worker4youth

I can't wait to see a 200 man paceline!

MTBMaven

Ouch that really hurts. We talking about new rules for bikers around the Bowl and you go and have to pour salt on my wounds. You really know how to kick a man when they are down. Don't you know most of us Californians don't like things from Texas (e.g. the Longhorns, Bush, guns, etc.)

Mo'Phat

Vince Young does not equal Texas Football.


He was the I in Team.

recursive

I'd like to see it too. If you're suggesting it would be a problem they could split it into 4 50s.

0_o

i'm not going to edit or proof read what i am about to say so na na na ....
As much as I love cycling and seeing a big mass of riders fly by me, I can also completely understand the concerns of the city.

These riders are actually lucky the city doesn’t completely crack down on them and just put an end to it sense this is not a sanctioned city event. The legal problems and the insurance problems just for the city is a pain for them to deal with if some one actually did get hurt. Say someone’s little kid or dog runs straight in the Pelion. That would be a major train wreck. Cyclist sometimes have to step out side the realm of our sport and view things from the eyes of those who do not understand what is going on.

Take this as an example: If you saw a herd of cows trotting straight at you or by you and none of the cows are fenced off / free to roam any direction. I am sure you would feel uncomfortable. Now if you were a rancher or grew up around cattle you would not feel so uncomfortable. This is basically how all the people are feeling when the Pelaton flies by them. People in general have a deep rooted fear of large moving crowds...

Right now by watching the video and reading what is out there on this event. It sounded like hardly any of the cyclist showed up at the city counsel meeting regarding the ride. This just set them up to loose because more cyclist showing up and speaking on their own behalf regrading the ride would give others an idea of what is going on... Now because there were only a hand full of cyclist at the meeting the city is viewing this in the eyes of all the non cyclist. Only evidence they have are the complaints that are coming from actually tax paying residences. So currently they are only looking at this though the eyes of those who are complaining about how the ride goes… So they see the Pelaton as a group of riders who are riding into the pedestrian recreational Walking lane, and often intruding into oncoming traffic. Along with a report showing them a group of cyclist forming a Pelaton that has caused 14 accidents in 7 ½ years.

Here’s my fix: I think this group of riders should form a club. Ask the city to close off the roads for the weekly Pelaton. Then ask all members who are non city residents to pay a small fee for the coverage of having to shut down the area. This fee would be paid to the city of Pasadena for the use of the roads and the closer of the roads. While the road is closed to the Pelaton ride, the Pelaton would also have to allow all other recreational cyclist in the city to be able to ride on the outer areas of the road while the club does its thing. This would save a lot of heart aches and also legal issues.

timmhaan

sounds exactly like our parks here. no matter what they paint on the road, there are always a ton of people outside of it, often going in the wrong direction. and usually the cyclists are thought of as the problem.

timmhaan

good luck with that one. by the way...it's peloton.

recursive

There were 5 actually.

"Concerned citizens": 0

BTW, I've never seen so many different spellings of "peloton" in my life.

timmhaan

that's because nobody can spell it.

0_o

I thought that was was what mace in the face is for?

damn I did not notice i was putting an A in Peloton oh well .. told ya i wasn't going to proof read what I was typing...

I know my fix would be a pipe dream but it would be basically one of the best ways to keep it safe... If they could make it happen then I am sure that ride could be used as an example for other cities to use. Right now cycling is growing as a major rec. sport. So sooner or later most major US cities will have to come up with some kind of plan for this type of thing.

TCR

Are you saying I'm fat?

worker4youth

On the contrary! Last night, over 100 people showed up at the city council meeting.

0_o

yea but 5 riders are not enough when there were tons of complaints about the ride. The council is going to lean toward the masses on the issue.
Once in a while I attend SF city meetings. When I am there and If a complaint is brought up against an issue or if someone wants to defend an issue that is brought up , you have to have a lot of people there at the meeting to speak up for or against what ever is going on, the masses win most of the time.

Now if just 5 people are showing up and there is a stack of written and recorded complaints the people showing up still loose out 70% of the time. If they don’t loose there is normally some one on the board stating they will take their suggestions and review the issue at another time and make some kind of amendment / amendments to the problem at hand.
What is said by a small mount of people say compared to the masses most of the time tends to go though one ear and out the other no matter how convincing the small group makes their case.


I do not want to sound like i am against the Peloton, Actually I want them to win out on this matter , esp if they start to really self police other riders.

0_o

yea man I am
wanna come over and have some fried hostess twinkies with me for lunch .

