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Health & Fitness

Why No Bike Lanes On Any Bridges In Temecula?

We all like to ride, but now is the time to do a little advocacy. Take a minute or two, email, call or write the mayor, Mike Naggar, the City Council, and City Staff. We need bike lanes now.

I read today's news on Patch, and I was flabbergasted by a story about the removal of the Main Street Bridge. They are building a new bridge across the creek at Main Street to replace an antiquated bridge, this one designed with 10-foot sidewalks, with a single arch to make water flow faster underneath, but guess what, designed without bike lanes! This is 2013, not 1913.

We are supposed to be building infrastructure with an eye to to multi-modal transportation -- that's a long way of saying we need to consider people walking, riding their bikes, driving cars, and using public transportation.

The city is building a new interchange north of Winchester Road for a couple hundred million dollars. There are no bike lanes. That means there are no bike lanes on any bridges crossing the I-15 freeway. Why?

Find out what's happening in Temeculawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of cyclists in Temecula. We pay gas taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, all kinds of taxes.

We have a right to be heard. It is time for cyclists to stop, think about these issues, and stand up for your rights. Make your voices heard. We need bicycle safety measures now -- on street lanes (that's a white stripe on the road, we could add these all the time if we did it while repaving roads), sharrows (that is a little bicycle symbol to tell motorists to share the road with us when there isn't room to build a lane, but let's be honest, in most cases there is plenty of room for bike lanes in Temecula, this isn't downtown Los Angeles), separated bike paths (these are great for families with small children following behind), and special markings over the freeway to lets us cross safely.  

Find out what's happening in Temeculawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I know what you're saying. I'd rather be out riding my bicycle than writing letters. Me too. I have been riding on the streets here in Temecula for almost three decades, and I have learned how to not get myself killed by negligent, aggressive, or just plain crazy motorists. Well, so far.

But take a minute and think about your kids, your friends just starting to cycle, or visitors who don't know how dangerous it is here.

Shouldn't we do this for them? Shouldn't tourists who come here expecting to cycle through pretty wineries like they see in the city's ads, and find that the only way to get there are poorly designed roadways with unsafe speeds and no bike lanes of any type for cyclists, deserve better?

We all like to ride, but now is the time to do a little advocacy. Take a minute or two, email, call or write the mayor, Mike Naggar, the City Council, and City Staff. We need bike lanes now. We need bike lanes on freeway crossings. We need bike lanes on the Main Street Bridge. We need bike lanes on the new $200 million interchange.  And we need bike lanes on Rancho California Road, the busiest street in town, traditionally the gateway to our entire community, the one road that goes directly from Old Town to Wine Country.

We had bike lanes on Rancho California Road, remember? They were paved over to add a third lane of car traffic.

It's easy, go to the city web page, cityoftemecula.org and click on the the city council link, click on email all city council, or cut and paste their emails:

ron.roberts@citycouncil.org; chuck.washington@cityoftemecula.org; jeff.comerchero@citycouncil.org; mike.naggar@citycouncil.org; maryann.edwards@citycouncil.org

Ok, you've pushed the send button, go out and ride your bicycle. Just be careful out there. This is a dangerous place even for those of us who kid ourselves that we know what we're doing.

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