scarry

No mention is made of the terrifying ear splitting packs of Motorcycles who ride there as well.
Mainly they are organizing against a proposed Mountain Bike trail in Huddurt County Park.

And I agree that out of town riders should not be parking their cars in the local school lot.

Ride your bike there, don't drive there and add to the all ready overloaded roads.


https://www.keepwoodsiderural.org/index.htm

[/QUOTE]Here is an overview of the topics that we have been discussing around town:
As individual members of the community, we would appreciate it if you would contribute to our better understanding, communicating and developing an appropriate strategy to address the four most significant issues that have surfaced in the Safety survey and the process of collecting approximately 480 signatures via petition. These issues include:

1: Woodside as a Destination Site: There has been substantial growth in the number of out of town bicyclists, including large packs and mountain bike riders using Woodside as a destination recreation/training site. Seventy percent of the people in town don't feel Woodside has the adequate infrastructure (including roads, sanitation, emergency services, and parking) to support Woodside acting as a destination site.

2: Safety Risk Zones: There are five key "safety risk zones" in the community where shared use by some, or all user groups, including pedestrians, hikers, bicyclists, equestrian and motorists is resulting in unsafe conditions. These areas include:

Canada Road: with bicyclists, motorists, large bike packs, pedestrian and equestrian use.

Mountain Home Road: with bicyclists, motorists, large bike packs, heavy construction traffic and equestrian use. Although the posted speed limit is 25 mph Mountain Home is used as a primary North-South artery with auto speeds consistently ranging from 35-45 mph.

Woodside Elementary Parking Lot: Being heavily used by out-of-town bicyclists and runners, families attending school based athletic activities including soccer, basketball, baseball and softball are often forced to park on the north side of Woodside road and cross during heavy weekend "transit to the ocean" traffic. More and more, people who live south of Woodside road in Silicon Valley are using highway 84 as their primary "transit to the ocean" route as opposed to highway 92.

Huddart Park: Many older and family community members no longer feel safe in Huddart Park because of large groups of runners and mountain bike riders periodically violating use of trails which currently do not permit mountain bike use.

Access Paths to Huddart Park: Although the proposed Huddart Park mountain bike trail will be on the south side of Kings Mountain road, which would provide meaningful separation from other park visitors, the access points to the park would have to be shared by bicyclists, equestrian and hikers. The access points include: Woodside Road from Woodside Elementary Parking lot, Kings Mountain Road, Tripp Road, Greer Road, Olive Hill and Albion. 77% of the community agrees that encouraging shared use in these areas will result in severe injuries and possible fatalities.

3: Large packs of bicyclists: Large packs of bicyclists are frightening to many community members and significant safety risks for motorists, individual bike riders and equestrian riders.

4: Hostility: There is an increasing, uncomfortable, level of hostility between bicyclists, motorists and equestrians using Woodside roads and. The safety risk of this issue is further compounded by the absence of a common set of safe practices and interactions for mixed use.
[QUOTE]

genec

Strange how NIMBYism works isn't it.

I went to a meeting locally in San Diego with a local planning board and members of the commutity. The task was to allot monies for a future bridge for a bike path that parallels a new freeway.

The biggest opposition: homeowners that determined that the bike path will be a crime corridor and that "illegals" will trasit the bike path to get to neighborhood homes.

The idea was finally sold to these NIMBYs based on how long they might have to wait in their "cages" at a particular light while on their way home. (the bridge would cross over the intersection instead of cyclists triggering a light to cross at grade at the intersection.) The pushing of the concept was great... I thought there would be testimony about how good exercise was and how alternate means of transport are important... but it all came down to the fear these NIMBYs had of having to wait a minute or so more, in their autos, when and if a cyclist triggered the lights.

The "sale" of whole thing was based on motorists having to wait just about a minute whenever a cyclist crossed. It was determined that the accumulated minutes could be as much as 10 minutes. (not that any individual would wait 10 min).

The people "needed" to "not wait at all" and were then quite willing to grant the commitment for the bridge.

