Effort to Slow Speeders Puts Bicyclists in a Tight Spot

Bicycles have been falling victim to the almighty automobile since the two started butting fenders a century ago.

For obvious reasons, the car always wins.

The poor bicycle has never held much sway over its bigger, faster, four-wheeled nemesis.

Except for parts of Europe and overpopulated cities in Asia--where the two-wheeler is a vital, common means of transportation--the car is king.

Still, folks such as Barb and Ron Fischer like their bikes.

They have a favorite route, one that snakes through the streets of their Ventura Keys neighborhood and spills out into the Ventura Harbor area.

Sometimes, they continue out for a spin past the farms.

At least, that was, until their best ally--the bike lane--found its own enemy:

Those darn median landscaping planters.

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Dear Street Smart:

Since when does median landscaping have priority over bicycle safety?

We refer to one of five humongous planters put in place about three months ago in what was a standard-width residential street.

The location is at Beachmont Street and Anchors Way in Ventura, at the entrance to the Ventura Port District offices and a few hundred yards from Longboard’s Grill and the Ventura Harbor launching site.

The new planter is 14 feet wide, scrunching the northbound lane to just 11 feet, 8 inches wide! The southbound passage is now only 13 feet wide.

The bike lane had been 5 feet wide.

The bike lane has now been physically erased, not just ignored.

This route used to be one of the safest for biking and is part of a very inviting area to cycle through all the way to Ventura Harbor and the Channel Islands Visitors Center, or through various greenbelt farm regions between Harbor Boulevard and uptown.

What on earth were they thinking creating these excessively wide, curbed planters? We’d strongly recommend a jackhammer and much narrower medians, or none.

Barb and Ron Fischer

Ventura

Dear Readers:

Hold that jackhammer. Long story short: Your bike lane fell victim to a nasty, long-running traffic debate surrounding homeowners, cars and boats.

Go figure.

The medians were put there to slow, or “choke down,” speeding traffic on Beachmont Street, where residents have been complaining for 20 years about big trucks lugging their big boats from Harbor Boulevard down Beachmont Street to the boat launch off Anchors Way.

The medians grew out of a decision by the City Council about two years ago to prohibit left turns from the boat ramp so cars could no longer travel back up Beachmont Street to Harbor Boulevard.

Not that any of this is getting your bike lane back.

Still, Tim Bochum, the city traffic engineer who designed the project, assures Street Smart and both of you that it remains perfectly safe to ride bicycles alongside those medians and cars.

A tight squeeze for sure.

But if it is any consolation, many cities reduce lanes to 10 feet wide when trying to slow speeders, he said.

Seems the city at least left you another 2 or 3 feet.

“It’s not the best thing that could happen, but with the whole Beachmont issue, there is no absolute best situation,” Bochum said.

For your sanity, Street Smart does not recommend getting sucked into that nasty Beachmont debate over this.

If you don’t want to brave the squeeze--and who can blame you--walk your bicycles down the sidewalk until you get past those medians.

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Dear Street Smart:

I was wondering why it has taken Caltrans so long to remove the signs along Highway 101 for Camarillo State Hospital.

It has been well publicized that the institution is now closed, that all the patients have been moved out and that the campus is destined to become a state university.

So why are there still highway signs directing drivers to a state hospital that no longer exists?

Rosalyn Evans

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

Good point.

Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid said the need to remove those signs is not lost on the agency.

Look for them to be yanked “within the next few months.”

Street Smart isn’t quite sure how long it takes to uproot a couple of signs. But apparently it is long enough, for other Caltrans work has taken precedence.

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Dear Street Smart:

I’ve been bounced back and forth from Caltrans to the city of Thousand Oaks trying to find out how I can get a sound wall built along the west side of the 23 Freeway at the Hillcrest exit going north for about two-tenths of a mile.

The sound in the area is clearly above valid levels and there have even been stray bullets from people shooting at the freeway signs.

The city doesn’t want anything to do with it--says it’s Caltrans property.

Yet, they built a wall on the east side of the freeway with city funds, a wall that a good portion not only borders empty land, but could easily have been used to complete a wall on the west side. Caltrans says the area is slated for a wall but is waiting for funding from local government, and told me to call the city.

I’ve gone back and forth continually and am so frustrated I even offered to plant my own trees on the hill, but neither party will let me.

Thomas DiFatta

Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

You are in the unenviable position of being caught between two government agencies and their money.

You mentioned that the wall on the east side could “easily” have been used as a west wall.

Nothing is easy when we are talking about two government agencies and their money.

But by your understandable frustration, you already know that.

There’s not a lot Street Smart can tell you that you don’t already know.

However, the guy you need to be talking to is Ron Kosinski. He’s chief of the Caltrans Office of Environmental Planning.

You can write him at 120 S. Spring St., Los Angeles 90012.

You can also target your sound-wall request to the Caltrans Public Affairs Office. The number there is (213) 897-4867.

Good luck, reader.

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 Richard Warchol, Los Angeles Times, 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura 93001, or call the Sound Off line at 653-7546. Include a simple sketch, if needed, to help explain. In every case, include your full name, address, and both day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter or phone message due to space constraints.