Unwritten Law: Beware of Riding Into the Path of Danger
Something about getting hit by a car completely rearranges your view on life.
Well, yes, you are suddenly lying supine on the asphalt in gut-splitting pain, staring up at a coven of “horrified” looky-loos instead of breezing across the boulevard with a spring in your step.
But that’s not what we meant.
Street Smart has been nailed twice by cars, both times while crossing the street on his bike.
At 13, he whipped a look over his left shoulder and zigged from the right lane to the left--only to be slammed from behind by a big Buick that trapped his bike and legs under its rusty jaw of a bumper.
After walking away with nothing worse than road-burger knees and hands and a bent wheel, he recalls feeling incredibly lucky--and secretly thrilled that he had really scared the snot out of the driver, who failed to stop in time.
At 25, the smash-up was worse, but somewhat less Street Smart’s fault.
Bombing through a morning Philadelphia commute on a 60-pound Schwinn, he just made it through a yellow light and turned left across the intersection--where he was smashed to the pavement by a Bronco that ran the red.
Curled in fetal position and unable to talk because his bike seat had quite firmly thumped his groin on impact (and thus able only to moan as the driver lied his rump off to the cops), Street Smart had two coherent thoughts:
1. The signs, signal lights and street-safety devices we trust so deeply aren’t worth a tinker’s cuss if nobody pays attention to them. And,
2. Gee, Broncos are awfully heavy.
Dear Street Smart:
This may not be a major item, compared to some of the very worthwhile causes you have fought on behalf of readers. But it may just prevent an accident, or at least put the responsibility where it belongs.
When Thousand Oaks Boulevard was repaved about six months ago, the painted pedestrian crossings in the 000 to 300 blocks of the street’s east end were never repainted.
Now, there are several signs warning motorists about crossing pedestrians, but no striped areas. In my humble opinion, either the signs should be removed or the crossings repainted.
Claes F. Wingard
Newbury Park
Dear Reader:
This will amaze you: They left the pedestrian crossings unpainted on purpose.
“The general opinion right now--as it has been for more than a decade--is that the striping of crosswalks creates a false sense of security for pedestrians,” said Jeff Knowles, Thousand Oaks traffic engineer.
“Pedestrians are more apt to step out in the street, literally challenging the traffic--or to not be as cautious,” Knowles said.
Drivers seldom see painted crosswalks until it is too late to stop, so engineers prefer to use more readily visible signs, he says.
“It’s still a crosswalk,” he said of the Thousand Oaks area you describe. “But when a crosswalk is not marked, the pedestrians don’t feel as safe and they behave more safely.”
And get this: A 1980s study of San Diego intersections found that pedestrians were twice as likely to cross streets that had striped crosswalks--and four times more likely to get hit there--than at unpainted crosswalks, Knowles says.
Dear Street Smart:
I would like more information on two highway projects: I am looking forward to the completion of the footbridge over California 126 from Camino Real Park to the Westin West Ranch condos in Ventura. I believe it will be completed in September 1998. Is that project on schedule?
And I wonder about the Ventura Freeway onramp construction at Victoria Avenue, scheduled to start in September. Can you describe it or, better yet, show a diagram of the onramp? I live on the north side of California 126 and work on the south side of the Ventura Freeway. I ride my bike and hope that the construction will improve the bike lane on Valentine Road.
Susie Williams
Ventura
Dear Reader:
The footbridge will take until year’s end to design, and probably until the end of 1998 to build, says Nazir Lalani, Ventura traffic engineer.
And none too soon.
“Basically, it would connect the communities on the south side of the freeway over to Camino Real Park and allow people on the north side of the freeway to get over to the Telephone Road area,” Lalani said. “We had a fatality of a child who attempted to cross the freeway in ’91 or ‘92, and we have documented instances of other children attempting to cross the freeway there thinking they can do it. Most of them make it, but a few get hit.”
As for the Victoria / Ventura Freeway project, the California Department of Transportation assures us that bike lanes will be built on both sides of Valentine Road once that huge project is complete.
Alas, we would love to publish a map. But we cannot draw much better than the average 4-year-old, and we already described the project in detail in our Feb. 10 column.
We do plan to get a proper map made and write more extensively about the project this summer in our alter-ego as (drumroll, please) Transportation Reporter!!! That is, as soon as we step into a nearby phone booth and strip off this ridiculous outfit.
Dear Street Smart:
Here is a dangerous situation:
I am in a wheelchair. I live off Foothill Road in Ventura. When I want to go out, I have to follow Foothill west. There are curb cuts in all the corners, except between Colina Vista and La Plaza. I must detour at least half a mile and go around on residential streets with no sidewalks to reconnect to the sidewalk at La Plaza and Foothill. This back route is highly traveled, and it is not safe.
Please see if there is anything you can instigate so that this change can be made.
Ailene Bay
Ventura
Dear Reader:
Street Smart enjoys instigating wherever possible.
We read your letter to Ventura’s Nazir Lalani.
And since we spared him Street Smart’s customary Elmer Fudd-sings-Madonna impression (“We awe wiv-ving in a matewiaw wowld, and I am a matewiaw giwl...”), Lalani says this:
“We have an ongoing program to retrofit intersections with wheelchair ramps, as we call them. I will pass this on to the engineer in charge. We do give high priority to locations where we have people who are wheelchair-bound and requesting [curb cuts]. We’ll add it to our list and try to give it high priority since she’s using it on a regular basis.”
As for past instigations:
William “Butch” Britt, Ventura County deputy director of public works, says reader Barb Fox had a good idea when she wrote last month suggesting a separate right-turn lane on eastbound Foothill Road at Wells Road in Ventura. So good that Britt says his crews should have the new lane stripes laid down within the month.
Peeved? Baffled? Miffed? Or merely perplexed? Street Smart answers your most probing questions about the joys and horrors of driving around Ventura County. Write to: Street Smart, c/o Mack Reed, Los Angeles Times, 1445 Los Angeles Ave., Room 208, Simi Valley 93065. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain. E-mail us at mack.reed@latimes.com or call our Sound Off line, 653-7546. In any case, include your full name, address, and day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter.
