DALE PATTERSON, San Clemente
What have we really accomplished? The City Council has removed e-bikes from the Beach Trail and beaches. The major offenses with e-bikes are from young people who ride too fast and are discourteous to pedestrians.
By eliminating the Beach Trail, what the City Council has really accomplished is putting those same young people on the roads with vehicle traffic.
I read a letter from a concerned citizen congratulating the council for closing the trails to e-bikes, but the citizen said she was now concerned about people with small children on e-bikes out in traffic with posted speeds of 40 mph.
People with small children are probably the safest riders out there. The fact that more will be on the street is what the City Council has forced onto the riders. Also, young people who don’t know the rules of the road are being forced onto the roads.
Education is always the answer. There should be mandatory classes about road rules, safety and right of way to pedestrians. The concerned citizen is right when she said she prays it doesn’t take a tragedy to wake the city up.
That part I agree on—but it is the city that forced the young riders from the trails and onto the streets, so I ask you, what have we really accomplished?
