City of Encinitas Meeting 2 Notes

[Judy Frankel]

On November 10th  there was a second meeting with the city of Encinitas.

At attendance were:

• Howard LaGrange of the Co-Chair of the Oceanside Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee City of Oceanside and resident of Encinitas.
  
  Jim Baross, Jr of San Diego County Bike Coalition
  
  Traffic Engineer, city of Encinitas
  
  Srgt. Mark O?Connor of the Sherriff?s department which is in charge of traffic for Encinitas.
  
  
  And myself, Judy Frankel as meeting facilitator and note taker.

The main purpose of the meeting was to clarify the laws that were being taught in the LAB courses and making sure that law enforcement and cyclist are in agreement with what was being taught.  A secondary purpose was to see if there was any further progress  made with regard to improvements in cycling on coast highway.

We used this video for instruction  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU4nKKq02BU

We also handed out the attached letter from Caltrans. The meeting went very well.

With regard to law enforcement:
Sgt O?Connor has been a cyclist in the past.  He thought the video was very informative and was definitely on the same page with the need for cyclists to take the lane on substandard size lanes as that exist on coast highway and on Vulcan in Encinitas.

There was some discussion about riding single file.  He thought there may be some law that single file was required.   We discussed that no law exists that says cyclists must ride single file.  He seemed to understand that in a substandard lane where a car can?t pass in the same lane that it doesn?t matter how many bikes ride abreast as the bike needs to control the whole lane and cars need to move over to pass.  The longer the line of single file bikes there would be, the longer it would take a car to pass the line in another lane.

The Sgt was interested in having the SDCBC come in to give courses to his department to further educate them on cycling and the law.   We will arrange to do these courses.

He mentioned that they also do bike rodeos for the schools so, we could help with education in this regard as well.  Howard is arranging for him to have some printed cards that have What cyclists expect from Auto drivers on one side and what Auto drivers expect from bike drivers on the other side.

He asked if anyone had received any tickets with regard to taking the lane.  We explained some of the issues that had come up.  He didn?t think there should be many as he didn?t think that the Sherriff?s department was targeting cyclists much.

Education of the department should improve any problems we are experiencing in this regard.

Jim Baross further clarified this point with the Sgt when he sent him the following information after the meeting:  

• This excerpt from a paper, ?Bicycles and the Law: The Case of California? by Alan Wachtel, speaks to  single file versus two or more abreast riding. The full paper with the footnote references is available at
  http://www.cabobike.org/articles/bicycles-and-the-law/ .
  
  C. Riding Single File or Two or More Abreast
  Nothing in California law explicitly requires bicyclists to ride single file or prevents them from riding two or more abreast, as bicyclists often do for social reasons.[79] Nonetheless, some police officers believe that the slow bicycle rule does so implicitly, because the bicyclist on the left is not riding ?as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.? This opinion is also expressed in a 1975 Attorney General?s letter of advice to the Statewide Bicycle Committee, without further elaboration.[80]
  
  This interpretation lacks reason, common sense, and harmony.[81] In the strictest sense, the bicyclist on the left cannot ride farther to the right, because of the presence of the bicyclist on the right. In an analogous situation, on a road that carries three lanes of traffic in the same direction, it would surely be considered proper for two slower motor vehicles to travel abreast in the two right-hand lanes, leaving the left-hand lane open for faster traffic to pass. Riding two abreast is expressly permitted by both the slow bicycle rule and the bike-lane rule when one bicyclist is passing another, even if both are slower than other traffic. Finally, no law currently prevents a car and a bicycle, regardless of speed, from traveling abreast in a single lane wide enough to allow it.[82] It is therefore illogical to single out two bicycles side by side.
  
  If the slow bicycle rule is to be applied to the case of two cyclists side by side, it must meet the tests described under ?What Constitutes a Violation?? supra. Clearly the rule cannot apply unless both cyclists are traveling slower than other traffic; if not, they may ride two or more abreast. Nor does the slow bicycle rule apply in a narrow lane, so riding two or more abreast is lawful there. The slow bicycle rule should apply only when faster traffic is unable to overtake and pass.[83] If traffic can pass by changing lanes, or if it could not pass even if the bicyclists were riding single file, there should be no violation. If bicyclists ride two or more abreast, but revert to single file to allow following traffic to overtake, again there should be no violation.
  
