Cycling Through Streets of Irvine Isn’t All Downhill

Dear Street Smart:

The well-publicized “crackdown” by the city of Irvine on bicycling violations seems significant enough to merit attention in your column. I have the following concerns:

* What state legislation mandates that cyclists must ride single file in marked bicycle lanes? Obviously a 6- or 8-foot lane can easily accommodate two riders.

* Why does the city fail to enforce traffic ordinances that bar motorized vehicles from driving down bicycle lanes, unless they are within 100 feet of an intersection.

* What does Irvine say about signals that cannot be activated by a bicycle. Some signals in the city can, but not all.

For example, when it was impossible for me to trigger a left-turn arrow at Yale Avenue and Irvine Boulevard, I proceeded across the intersection when clear, as I would have done in a car if the signal were broken. The patrolman who stopped me felt he was doing me a favor by not ticketing me, whereas I maintained I was behaving quite reasonably and would never be convicted by a traffic court.

Arthur L. Shapiro, Lake Forest

Irvine’s crackdown on cyclists did make for an interesting face-off about two months ago. Some cyclists were so outraged they threatened civil disobedience.

Fact is, the state vehicle code says that bicycles moving slower than traffic must ride as close to the curb as possible, except when passing other bicycles, when avoiding unsafe obstructions or road conditions, or when making left turns.

Sure, some cyclists get moving pretty fast, but they cannot keep up with the cars zipping past them in Irvine, says Bob Anderson, an Irvine traffic enforcement officer. So, they remain relegated to the gutter lane for the most part.

In many places, there seems no good reason why two bicyclists can’t ride side by side. And the word, off the record, is that you aren’t likely to be cited for doing so. The Irvine Police Department is more concerned about packs of riders spilling out of bike lanes and across one, sometimes two traffic lanes.

As for cars in bicycle lanes, they are allowed to use them to enter or exit the roadway. Cars can also cross over within 200 feet of an intersection in order to turn. It used to be 100 feet, but the law changed this year, Anderson said.

Irvine will ticket violators, but they generally go after those folks who try to snake around back-ups by using bike lanes as their own private traffic-free roadway.

“Those people are passing 35 to 50 cars that are waiting patiently,” Anderson said. “It’s dangerous.”

So, you’ve got to ride single file and you’ve still got to watch out for cars. How about some good news? Anderson says bikes should be able to activate all signals in Irvine. And here’s his handy tip: Put your bike in the top left corner of the sensor squares that are visible in the pavement. That’s the most sensitive part, Anderson says, and he can identify with your plight:

“I’m a motorcycle officer, so I know how to trip them,” he said.

If you still have problems, report the signal to a city traffic engineer. And while Anderson won’t second-guess the officer who stopped you at that faulty signal, he did agree that if you had waited a reasonably long amount of time to determine that the signal would not change, then you were right to proceed carefully.

“No one is expecting him to sit there for an entire day waiting for a light that will never change,” Anderson said.

Dear Street Smart:

I am concerned about the intersection of Gilbert Street and Pioneer Avenue in Fullerton. Some motorists make illegal left turns into an apartment complex just south of the intersection. This is very dangerous. Drivers don’t expect people to turn there and have to hit their brakes to avoid a collision. Then, the delay until the cars are able to turn makes the cars stuck behind them miss the left-turn light from Gilbert onto Pioneer.

I would suggest some sort of center divider or curb be constructed that would physically prevent these sort of illegal turns. Another suggestion would be to shorten the length of the left-turn pocket, if feasible, so as to extend the street’s left-turn median strip. Then these left turns would be safe and legal.

Monica Wilson, Fullerton

Word is, those cars are making quite legal turns. Fullerton Traffic Engineer Paul Smith had a look at the layout there, and the left-turn lane has only one set of double-yellow lines separating it from the other side of the road, not two sets, so cars are free to cross.

So far, yours is the first complaint he’s heard that it’s an unsafe design, he said.

Banning turns there would make it highly difficult for cars to enter the complex, as there is not a Pioneer entrance, Smith said.

Of course, if those sort of left turns were banned, cars could still make U-turns. Unfortunately, those U-turns probably would pose a greater potential traffic hazard than the current left-turn set-up, Smith said.

Dear Street Smart:

Most traffic gridlock can’t be helped--just too many people. But the 1 to 5 miles of backed-up cars at the Interstate 5 checkpoint just south of San Clemente is truly ridiculous, especially on Friday or Sunday afternoons.

First of all, why narrow four lanes of traffic into three? That in itself spells bottleneck. Then, for these three lanes of traffic, I have never yet seen more than only two Border Patrol officers who finally wave us through to Los Angeles.

Wouldn’t Stormin’ Norman (Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf) put four inspectors out for four lanes of cars and say: “Why Kuwait?”

D. Elston, Anaheim

Fortunately you didn’t ask me why have the checkpoint at all, a debate that will have to be played out in places other than this traffic column. But the simple, practical side I can take on.

The present layout of the checkpoint is simply not set up to process the more than 100,000 cars that pass through it daily, according to Ted Swofford, a spokesman for the Border Patrol. It is the busiest of the 30 such freeway checkpoints in the country.

If all four lanes were used, it would be too difficult to get cars from the innermost lane across the other lanes of traffic to the area where secondary inspection are conducted. As you no doubt have seen, the minute motorists are cleared by officers, they hit the gas to get back up to freeway speed. Moving across the freeway in front of them would be a dangerous task.

So three lanes is deemed the most that can be opened. But in about five years, a new checkpoint should be finished farther south along the freeway. It will have 12 lanes and a design to route cars to the secondary inspection area safely, if necessary. With that many lanes, hopefully you’ll be able to whip through the checkpoint quickly.

Maybe you’ll get a little temporary relief when the Border Patrol adds a third officer out in the traffic lanes to check cars. New trainees should be available in about three or four months. With one officer per lane instead of two splitting their attention to watch three lanes, traffic may flow more smoothly. Also, when traffic reaches a certain volume, the checkpoint is shut down so as not to create a traffic hazard.