Huntington Beach’s Busy Bike Path May Get Some Relief

Hacky Sackers to the left, Rollerbladers to the right, bicyclists in front and dog walkers in back.

Welcome to one of the county’s most scenic, overcrowded and sometimes dangerous summer destinations: a three-mile-long, 12-foot-wide strip of asphalt that might be called a bicycle path, but that is otherwise home to more than 3,000 users of all shapes, sizes and sports careening around, and into, each other like an uneasy school of fish.

Because of the need to ensure bike path users’ safety, law enforcement along the meandering ocean-side byway seems more fitting to a high-crime area with stepped-up police patrols, warning signs and, sometimes, special tactical weapons--in this case, radar guns.

“If you’re in training [for bicycle racing], the bicycle path is not the place to go,” said Jim Otterson, a pathway user and Huntington Beach’s traffic engineer.

Bicycle path enthusiasts say the pathway provides an opportunity for recreation, relaxation and relief from car traffic.

But the pathway has a traffic pattern of its own that has long frustrated users and city officials, who are as adroit at handing out statistics as they are at giving advice on how to use the bike path. Says Otterson: “Use your head on a crowded day, slow down and look behind you.”

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Mike Mott, chairman of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition, said he generally avoids the path.

“Where you get a lot of bicyclists and pedestrians, you get a lot of accidents,” Mott said. “People do get hurt when a bicycle runs into a pedestrian, and that’s why you need to separate them.”

Having long acknowledged that fact while facing tight purse strings, the City Council last month gave preliminary approval for a park and beach improvement district, which would tax residents to pay for $40 million worth of projects ranging from an aquatic center to a gun range. About $1.2 million would be earmarked for widening the ocean-side trails to separate people with and without wheels under their feet, said Ron Hagan, the city’s director of community services.

In addition to reducing congestion and the opportunity for collisions, widening the pathway also may help save the city money.

Hagan estimated that the city paid from $20,000 to $30,000 to settle claims filed against the city last year related to bicycle path mishaps. In addition, he said there were probably 100 “contacts” between pathway users that did not result in claims.

Officials could not recall any fatal collisions on the bikeway. But one slaying took place on the pathway about six years ago, said Lt. Mike Beuerlein.

The pathway was built as a service road to reach oil wells and beach stands in the 1940s, and by 1986, the city had been forced to post a 10 m.p.h. speed limit; 5 m.p.h. with pedestrians present.

“We were having people [bicyclists] that were just flying through there,” said police spokesman Mike Kelly. But this year, officers are not using radar guns to catch speeders because cyclists seem to have gotten the message, Kelly said.

“We’ve had our manpower and assets devoted to other problems,” he explained.

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Kelly said officers will still keep an eye out for the speed freaks, who can face a $50 fine the first time they break the speed limit, according to the city clerk’s office. The second speeding ticket brings a $100 fine.

“It’s very easy to detect [speeding] by mere observation,” Kelly said, adding that such observations “absolutely” stand up in court.

On a hot summer weekend day, up to 16 officers patrol the pathways and nearby beaches, more than double the average during the rest of the year. And last year, Kelly noted, the city installed warning lights around the pier to remind cyclists to walk their bikes in the area.

Overcrowding has also plagued Newport Beach, which counts up to 3,000 ocean-side trail users on a summer day and deploys up to 10 police officers, more than double the average of a typical spring day.

But Newport Beach has no plans to widen its eight miles of ocean-side trails, which have a speed limit of 8 m.p.h., said Janet L. Divan, a city traffic engineer. Divan said the cost of widening the pathway is prohibitive, possibly more than $2 million. She also said some beachside residents oppose widening the path because it could increase traffic through their front and back yards.