  Regardless of how the slow bicycle rule is interpreted, bicyclists may lawfully ride two or more abreast on the shoulder, because the shoulder is not part of the roadway, and therefore not subject to the slow bicycle rule.[84] Likewise, bicyclists may ride abreast, one on the roadway and one or more on the shoulder, provided that the one on the roadway observes the slow bicycle rule, if applicable.[85] Finally, bicyclists may ride two or more abreast in a bike lane; the special bike-lane rule, if applicable, requires at most that they ride within the bike lane, without specifying any particular position in it.
  .
  
  Though somewhat tongue-in-cheek I often mention that people in cars very often travel two or even three-abreast and no one seems to care?  ;-)  
  

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With Regard to Traffic Engineering and improvements to Coast Highway:

Because of the Streetscape project to redo coast highway in Leucadia the city doesn?t seem to want to spend a lot of money on maintaining coast highway until that project is completed in 3 ? 4 years but, with our squeaky wheel, it seems that some changes will come somewhat sooner.  At this moment there is a project going on to patch the road from Encinitas Blvd north to La Costa.  They are finding the road very eroded underneath the surface.   Traffic Engineering understands the issues with regard to riding on this section of road and is being greatly proactive in trying to improve conditions in the short term.  In that regard, we should be seeing a bike lane put in from Leucadia Blvd to La Costa with one less traffic lane going north.  We hope this can happen in the very near future with the restriping of the road after the current road patching.  That still leaves from Encinitas Blvd to Leucadia going north where cyclist need to control the right lane.  Maybe there will be some changes there as well.

The ?Bikes May take the Lane? sign was approved for use in the California manual  just recently and Engineering expressed that he will try to make those happen through that section. Especially going south next to parked cars.

Aside from these issues, the city discussed that there is interest in having a Bike Committee for the city of Encinitas.  We gave him some information about how this was done in Oceanside and how it was best if it came from the city side instead of the bike community so we can have the support of the city engineering and policing departments etc.

Anyone living in Encinitas wanting to be active in that committee, let Tom Hicks of this group know.  Howard La Grange, on the Oceanside Committee is a resident of Encinitas as well and will also be active in the Encinitas Committee.

If anyone else in the meeting has any additions, please feel free to make them


Thanks,




Judy Frankel
Tec-Knowlogy  Source
www.tecknowlogysource.com
760 434 8907

[Paul Nevins]

Where are our Encinitas cyclists at these meetings? Why are they not invited to participate in a process in their own city?
Encinitas cyclists please step up and join this group!

[Judy Frankel]

Howard is from Encinitas..

All Encinitans are invited to help create a bike committee for the city.  Howard is already familiar with how to get city support in accomplishing this and Tom Hicks is on board to start it.  Contact either one of them if interested.

This meeting was only about getting the police educated and helping to fix 101 and to start a community committee.  It would have been great if there had already been a committee to make that happen but since there wasn't I got the ball rolling.  The residents are welcome to take this on.

[Lisa Ruby]

Thank you for posting all of this Judy and for taking this on. Video was great and the letters were too!

[Judy Frankel]

I forgot to add the Caltrans letter that we gave.  Attached is the letter.

[Judy Frankel]

and another reference used:


21200. (a) Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this division, including, but not limited to, provisions concerning driving under the influence of alcoholic beverages or drugs, and by Division
10 (commencing with Section 20000), Section 27400, Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 39000), Division 17 (commencing with Section 40000.1), and Division 18 (commencing with Section 42000), except those provisions which by their very nature can have no application. (b) (1) Any peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 of the Penal Code, operating a bicycle during the course of his or her duties is exempt from the requirements of subdivision (a), except as those requirements relate to driving under the influence of alcoholic beverages or drugs, if the bicycle is being operated under any of the following
circumstances:

   (A) In response to an emergency call.

   (B) While engaged in rescue operations.

   (C) In the immediate pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of the law.

   (2) This subdivision does not relieve a peace officer from the duty to operate a bicycle with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway.



21202. (a) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

   (1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.

   (2) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

   (3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656.  For purposes of this section, a "substandard width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

   (4) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.

   (b) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway of a highway, which highway carries traffic in one direction only and has two or more marked traffic lanes, may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of  that roadway as practicable.




21656.   On a two-lane highway where passing is unsafe because of traffic in
the opposite direction or other conditions, a slow-moving vehicle, including a passenger vehicle, behind which five or more vehicles are formed in line, shall turn off the roadway at the nearest place designated as a turnout by signs erected by the authority having jurisdiction over the highway, or wherever sufficient area for a safe turnout exists, in order to permit the vehicles following it to proceed. As used in this section a slow-moving vehicle is one which is proceeding at a rate of speed less than the normal flow of traffic at the particular time and place.