I really loved it when one woman (younger than me) got up and said "Let those 'kiddos' have their bike bridge..." Meanwhile this "kiddo" is nearly 50 years old...

Really showed how skewed the perceptions of some people are, regarding cyclists.

Kiddos... Ha!

Dchiefransom

This has been showing up in the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition messages. I was wondering if they were actually going to try to ban bicycles from the public roads there. Some of the complaints involve public urination by cyclists, which I see a lot of myself, and cyclists on the trails not following the rules involving right of way. Parking in school or private parking lots is risky, you could come back and find your vehicle has been towed.
All the public roads listed already have a common set of safety rules, the California Vehicle Code.

remsav

I've seen public urination by joggers, skiers and bikers... and automobile drivers, pretty stupid reason for banning bikes. I remember we had 2 **** on the MUP trails in 3 years one by guy on bike overtaking a jogger in broad daylight, they installed clearly marked cam, started trail watch volunteer program and far as I know we haven't had a major crime occur since.

MUP in our city connects all the parks so easy access goes both ways.

NoReg

Sounds like overuse more than anti-bike.

Daily Commute

In Columbus, the city is adding a bridge to the bike path along the Olentangy River. It's a great commuting path except on beautiful afternoons, but on nice weekends, it's packed with joggers, walkers, roller bladers and recreational cyclists.

A group of homeowners and renters near where the bridge will be arfued that it would bring in crime. Yeah. I'm sure lot of criminals will ride their bikes a mile down a path to get to their neighborhood by the bridge instead of just driving there from the nearby major street.

I'll bet that a year from now, people who put their houses on the market there will be advertising that it's "near the bike path."

I did hear only one good argument against the bridge--someone opposed it because the path was already too packed and it didn't make sense to improve access. I'm not sure if I buy it, but it's the only thoughtful criticism I heard.

trackhub

That's exactly what happens when a house goes on the market in Lexinton, Bedford, and Arlington, MA. Realtors advertise its proximity to the Minute Man commuter bikeway, and a close proximity adds to he selling price.

NIMBYism has been rearing its head the past few years in the town of Concord, MA. Concord has long been popular with cyclists, especially on weekends. The smooth roads go through postcard New England areas, with no shopping malls, beer joints, (Concord, is almost a totally "dry" town) or industrial areas. Concord center has long been a gathering spot for cyclists'

Concord is extremely wealthy, with lots of luxury SUV's, a few very exclusive, private schools, and housing prices starting at,,, well, if you need to ask you can't afford it. For whatever reason(s), folks in Concord have started to dislike cyclists, with comments such as "they hold ME up, everywhere I go!" being heard more frequently.

unkchunk

Yeah, but then that's Woodside isn't it. I mean, don't you have to register as a vagrant if your net worth is less than $100 million dollars?

slagjumper

[QUOTE=scarry]No mention is made of the terrifying ear splitting packs of Motorcycles who ride there as well.
Mainly they are organizing against a proposed Mountain Bike trail in Huddurt County Park.

And I agree that out of town riders should not be parking their cars in the local school lot.

Ride your bike there, don't drive there and add to the all ready overloaded roads.


https://www.keepwoodsiderural.org/index.htmNIMBY (NIM.bee) acronym. A person who hopes or seeks to keep some dangerous or unpleasant feature out of his or her neighborhood. —NIMBYism (NIM.bee.iz.um) noun. The attitude of such a person

It is clear to me that there needs to be some "IMBA activism". There is a county park in Pittsburgh that had many of these same issues. I thought that it was hopeless, but then local members of PORC, PTAG and IMBA started going to the meetings and listened. They heard what the problems where and began working to correct the image of the evil cyclist. Some of the thinks that they did was to have trail builds that made trails wide enough for horses. So they got the horsie folks on their side. Then they put up signs that said, Bikes yield to horses, horses yield to peds. They agreed to close some trails and where able to develop others. Some kindly bicyclists handing out brocures on Saturday to bike trail users, talking to the would be school lot parkers, (though I cant really see how this is an issue but I agree that driving a car to ride a bike is strange). A little PR would go a long way here.