase patrols in the area and issue more tickets, with stiffer fines to violators who are in the minority.

“A few bad apples ruin it for everyone,” he said.

Closing the road was unpopular with the motorcyclists, many of whom said the problem could have been handled by less extreme means. Even so, it sent a message to riders tempted to race.

“They realize if they screw up again, the road will be closed again,” said Kevin Joyner, a 31-year-old electrical technician from Lomita.

Residents in the area agreed that things have calmed down.

“It isn’t so bad,” said Forrest Allen, 79, who lives in a nearby mobile home park.

“I’d say 95% are gentlemen and ladies,” said Dean Goddard, 62, a retired bulldozer operator who has lived in the area since 1957. “They don’t bother me a bit.”