Joggers May Run Risks, but Give Them the Right of Way
Dear Street Smart:
As I was driving east on Dorothy Lane, preparing to make a right turn into the driveway at Fullerton’s Troy High School, a jogger was coming toward me in the bicycle lane. He became upset when I moved close to the curb and then turned into the driveway. At no time was danger imminent, but he called to me and we discussed “right of way.”
These questions emerged:
1. Should joggers be running in the street?
2. If they can, should they be jogging with or against the traffic?
3. How do you remove teeth marks from one’s hood? (I’m kidding.)
May I ask one other question? My parents, who are 84 and 80, are considering using a golf cart to go to the local market and shopping center in Brea. What would it take to get a cart on the road?
Ben Rogers Anaheim
Technically, the jogger should not have been in the bicycle lane. Bill Madison, spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, said the Motor Vehicle Code says no pedestrian should use a bicycle path when a sidewalk is available, which is the case in front of Troy High School.
If there is no sidewalk, the same code stipulates that in a residential area a pedestrian should use the edge of the roadway facing oncoming traffic, as the jogger you encountered was doing.
Nonetheless, Madison said, if you and the jogger went to court to argue who had the right of way, it is probable that a judge would rule against you. The reason is that for safety’s sake, a pedestrian generally is given the right of way over a car.
Sgt. Roger White, a Fullerton police officer who worked in traffic for four years, said, “In my opinion, a jogger is just a fast-moving pedestrian and has the right of way. The common-sense thing is that if the two collide, the jogger will lose.”
White also said you should not have been driving in a bicycle lane in preparation for turning right. He said that although a car may park in a bicycle lane or drive across it while turning, the motorist must stay out of the bicycle lane until the turn is made.
Moreover, he said, there is no law barring joggers from the street and, no matter what the vehicle code says, he would not stop a jogger in a bicycle lane who was behaving in a reasonable manner.
“I would wave to him and go right on past,” White said. “I can’t see that it is a problem.”
As for golf carts, those less than 1,500 pounds and on three wheels can be registered with the DMV as motorcycles, which means they can be driven on public streets without meeting the same safety standards as automobiles. Larger golf carts on four wheels also can be registered to be driven on the road, but must conform to higher safety standards.
Bruce Brown, another DMV spokesman, noted that the law allowing golf carts on public streets was initially intended to enable golfers to get from residential areas to nearby golf courses. But some people have questioned whether golf carts are safe on the road, he said.
And there are some common-sense limits. Golf carts, no matter what size, may not be operated on a street with a speed limit of more than 25 m.p.h. because they are not designed to be driven over 15 m.p.h., Brown said.
Dear Street Smart:
Lower Peters Canyon Reservoir is a beautiful, natural area for hiking and mountain biking. But parking restrictions make it difficult for anyone other than nearby residents to get there.
Peters Canyon Road off Pioneer Road is four lanes with practically no traffic (it dead-ends). Street parking is prohibited even though an adequate passing lane would be available.
Why isn’t street parking permissible, which would allow more people to use this resource?
M. C. Hendrickson Tustin
You will be happy to know that the Tustin City Council, in response to numerous requests, recently decided to allow street parking on the north side of Peters Canyon Road to increase public access to Peters Canyon Regional Park.
Doug Anderson, the city transportation engineer, said the no-parking signs have been covered and new signs soon will be installed. He said a trail leads from the street to the park.
But street parking will be eliminated once again, Anderson said, after a city park and elementary school are developed with public parking lots on the south side of Peters Canyon Road. The park and school are expected to be completed within two years.
Dear Street Smart:
My car-pool partner and I have been intending to write to you for a long time, and I hope you will pass our beefs along to your friends at Caltrans.
We car-pool daily from Brea at the Orange Freeway and Lambert Road [a park-and-ride lot] to Irvine. Problem No. 1 is that there is no entrance into the car-pool lane until a few miles south on the freeway at Yorba Linda Boulevard. We are forced to inch along like individual drivers, therefore defeating one of our purposes in car-pooling: to save time. There is a need for a southbound car-pool lane entrance approximately half a mile south of Lambert.
Problem No. 2 is on the return trip. The Lambert exit from the car-pool lane is barely a quarter of a mile south of the Lambert exit ramp and is on a bend in the freeway. We routinely encounter difficulty getting out of the car-pool lane because individual drivers are accelerating up the hill and watching the curve in the freeway, oblivious to car-poolers who have been signaling from a few hundred feet back that they want out! People look at your turn signal with blank stares as if to say, “What, people live here? Sorry, you’re barreling right up to the Pomona Freeway with the rest of us.” The northbound exit at Lambert needs to be at least half a mile south of Lambert.
Peggy Wolverton Brea
You are in luck, said Rose Orem, spokeswoman for Caltrans. Since you wrote this letter, Caltrans has blacked out the double-double yellow striping on the Orange Freeway to allow car-poolers coming from the park-and-ride lot to enter the car-pool lane just south of Lambert Road, which is 2 1/2 miles earlier. Signs will be posted in the next two weeks, Orem said, but the access can be used now.
Nothing will be done immediately to help you leave the car-pooling lane on your return trip, Orem said. But, she said, striping changes could be incorporated as part of a project now under design to extend the car-pool lane on the northbound Orange to the Pomona Freeway.
“Your suggestion will be forwarded and reviewed by the designers of this project. Thank you for using our car-pool lanes,” Orem said.
Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition.
