Disrespecting the bike lane in Santa Monica Pt 2
November 8th, 2009 
6 Comments
(by Mihai Peteu)
As a Santa Monica resident that relies on his bike for everything from work commuting, to running errands, to recreation, our city’s bike friendly image is starting to wear thin. The utter disrespect shown towards the few “safe” bikeways provided to us around town is simply despicable. As previously reported, Santa Monica is very creative at finding ways of obstructing its bike lanes.
Today, I could have not dreamed up a better example of how frustrating it is to ride in a city that is perceived as bike-friendly yet places its cyclists in danger’s path every day. For more than a two block stretch, between Lincoln and 10th St on Broadway, large trucks that were part of a location shoot were engulfing the bike lane on the south side of the street. As you’ll see below, a cyclist navigating this street decides to take the sidewalk in order to avoid the madness.
I walked past this convoy of trucks, and twenty seconds after I snapped the first photo, I noticed this cyclist riding East on Broadway, which is when I snapped the second one.
I just want to point out the irony of this situation. Santa Monica Police has been known to ticket cyclists for riding on the sidewalk, sometimes as a way to harass riders. Well, now that this example of the sheer disrespect for the most useful cycling thoroughfare in Santa Monica, the bike lane on Broadway, is right here in front of your eyes. Maybe the city will refund some of those they’ve unfairly ticketed for riding the sidewalk? Is it not obvious that cyclists’ safety is way at the bottom of the list? “Eh, nobody is really using that bike lane, we can just put STUFF there”
Some of the most serious cyclist-car injuries occur when folks ride on the sidewalk. I know this from personal experience. But when you place a cyclist in the situation depicted above, most will opt for the sidewalk rather than merging into the traffic lane. In the case of this film shoot, an SMPD police offer was present. It is often required that local law enforcement is present during the entirety of a film shoot. Therefore, the city was aware of this invasion of the bike lane, and was okay with it.
I can’t think of a better example of a double standard. Nobody protects our rights as cyclists, but as soon as we slip up, we get put in our place.
Seriously though. Don’t we pay the same goddamn taxes to keep this city up and running? Will it takes a class-action lawsuit to put the city in its place?
Without institutionalized support for Santa Monica’s cyclists, all the services, facilities, bike valets and bronze awards don’t amount to much. I strongly encourage all those that ride to always be aware of such situations and document them whenever possible – take a second to snap photos or shoot a video. The more visual proof, the better.
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Nice work, the camera always on the ready, it is really our best tool, – but the telephone in not bad either – Parking enforcement (310) 458-8466 could help, – this is clearly a very important issue, and it needs to be resolved, especially in Santa “Bronze” Monica.
I cycle all the time in Santa Monica, but I think you’re making a really weak argument here.
Sometimes skateboarders and pedestrians obstruct the bike lanes, not to mention idiot cyclists riding the wrong way. How does one handle such situations? You just deal with it! Go around them just like I’d go around the parked trucks shown in your photos.
By the way, the street in your photos was virtually deserted of vehicular traffic. There was no earthly reason for the wuss rider in the picture to ride on the sidewalk.
@Dennis – Yes, very true. I have seen runners going against the direction of traffic IN the bike lane, and every so often, another cyclist coming straight at me.
Do you consider yourself a vehicular cyclist? I bet you most of the people that ride bikes in Santa Monica don’t even know the meaning of that term, much less have the confidence to swerve into traffic when they have to make a decision as the one described in the article.
Judging by your statement, I assume you’d support painting sharrows in the rightmost lane of all streets in Santa Monica to let drivers know they’re entitled to the whole lane. I personally think that would be awesome. But there’s always going to be a percentage of folks that want some sort of dedicated bikeway, and if there’s going to be a bike lane present, I would like to see it get some respect. If you just tease cyclists with it and offer them a false sense of safety, then we might as well do away with bike lanes altogether.
You’d be amazed how an unexpected accident can downgrade the most experienced cyclist you to a “wussy” rider, so be careful with your choice of words.
I’m fascinated by people like the second commenter who can abandon the very valid principle at stake seemingly just for the sake of argument. Calling Mihai’s point “weak” is laughably narrow — especially when they close by further nulling their side with an insulting judgment of the rider in the photo as a “wuss.”