Bicyclists Gear Up for Better Ride

Ventura County bicycle enthusiasts feel pushed around, and they plan to do something about it.

Bike trails get cluttered with tree droppings, dividing lines that separate bicycle lanes from car lanes get painted over, and bike paths that could stretch for miles end abruptly at chain-link fences or concrete walls.

Starting today, some local bicycle riders are officially starting an action committee and a lobbying group that will have a proper name--the Ventura County Bicycle Coalition--as well as a board of directors and a mission statement.

The thrust of that statement, said Aaron Hanson, the Simi Valley resident likely to become president, is to increase the number and improve the safety of bike lanes throughout the county by lobbying city councils to think about the needs of bicyclists when new roads or projects are being considered.

“What is happening is that across the county we are seeing the good conditions slowly go away because no one is out there fighting for them,” Hanson said. “I think this [coalition] is happening just in the nick of time, because it is forming at Ventura County’s transportation juncture.”

Members of Ventura County’s Transportation Commission agree, saying a vocal group can make all the difference in the outcome of a construction project or in helping obtain a grant.

“There has not been a cohesive coalition in Ventura for a long time,” said commission planner Steve DeGeorge. “Without someone pushing for it, it’s a real low priority on people’s screen.”

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On a crisp winter morning, Hanson rode the smooth bike path along the Simi Valley arroyo, until it came to a halt at the intersection of Madera Road and Easy Street.

“Pushing to have this continued to Moorpark would be a perfect thing for the advisory committee in Simi,” Hanson said, gesturing toward the dirt path that lay just beyond a chain-link fence on the other side of the street. “[The city] may have thought of doing it, but it takes friendly reminders. If no one champions the cause, then it won’t get built.”

Simi’s city traffic engineer, Bill Golubics, agreed that extending the bicycle trail is a good idea and said that plans for such an expansion are in the works. He also supported the idea of a coalition to keep the city informed of biking needs.

“Our City Council has always wanted community input, and this coalition sounds like a good organized group that could understand the practicalities of things like funding,” he said.

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Hanson and others who will be active in the coalition said the first priority, besides making themselves known to city and county boards, will be to fix up the Pacific Coast Bikeway. Also called the Bicentennial Bike Route, it runs from Mexico to Vancouver, Canada, including a Ventura County stretch through Port Hueneme, Oxnard and Ventura.

“It has been neglected in Ventura County, and we want to make sure it is better maintained,” said Lance Christensen, a member of the bicycle coalition. “We will be going through and documenting problems. We might ask for a bike lane stripe and for the signs to be put back up,” he said.

Ventura Traffic Engineer Tom Miracle agreed the path needs to become a priority for the county and said the city will be working on its portion of it. A bicycle enthusiast himself, he recently filled out the paperwork to have the city become an official member of the coalition.

“I know there is much higher ridership between San Francisco and Santa Barbara on that [trail], because facilities become degraded the closer you get to L.A.,” he said. He hopes the trail can run smoothly for riders going through Ventura County, he said, “instead of people getting off in Santa Barbara and not completing the rest of the trip.”

Besides helping fix the Pacific Coast Bikeway, Miracle said the coalition could be valuable to various cities’ transportation departments in pointing out issues that might otherwise be neglected. For example, bicyclists face many road and safety concerns that don’t affect drivers.

As cities grow, he added, so will traffic, and cycling can play a vital role in helping to relieve the congestion.

“We can’t just keep widening roads; we need to create other ways for people to get around comfortably,” he said.

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Jon Avery, owner of Avery’s Open Air Bicycles, rides around Ventura frequently and said biking routes need more attention than they are getting.

“It’s always a little piece of a traffic lane here and there that makes it hard to get from point A to point B,” he said. “Most of us are just looking for a little bit of security while we ride.”

FYI

For information on the Ventura Bike Coalition, call the hotline at 449-5214. A meeting and election will be held at 7:30 tonight at the Camarillo Health Care District offices, 3639 E. Las Posas Road. The Web site is at https://www.vcbike.org.