Traffic Rules Sometimes Leave Bike Riders in Limbo

Nowhere in the Book of Genesis does God create the wheel.

Man brought that curse upon himself, along with its triple plague of smog, gridlock and lawsuits, and has been ruing the day ever since.

The wheels rolled onward and man scurried after them, furiously scribbling down new traffic laws in a vain attempt to catch up and atone for his fatal mistake.

Had man also bothered to write a Holy Book of Transportation, it would have said something poetic, like:

And man did create the freeway for the cars and the sidewalk for pedestrians, and he did consign each unto its same world and forbid their paths to meet except at well-marked crossings when the green lights did favor them and the speed demons frolicked not.

But he didn’t bother.

Nor has he done much of a job spelling out the role of the bicyclist--even in the traffic laws.

Everyone knows where cars and pedestrians belong. Just ask any tort lawyer, the DMV or your mom.

But the bicyclist is a two-wheeled hybrid, half-man, half-vehicle, doomed to eternal iffiness in that risky limbo between sidewalk and street.

And there he is visited by his own plagues of car doors, potholes, glass shards and righteous critics such as these:

Dear Street Smart:

I have been looking at your Aug. 25 column and would like to remind you and your readers that bicyclists indeed have rights, but they also have responsibilities.

I live at the beach, and almost daily I encounter bicyclists riding three abreast at a walking pace in the traffic lane. If you honk a horn at them, they scowl at you over their shoulders and continue at the slowest possible pace down the center of the street.

Traffic ordinances require bicyclists to stay as near as practicable to the curb.

It alarms me to see a parent with a toddler riding a tricycle in the street while the parent rides in the center of the traffic lane to ward off automobile traffic. That kid is bound to grow up believing that he can do what he wants in the street and the cars will take care of him.

R. B. Scott

Oxnard

Dear Reader:

Lord help us if kids are actually learning road rules from their parents.

Don’t be silly. They learn everything they know about driving from Aerosmith videos and “Dukes of Hazzard” reruns.

Unfortunately, bicyclists seem to get their knowledge from apple-cheeked Dick and Jane illustrations or the gnarly thrash-bike videos of Hans “No Way” Rey. There is but one law of the bicycle in California: Bicyclists must follow the same laws as motorists. So speaketh the motor vehicle code.

“Generally, they would have to ride as near as practical to the curb,” says Sgt. Bryan MacDonald, Oxnard’s traffic and code-enforcement officer. “Where you run into problems is [defining] what’s as near as practical.”

Sand drifts along Oxnard’s beach streets often force cyclists to veer into traffic or get off and walk rather than skid out of control, MacDonald says. Police might take that into account when deciding whether cyclists violated the law, but except when cyclists are passing slower vehicles of any kind, they must always ride the streets single-file, he says.

Dear Street Smart:

I’m 69 and had a triple-bypass surgery in January, so I have to go out walking twice a day.

Bicycles on the sidewalk have always been a nuisance. I was run over last Saturday, and quite severely injured, by a bicyclist. He knocked me over and I banged my head on a concrete pillar. I refused emergency treatment, but when I got home I could hardly use my right shoulder, and yesterday, a beautiful black eye came up.

A few days previous to that, I inquired about the law, and one of the deputies at the Camarillo station said, “Oh yes, cycles are allowed on the sidewalk.” I thought, “This is odd, it’s quite against the driving code.” After the accident, three deputies turned up and all three individually said cycles are NEVER allowed on the sidewalk.

I think it’s particularly scandalous that I’m getting different answers from different sections of the police force. What does the law say?

Donald Beswick

Camarillo

Dear Reader:

Here, now, from Camarillo Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Larson, the unvarnished truth: “It is absolutely legal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk. There is no law that forbids riding on the sidewalk,” he says. “The bicyclist has to let the pedestrian have the right of way, and you’re supposed to ride in the same direction of travel.”

The next sound you hear will be Street Smart’s legal eagles suddenly clenching their newspapers in razor-sharp talons, narrowing their beady eyes and composing smug, acidic retorts such as: “Well, CARS can’t drive on the sidewalk. And SOME CITIES forbid BIKES on the sidewalk!

Right you all are. Your first point is simply a conundrum, unanswered by the meagerness of California bicycle law.

Your second point is well-taken. Some cities--such as Ventura--have passed local ordinances forbidding bicycles, skateboards, roller skates and other wheeled vehicles from sharing pedestrian paths.

The point is that you wouldn’t force a 5-year-old child to ride his Huffy in the street, nor would you really want a 25-year-old triathlete jammin’ on her Litespeed down the sidewalk. In other words, where law fails, common sense prevails.

Dear Street Smart:

Could you please ask Thousand Oaks traffic engineers for their recommendations on how a bicyclist should ride from Thousand Oaks to Simi Valley through the intersection of Olsen Road and the Moorpark Freeway?

The right lane of Olsen Road is a right turn only for the southbound entrance to the freeway.

There are pylons to prevent cars from going straight through this intersection because the right lane of the northbound offramp is a no-stop-required right turn toward Simi Valley.

As a bicyclist, I move over to the right side of the left lane and go around the pylons. (This is a very narrow lane, and the through traffic moves like a pack of speed demons.)

The problem is, now I’m riding the lane divider between the cars racing past on the left, and all the impatient offramp motorists who don’t want to stop to let a bicyclist cross in front of them to reach the shoulder.

A few times, I had to ride this way almost halfway up Olsen Road to the sheriff’s station before I could get to the right shoulder. This is very dangerous for cyclists. Motorists are constantly honking and screaming at me.

Kenneth Fricke

Simi Valley

Dear Motorists:

First of all, unless someone’s life is in imminent danger, KNOCK OFF THE HONKING AND SCREAMING. You’ll probably just startle the biker right into the flow of traffic. And if you’ve ever spent much time on a bike, you know why our first reader was getting scowled at. Now. . . .

Dear Reader:

Thousand Oaks traffic engineer Jeff Knowles (an avid cyclist himself) acknowledges, “Sheesh . . . It’s challenging.”

But he recommends you try this: Definitely head for the safety of the pyloned island as you cross the southbound onramp, and ride between the pylons until they end. If rush-hour traffic is barging nonstop down the northbound offramp, stop inside the pyloned area and wait for an opening. Patience is better than a full-body cast.

A gentle wave at the right moment might persuade one of the homeward-bound to take pity on you and let you through to the shoulder. But make sure you have eye contact with the drivers before hurling yourself into their path.

And whatever you do, Street Smart begs you, PLEASE try to avoid lane-splitting your way down Olsen anymore. You’re gonna get squashed.

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, 2659 Townsgate Road, Suite 240, Westlake Village 91361. 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.