fthomas

Thanks for the link. An interesting read if one avoids the hubris and uncalled for mini flame wars.

Keeping things in perspective isn't this Forum Topic "Advocacy and Safety" about working together to make our little patch of this planet a safer place to ride or walk and live? My intent was not to instigate an uprising, but to seek advice and recommendations from more experienced individuals who have dealt with the bureaucracy of the city and get something positive accomplished. In this case it is my opinion that the City Engineer and Inspection Team appear to lack the ability to do the right thing on their own The City Manager, City Attorney and other bureaucrats have remained silent on the issue though copied on all correspondence and they failed to inform the Traffic Committee about the issues raised. Self serving and short sighted on their part.

I will attend and speak before The Traffic and Transportation Commission of the City of Laguna Niguel this coming Wednesday.
I welcome any recommendations on how best to spend my "3 Minutes Effectively".

Thanks for everyone's input!

B. Carfree

If your city has some sort of climate change plan, active transportation goals or official statement in that area, read it and note how the construction, by interfering with active transportation, is contrary to the city's stated goals. Give the city staff the face-saving out of noting how recently the city adopted whatever it is the (hopefully) did adopt.

If there's nothing along those lines, I guess you just have to do what you can to get them to see that a policy of accommodating cyclists and pedestrians would be very helpful to keeping those who have adopted active transportation from returning to their cars and adding to the existing traffic congestion and air pollution.

Be wary of taking on the city manager or traffic engineer directly. In my experience, a city manager will never question the authority of a traffic engineer and the traffic engineer owns the roads, for all intents and purposes.

Good luck.

Edit: Too bad for you. Your city has not yet adopted a climate change action plan nor can I find any evidence that it has taken any stand on promoting active transportation.

jimincalif

You might want to contact the Orange County Bicycle Coalition. Orange County Bicycle Coalition | Promoting bicycling as an everyday means of transportation and recreation. Advocating for cyclists and safety.

randomgear

Does your area have a walking advocacy group? My local one is WalkBoston and is very good at getting the City to take pedestrians far more seriously. They can be a very good place to start. Just because there is construction does not mean that the City can block an accessible route, they can reroute it, but it still needs to be safe and accessible.
Also try your local city councilors, selectmen, aldermen or whoever represents you to the city, describe the sidewalk/crosswalk issue and offer to walk with them through the area to understand the issues. They can usually push the correct buttons, as long as you don't get them upset at you (some politicians have very thin skin and do not respond well to criticism) to get the issue improved quickly.
Good luck.

fthomas

This is an upper and upper middle class income area typified by conspicuous consumption of high dollar automobiles and homes of their dreams. In there five year plan a great deal of verbage is waisted (my opinion) on not being able to provide affordable housing. The two large construction projects nearby are apartments where rent will probably be in excess of $2,000 per month and where the developers have not had to provide alternate safe pedestrian or Bicycle lanes during construction.

In this case I will play the ADA card as a Disabled Veteran with Service Connected Disabilities that place me in a protected class. I have a dog in this fight and intend to prevail. Involving interested non-profits that include impacted parties they are charted to serve along with the media never hurts. I admit to being a neophyte when it comes to California politics and garnering the interest and action of other affected parties. Same rodeo, but different herd of bulls. They are all dangerous if you turn your back on them!

Conjecture on my part, but I would imagine the City Staff and Elected Officials would be making major career limiting
moves if a quota was placed on new developments to provide any semblance of "Affordable Housing" or accommodations
made for alternative transportation in all categories.

In a previous time I was the President of the Home and Apartment Builders for a large suburb in the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex. Battling with cities over safety is not a difficult proposition when it also impacts children going to and from school and in their neighborhoods. City Engineers can be difficult when discussing the movement of sewage - big pipe shallow run verses little pipe steep run. Often very capable engineers, but lousy politicians. I won my share of battles and still won the war.

I have not found anything either that relates to energy conservation let alone encouraging cycling. Unheard of in this day and age!

The traffic count in one troubled area is stated to be 59,000 vehicles per day. I prefer a clear bike lane and / or sidewalk verses joining the carnage potential of exerting my right to share the road with all those distracted drivers!

fthomas

Great advice! Thank you!

fthomas

I am a member and will reach out to them tomorrow. California Bicycle Coalition has been very helpful.

no motor?

I've done a little work with some local towns about bicycle and pedestrian rights and even when things work well it takes a lot of time. And when things don't work there isn't much that can be done until something bad happens. And by bad I mean someone being $eriou$ly injured or dieing.

Rollfast

The city engineer would have nothing to do with your problem. The construction company properly (I would assume) closed off the area involved in the safety zone for the project as was requested in their permit. Why do you assume that you would be safe if cars are detoured? They did that because large machinery and trucks would be moving around the area at random times and the roadway would be involved. Detour with the other traffic or take a different route.

The chances are good that this was done to facilitate the completion of the project more quickly. It won't be there forever. And bike lanes are not guaranteed to be usable all the time. There are probably utility lines beneath the bike lane area as well. Detour with the auto traffic lane(s) carefully or go around the site.