bay area cycling news

An article in the Half Moon Bay Review reminds us all of the impact lots of cycling events can have on a small, rural town. Echoing the complaints of others, PMAC member Rob Skinner stated that Pescadero had little to gain from hosting bike events. At best, cyclists would buy a bite to eat on their way through, Skinner said. At worst, they could be involved in collisions and tie up roads for hours. ... That happened last month when a representative from the Canary Century bike event presented a ride set for Memorial Day weekend to help benefit Stanford Medical Center. PMAC members were irritated by the proposal because it was scheduled for one of the busiest tourist days for the town, and the event had already been forwarded to the county for approval before anyone on the South Coast could provide input. Read more at the HMBReview website .

A few news outlets are reporting that an official bike lane is now being considered for the section of Alpine Road that meets highway 280, where veteran cyclist Lauren Ward was killed last November. The hundreds of westbound bicycles that traverse the Alpine Road intersection every day have been making do without a bike lane. That would change with the implementation of any of four proposed designs now being looked at by the San Mateo County Public Works Department and the California Transportation Department. The four design proposals are detailed on SVBC's website , and you can read more at the Palo Alto Online .

The Mercury News is reporting that a San Jose man, David Garcia, was hit and dragged by a car around 10am Sunday morning near Crucero Drive and Dubert Lane in San Jose. He's now in a coma and the police are looking for the car. Josette Garcia said her brother was bicycling, with no helmet, about 9:30 a.m., home after a trip to Jack's Liquor Store, where his parents had asked him to buy lottery tickets. Apparently, people from an apartment complex near McLaughlin Avenue saw what happened, Josette Garcia said, and pulled her brother out of the street. Police asked anyone with information about this hit-and-run to contact the San Jose Police Department's Traffic Investigation Unit at 408-277-4654.

The newly launched Bay Citizen has an interesting article about cyclist vs car accidents in San Francisco. One September morning last year, Mary Jenn, a San Francisco massage therapist, was riding her bike to work when a police officer who was parked on O’Farrell Street opened the door of his cruiser in her path. ... The police officer was one of 101 drivers to “door” a cyclist in San Francisco over the past two years, according to an analysis by The Bay Citizen of 1,147 bicycle accidents recorded by the San Francisco Police Department during that period. That's from an article about dooring in the city , which references a nicely statistical article cataloguing cyclist vs car accidents up there. Additionally, they're releasing much of the raw data in various formats .

Lauren Ward was killed last November when an eighteen-wheeler collided with her on Alpine Road at highway 280 in western Palo Alto / Los Altos Hills. A month later the CHP concluded that Lauren had made an "unsafe turn" into the big-rig, and that the driver was not at fault, despite having a history of previous accidental deaths . Today, however, the Los Altos Town Crier is reporting that the CHP is reopening the investigation , prompted by "new information" about the accident. The CHP spokesman is careful to not assume anything about the new information, however: "Our original investigation is completed and everything’s still the same (regarding the party found at fault),” [ CHP spokesman Art Montiel ] said. “We don’t know if the additional info will make that change." Read (only a few more) details on the Los Altos Town Crier's website .

Lists are abuzz today with some firsthand reports of cyclists witnessing an elderly gentlemen in a Mercedes drift into the southbound bike lane on Foothill Boulevard just south of Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, hitting a female cyclist. The driver had stopped but the woman was transported to the hospital for severe back pain. At the moment there seem to be no official news articles or police statements. Foothill Boulevard is a very common thoroughfare for cyclist either commuting north and south, or out on lunchtime rides from around the prolific companies in Silicon Valley. The bike lanes are sometimes unmarked but very wide shoulders that usually provide comfort to cyclists who can stay away from the 45mph (and often faster) traffic.

The Santa Cruz City Council is voting today on moving the Pacific Coast Bike Route from Mission Drive to West Cliff Drive. Transportation officials have sought to relocate the route, which is part of an 1,800-mile stretch from British Columbia to Southern California, to share West Cliff’s unparalleled view of Monterey Bay with visiting riders and reduce their risk of collisions with vehicles. Since 2007, two bicyclists have been killed after being struck on Mission Street, which has no bike lanes, and police have recorded three other crashes there since 2009. Read the full reasoning at the Santa Cruz Sentinal .