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Uploaded: Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 1:01 PM
Council to take up bike-ped safety tonight
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
In response to several collisions -- some deadly -- and calls for change from residents, the City Council will begin looking at ways to improve bike and pedestrian safety in a study session tonight.
The meeting follows months of lobbying by bike advocates, school officials and neighborhood groups and and a series of article in the Voice. Police and public works officials have recently started studying data on where such collisions occur and why.
"Now that we know where accidents happen we can start to figure out what we can do," said council member Laura Macias, who called for the discussion "to make sure the council continues to monitor what's going on with traffic management."
The meeting will take place at 5 p.m. in City Hall at 500 Castro Street.
The council will hear a presentation on new efforts by police and public works to make the city's streets safer, including new signage and striping in front of Graham Middle School where several students recently were hit by cars. There's also a new team of police officers devoted to bike and pedestrian safety.
City officials indicated in a report that they are taking traffic safety seriously, noting major accidents that occurs this year, including three deadly collisions, on California Street and Shoreline Boulevard, where bike advocates say the speed limit is too high.
There's a chance of some larger projects to improve safety and encourage biking and walking the city's streets. City officials say in a report that a Pedestrian Master Plan is going to presented to the City Council in December which will include projects that could be funded in next year's capital improvement program budget. While details were not provided, residents have called for more crosswalks with flashing lights, "bike boulevards" like the ones in Palo Alto that discourage car traffic and "road diets," where dangerous streets are narrowed to slow traffic and create protected bike lanes.
"We really have to switch the way we think about getting around," Macias said, noting increases in bike and transit use.
Macias said she had attended a workshop recently conducted by a Long Beach city planner about how that community made its streets more bike friendly. It's a move that's supported by businesses there who give bicyclists discounts. Advocates say bicycle improvements increase business because cyclists are more likely to stop and spend their money.
She noted the use there of protected bike lanes created by moving parked cars away from the curb and sandwiching a bike lane in between. Such an improvement could be used on California Street, she said, one of the more dangerous streets for cyclists, according to police data.
"If you are biking and you are not a completely confident cyclist, like me, you don't have to worry about getting hit by a car because you have a parked car protecting you," Macias said.
Macias also noted that the city needs a new way of determining speed limits. The city follows state rules and that say when "80 percent of the traffic is going at this speed they have to keep them at this speed," and speed limits can be no lower. "That's really a car-centric model. We need a people-centric model, not a car centric model."
Macias said she hopes council members take note when they pick new goals in January. Council member Ronit Bryant has also expressed interest.
"I hope this goes somewhere," Macias said. "It seems necessary. We can't just keep on allowing drivers to keep on driving faster. There's lots of solutions."
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Posted by Susan, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Nov 20, 2012 at 2:48 pm While I am all in favor of better bike/ped safety, I am also aware that the bicyclists and the pedestrians are at least half of the problem themselves. Cross a street while texting and never look up. Coast around a corner at 15mph and make cars swerve as you go into the car lane. Start across a street at the end of the walk signal. Some recently witnessed examples.
I am a driver and a walker and most cars are very cooperative and patient when things are done in a courteous manner. Mountain View is way better than some cities but the entire public needs to be on board to make safety happen. More lines, buzzers and lights will not solve the entire problem!
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Posted by Simon, a resident of the Whisman Station neighborhood, on Nov 20, 2012 at 4:01 pm Just last night I saw a collision between a cyclist and motorist on Plymouth St near Shoreline - the driver apparently turned right into the movie theatre across the cycle lane without yielding to the cyclist who looked pretty visible to me. He hurt his leg but was otherwise OK. The problem is *not* speed - it's cyclist and motorists not obeying very simple road rules. In my opinion, the driving test is way too easy, and cyclists don't have to take any kind of test. Separating the cyclists from the motorists as described in the article by putting parked cars between is one way to go but it addresses a symptom and not the cause.
I would love to be honestly surprised by lawmakers addressing the real problems here, but I know they will just lower a speed limit or two and call it a day.
Motorists - why don't you look before you turn right across a cycle lane? Why? You have a mirror right there!
Cyclists - why on earth do you think it's OK to run red lights? Don't be fools.
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Posted by Nimos, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Nov 20, 2012 at 4:11 pm @Simon: "You have a mirror right there" but I don't think many motorists use their right side mirror very frequently.
If the bike lane was on the other side of parked cars then wouldn't there be more of these right turn accidents? It would be hard to use the right side mirror to see bikers when there's a row of parked cars blocking the view as you turn right across the bike lane rather than merging into the bike lane before turning.
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Posted by Simon, a resident of the Whisman Station neighborhood, on Nov 20, 2012 at 4:38 pm I agree, I think it could potentially cause more of those types of accident (but possibly less of others.) Again, I don't think that addressing one of the symptoms is the solution.
Motorists must use the right side mirror. It's there for a reason. Cyclists should ride defensively and assume that a car will turn in front of them when they approach a right turn.
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Posted by OK Then, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Nov 20, 2012 at 4:42 pm I just finished riding my bike. I feel great. Its even more fun in this blustery weather. I obeyed all the applicable traffic laws and also was treated with consideration by every motorist I had direct interaction with...finishing with waves and smiles each time (stop sign "you go. no, you go" type stuff.
Its really not so bad out there, but the very fact that all the posters here are interested in bettering the situation and have ideas on how to do so is a testament to the further caring this community shows to all. Way to go MV.
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Posted by Greg David, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 21, 2012 at 9:33 am While cycling home from my shop last night I saw a cop writing a cyclist a ticket. It's about time. Many cyclists in this town are very arrogant and constantly flout the law. Sure, most accidents are still likely caused by motorists, but when two parties do as they please, they eventually going to meet in a bad way.
I encourage the council to continue working on the issue of bicycle and pedestrian safety, but in a reasonable fashion. Don't just toss money at the problem. We have laws in place and police to enforce them. That's a good start.
Next step. Paint and signs. They're pretty cheap. You can always change things back if something doesn't work. As a start, we can get rid of all these asinine two-way stops in Old Mountain View. Who came up with those? Limited visibility intersections in a residential neighborhood where people avoiding the arterial routes fly through with reckless abandon or fail to stop and yield to those with the right of way.
What we really need is a new traffic engineer. They've been botching things in this town for years...
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Posted by kman, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Nov 21, 2012 at 2:33 pm A recent article here, showed that in the last 5 or so years, the MAJORITY of accidents between bicyclist and motor vehicles was the fault of the bicyclist.
cheers
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Posted by Simon, a resident of the Whisman Station neighborhood, on Nov 21, 2012 at 2:38 pm @kman: Source? I searched, but couldn't find the article you mentioned.
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Posted by Smiling Cyclist, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Nov 21, 2012 at 2:58 pm I love the trend this city is on!
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Posted by Eli, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Nov 25, 2012 at 8:34 am It's saddening that Laura talks about "accidents" rather than crashes, and the article refers to the aged "bike boulevard" name rather than "neighborhood greenways" (which has sparked a revolution in Portland these past few years).
It only reinforces that, while Silicon Valley may be the home of high tech, it's a decade behind in progressive thinking about how we use streets to create livable places.
City Council should watch videos like this and go visit Seattle, Vancouver BC, or Chicago and learn what real cities are doing on a shoestring to make it easy and safe for people of all ages and abilities to walk and bike.
Web Link
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