City Taking Steps for Bicycle Safety

The city will step up enforcement of an ordinance prohibiting nighttime bicycle riding without lights. At the same time, city planners have asked Caltrans to build four sidewalk ramps to improve access and crossings on the Arches Bridge on Newport Boulevard.

Since last summer, the city’s Bicycle Trails Advisory Committee has been studying how to make bicycle riding safer at night and on the bridge over West Coast Highway.

Because of the two-lane traffic and high curbs on the bridge, cyclists either must dismount and jump on the curb before crossing or join the flow of traffic.

“There are some riders that prefer not to be in the same lane as other vehicles,” said Janet L. Divan, a city traffic engineer who works closely with the 14-member committee, most of whom are cyclists. Adding the sidewalk ramps “would help anybody that would be going across it.”

The Public Works Department is expecting a response from Caltrans within the next week.

In the meantime, the Police Department is ready to write more bicycle-related tickets. A typical fine for riding at night without a light is $10, and offenders must also show proof of owning a head lamp. Police officers wrote 32 citations in 1995 to cyclists without night lamps; in 1993, 14 tickets were issued.

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Safety Step

Bridge may get sidewalk ramps