Cars Rule Road, but Road Rules Protect Two-Wheelers
All motorists are created equal.
Of course, none of us really believes that for even a Ventura Freeway millisecond.
Jacketed in 3,000 pounds of glass and steel, we think we own the world.
It streams past outside our windows like an ultra-realistic video game, the other vehicles just colored blips we have to avoid. Keep pushing the pedals and turning the wheel just so, and we get to keep on playing, safe inside our protective cocoons.
Maybe that’s why motorcyclists and bicyclists suffer the worst in close brushes, wrecks and general abuse from the four-wheeled world.
For many drivers, a two-wheeler is harder to spot and easier to ignore: “Oops that’s just some lightweight annoyance that won’t cost thousands in damage to my precious Jaguar if I happen to crash into it.”
But consider this: Cycles are bound and protected by the same laws as four-, six- and 18-wheelers.
A Nishiki 21-speed or a Harley soft-tail carries a solo driver with legal rights, same as your gas-sucking, lane-hogging 1979 Delta 88.
And if a cyclist gets knocked across the pavement because you were inattentive, rude or evil, you are in big trouble. Probably even bigger than if you had hit another car at the same speed.
Dear Street Smart:
My brother rides a motorcycle as his primary form of transportation to and from work, often on the Ventura Freeway from Camarillo to the Seaward Avenue or California Street ramp.
He has had many problems recently with car drivers who are downright nasty regarding the practice of “white-lining” or “lane-splitting.” It seems that they resent the fact that a motorcycle can do that and they can’t.
Please tell your readers that it is a legal practice as long as cyclists do not go more than 5 mph faster than the traffic flow. Also, it is necessary for a motorcycle to move when traffic is backed up. They do not have radiators to cool their engines, so the airflow cools the engines as it moves, however slowly.
Instead of moving closer to the edges of the lane you’re in, give motorcyclists the room they need and wish them a safe trip. Quite often they are the ones who stop and help out when you break down or are involved in an accident.
Diana Sasaki
Camarillo
Dear Reader:
Street Smart just about swallowed his tie the first time he came to California and saw motorcyclists ripping through gridlock between the lanes.
But yes, it is 100% legal.
Air-cooled motorcycle engines must keep moving or suffer self-destructive overheating. So the California Legislature long ago allowed them to move through the gaps between stalled lanes, as long as they stick within 5 mph of the prevailing traffic. (Water-cooled bikes have no such problems, but hey, coattails are a fun ride too).
The problems come when motorcyclists speed between the cars or car drivers act like the privilege doesn’t exist, says California Highway Patrol Officer David Cockrill.
“I’ve heard of [accidents] happening,” he says. “And when they do, the vehicle sees an opening in the other lane, they’ve cleared it visually for other cars, and they’re not expecting a motorcycle to come through. . . . All it takes is one guy to inch over, and there’s nowhere for you to go.”
Add human aggression to this delicate dance, and it gets ugly. Motorists open doors or squeeze off the lane on purpose, and motorcyclists snap off antennas or rearview mirrors in retaliation.
Peace, folks. Live with each other, will ya?
Dear Street Smart:
What about the automobile that sneaks up behind a bicyclist and--when close--the passenger screams at the top of their lungs simply for the entertainment value of seeing the cyclist flinch?
As a regular bicycle commuter on city streets, I suffer this about once a month. Usually the yeller is a young male. But I have also been the victim of a yelling child under the supervision of an adult, and I once was the victim of a middle-age woman riding with her husband.
Is this a crime recognized by the state of California? Assault, perhaps? Has anyone ever been prosecuted for this behavior?
Randy Bozarth
Ventura
Dear Reader:
Having honed our bike commuting skills vaulting a 60-pound Schwinn cruiser over Philadelphia’s curbs, bums and sewer grates, Street Smart can sympathize. It’s bad enough that you show up for work cramped, sweaty and smeared with grease. Now you’re ticked off too. Maybe even covered with fresh road rash because the shouter made you bite the pavement.
Are you ready for this?
No law in California can protect you, says Senior Deputy Craig Smith, collision investigator for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
If you hurl an object or a racial slur, you can be arrested. Otherwise, sadly, you are powerless except perhaps in civil court, he says.
“The only thing that applies to sound is the law on excessive use of your horn,” Smith says. “So if you’re coming up behind a bicyclist and just laying on the horn, that would be illegal. But yelling from a convertible or an open window--if there were a law, it would be difficult to enforce. The only other thing it could be is disturbing the peace, but that would be really stretching it.”
Dear Street Smart:
Does the city of Ventura have any plans to install a traffic signal at Telegraph Road and Saticoy Avenue?
In the mornings and late afternoons, it is almost impossible to cross either northbound or southbound Saticoy. Since east Ventura has grown considerably in the past few years, this area gets a lot of traffic and a light is really needed at this intersection.
David Woodward
Ventura
Dear Reader:
That light will be in place late next year, says Nazir Lalani, Ventura’s traffic engineer.
But contrary to what many in the motoring public think, it’s not as simple as wiring a light to a pole and sticking it into the ground, Lalani says.
The city must first install signals at the intersections of Thompson Boulevard and Oak Street, and at North Bank Avenue and Montgomery Drive--two higher-priority projects.
Then it must obtain $200,000 in government funding for the new light. It must do extensive drainage work at Saticoy and Telegraph to prevent heavy rains from flooding underground signal equipment, then buy and bury that equipment.
It must also bury a half-mile-long wire from the light to the main signal circuits at Wells Road and Telegraph. And it must buy a little slice of land to stick the pole into because the right-of-way stops at the road’s edge.
Most people “have a very simple idea” of how traffic lights are installed, Lalani says.
“They think you throw up a few poles, the lights go red and green and that’s it,” he says with a chuckle. “They don’t realize all the wiring that goes in. . . . Usually, it takes us about a year and a half.”
NEXT: The Big Dig is Coming.
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, 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura, 93001. 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.
