Arts & Entertainment
Biking the Boulevards
by Steve Propes
BIKERS Bryan Nickerson and Mindy Beeler enjoy a bike ride outside San Diego.
Photo by Emil Kara
On October 24th, as Beachcomber reporter Kirt Ramirez was riding his new bike from a friend’s house along Long Beach Blvd., he saw a familiar sight. It was his own bike, stolen almost four months earlier from outside the Rite Aid on Redondo Ave. at Anaheim St.
The rider told Ramirez he bought it for twenty bucks from a stranger on the sidewalk, a classic “hey buddy, wanna buy a bike?” story.
It had all the parts that made Ramirez’s stolen bike unique, “a red reflector on the front end is still attached…the U.S. flag bell, the back rack, and Huffy logo on brown paint.”
“The new owner said he uses it for work and had no idea it was stolen. I can tell he didn’t know the history of the bike and he appeared honest and sincere. He’s just a kid on his way to work.
He said he doesn’t want to ride a bike that has been reported stolen.” Ramirez gave him a business card and if he’s ever in the area of the original theft, to give him a call “and we can meet somewhere to get the bike back.
Ramirez has yet to hear from him. “Actually the more I think about it, the more I would like to have it back. It has some sentimental value at this point, even if I do have a nice ‘new’ bike.”
This chance encounter typified the importance of such transportation to a segment of our town’s younger and middle-aged population. Because of problems with licensing, insurance and the cost of gas and maintenance, not everyone can afford a car, but most everyone can afford a bike.
And it’s a good form of exercise.
According to City Of Long Beach Transportation Programs Officer Sumire Gant, the city has been actively pursuing a more bike-friendly policy. “We have a number of bike projects underway. The City Of Long Beach won a League Of American Bicyclists award at the bronze level as a bike-friendly community. Being bronze is quite an honor.”
In late October, Fifth District Councilwoman Gerri Schipske and Fourth District Councilman Patrick O’Donnell, who often bikes to his teaching job at Paramount High School hosted a Bike and Mobility Meeting at El Dorado Park.
At this meeting the biking public was told of a new green shared bike lane on Second St. in Belmont Shore and of plans for new bike boulevard on Vista St., which, according to Gant, which will be installed in January or February 2010.
“The bike boulevard will be a bike preference street that runs parallel and next to a larger street that has a lot of traffic,” which bike riders can use “to get to all the destinations on Broadway.”
The boulevards will incorporate traffic circles at different locations, making it safer for bikers to ride.” On Vista at the very busy Redondo Ave., “we’re putting in a signal for bikes only, which means cars will have to turn right. There’ll be signage and a median type barrier so cars have to turn right. Otherwise, more cars would come from other streets to cross Redondo,” Gant said.
The Vista Bike Boulevard will extend from Nieto Ave. to Temple Ave., roughly from Lowell Elementary and Rogers Middle School to Horace Mann Elementary.
“We had lot of meetings with Vista residents, with very positive feedback,” said Gant. “One of the concerns is the use of yield signs instead of stop signs. This will be a pilot program where we see how this works. There will be a couple of places at Park and Ximeno where parking is impacted, but it will not impede traffic.
The use of yield signs will just make it safer.”
New bike lanes will also be installed on heavily used Atherton St. between Studebaker Rd. and Ximeno Ave. “It will result in more people riding bikes and better medians. On a wide-open street with no amenities, people tend to go faster,” said Gant. “Bike lanes tend to slow people down.”
There are also plans to ”put in a cyclist light at Anaheim St. at the east perimeter of Clark Ave,” intended to make crossing that busy street that much safer. “The east side is different from downtown, which has narrower streets and less opportunity for bike lanes.
Bike boulevards tend to make up for the fact there are less bike lanes,” said Gant. The next streets slated to become bike boulevards are Sixth St and 15th St. and the so-called Daisy corridor. The city also plans to stripe additional lanes on major corridors.
Although the results of the 2009 survey have not yet been posted, the city’s bike website (www.bikelongbeach.org) gives the results a bike survey that was taken in 2008. The most used routes were the San Gabriel River Bike Path, the Beach Bike Path at Belmont Pier and Second St. at Bayshore.
From 2008 to the present, according to Long Beach Fire Department Captain Jackawa Jackson, the number of bikes licensed is “2,830 new licenses and 2,931 renewals.” Jackson noted licenses are issued at any fire station on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. and as of September 2009, cost $3.
As with car license plates, bike licenses are helpful in cases of bike theft, though as Ramirez discovered, even though a bike isn’t licensed, a theft report is still taken. However the lack of a license makes tracking down the missing bike more difficult, unless the previous owner happens to recognize the bike when he pulls up next to it on a local street or on a new bicycle boulevard.
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