0_o

Now that is music to my ears and how you have to attend a city meeting on something. The more riders show up the easier it is for them to get the city's attention and also the ears of non cyclists.

shakeNbake

Wow, this is the most viewed story on the website.

permanentjaun

I can't imagine why the city should crack down on this. It's been mentioned that the buffer zone was altered and the pedestrians took a mile when given an inch. The peloton is no different than a line of car traffic coming through. They're only there on 2 days of the week at specific times, which the public is well aware of. It seems to me like the pedestrians are the ones to be at fault since they walk in the wrong direction and don't follow the buffer zone. Intimidation can't be an excuse to prohibit the riders. Are they not prohibited by cars and trucks passing at faster speeds? Which is more lethal, getting hit by a bicycle at 30 or a car at even just 20 mph?

It is apparent the problem isn't the cyclists, but the pedestrians. If you go to 3:00 you see runners going in the wrong direction and then another pair of runners blatantly running outside of the buffer zone. From what I can see, the pedestrians have almost 15 feet of shoulder and buffer zone to work with. How much more do they want?

I also don't like the council mans remarks that he isn't "enthused about protecting the rights of somebody from Redondo Beach to come to Pasadena to train for their next race." I would think a politician would always want their city to look favorable to others. It should never be, "we don't care for outsiders. We only care about ourselves." What if the Pasadena Circuit became another marketing tool for the city as they could probably turn it into one of the more popular crits in the country? There is more publicity and good remarks for the city. Bike industry begins investing in Pasadena even more than it probably is. Also, I would have to believe a lot of those riders are Pasadena residents.

14 accidents cause by the Peloton in 7.5 years. Is that a terrifying statistic? How many accidents have pedestrians been involved in? This is just stupid people being ignorant to the fact that some people find other ways of enjoying themselves outside of what themselves find entertaining.

worker4youth

Yep. A lot of them left, however, because the hearing started at around 11pm. It lasted until 1am though! You can view it here:

https://pasadena.granicus.com/MediaPl...13&clip_id=437

Jump to 9.A.(2). in the drop-down menu.

kmart

In Houston Critical Mass is 15 drunk teenagers on fixed gears...so much for bike advocacy

permanentjaun

BTW, anyone else think the reporter looks like the guy from Kids in the Hall? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbx6Zr5gDo

timmhaan

would you honestly expect anything less from people? percieved danger is the order of the day, irregardless of facts. if it looks dangerous, it must be, and therefore must be controlled. that's the new american way.

jpconrad

It was my understanding that it's the golfers and the people in their cars that have been complaining, not really the pedestrians.

Oh, and having ridden there in and out of the Peloton and at other times, when the Peloton is there is about the ONLY time that the pedestrians don't jump out in front of you, any other time and they're all over the road.

felt1

Micheal Jordan once said: " I know there's no I in team, but there is a I in win, so give me the ball"!

0_o

permanentjaun: the comment from the city councilman is a normal knee jerk reaction. Especially when it comes to an issues that could in some way affect local votes and city funds. You have to see this issue at a city government perspective. City residence's tax dollars being used for a solution to protect a non resident doing a non city sponsored event and at the request /comment from a nonresident.
If a group gathers for a non sponsored event @ a specific time every day, month, or year and performs that action over and over again for several years or month does not give them precedence over anything. It does not give any titled rights to the public area for general use nor doe it make it over time a sanctioned event.
Not sure if that come out right.
In the PDF file that is in the link worker4youth posted show’s that the city council actually took some thought over this matter… one part of the PDF reads: WHEREAS, the peloton is not sponsored by any group or organization willing to Provide traffic control neither so as to protect the public during this use nor to provide insurance and indemnity from collisions which might occur during this use. So if the cyclist did go forth and form some kind of club / group and put in place the above steps which are sort of like what I suggested earlier that could put an end to some this problem.
This would also help police the pedestrians who are not obeying the borders already put in place …
Pedestians tend to have more clout in city issues compare to cyclist because pedestrians are more vocal than cyclist. To turn that around cyclist need to to start reporting and complaining to their city superintendents / supervisors about problem / accidents caused by bad drivers , roller skaters/ bladders , pedestrians walking or jogging. Once the mass amount of cyclist in a city start voicing their gripes to the city, the city would then start taking steps in keeping those people inline.

As for the 14 accidents that still is a high number for the masses to swallow. The public will always see things in an obscure manner and never in a normal rational manner when physical death or damage is involved. Most people perceive cycling is as low risk activity
In SF the number is higher of accidents are higher. I think it was once said that every year there are at least 3 or more reported deaths caused by bicyclist hitting pedestrians on city sidewalk & cross walks.

Avalanche325

One of those 14 was about 6 weeks ago, and it was pretty bad. That probably is why this has hit the city councel again.

Half of the problem is the fact that people think that whatever activity they are doing should be the only one that is allowed.