The City Council will take up and likely approve an ordinance tonight that will allow cyclists to ride on sidewalks.
Sound familiar? This same ordinance got shelved after a few cyclists showed up earlier this year to protest a portion of the ordinance that would have required cyclists to dismount their bikes and walk through crosswalks.
To its credit, the City took the ordinance back, revised it, and tonight it should become law.
On May 14, 2009, the City Attorney and staff met with the bicycling community and came to an agreement on a revised ordinance that addresses all three areas of concern for bicyclists, still keeps the intent of the original ordinance (to provide a policy that complements the Non-Motorized Plan), and does not add any additional liability to the City.
I support this ordinance but I hope it’s not used as an excuse to retard development of further bike lanes. At the last City Council meeting, I asked the city council to reconsider extending a third-lane on east-bound Lyons Avenue because it would take away room for cyclists on that major east-west route. Lyons Avenue is used by scores of bike commuters everyday who ride to employment centers on the west side of the freeway; adding a third lane of traffic to the road would discourage more people from riding their bikes to work. And unfortunately for us, there really is no other east-west route in Newhall; even the Paseos end at Wiley Canyon.
The blogger over at CyclingSantaClarita agreed with me and noted:
Why am I bringing this up? Because the city council is at it again. A reader of this blog forwarded me notes from the May 26th meeting of the council, and they apparently want to add more lanes without making any accommodations for cyclists……again. I ask that whoever has the plaque or ribbon that the city received for being bike friendly to please burn it immediately. You do not deserve it. Send it to Portland at least they are making an effort.
In response, the City’s Traffic Engineer, Andrew Yi, noted that Lyons had been inherited from the county and thus there wasn’t much extra room on the road for a bike lane. He said that was the reason the city was proposing the sidewalk cycling ordinance -to close the gap on places like Lyons Avenue.
Only problem is that on portions of Lyons Avenue, there is no sidewalk. The same is true on Orchard Village Road, sections of McBean, Newhall Avenue south of Main Street etc. What’s more, the City’s non-motorized traffic plan proposes no bike paths or lanes for Lyons or Newhall.
Even when built-out, the OVOV bikeway plan has no east-west routes in Newhall
Laurene Weste was the only councilmember who took the time to understand my complaint and she’s invited me to call her about it, so I may do that.
In any event, this ordinance will make me feel a little better about using the sidewalks to “close the gap” on major roads like Valencia Blvd where there is zero room for cyclists. For riders like me, cycling on the sidewalk sucks, but sometimes it’s the only option. For kids and recreational riders, I think this ordinance will encourage more riding (even though it’s highly debatable whether sidewalk riding is actually safer).