ROBERT SCHOLLAERT, San Clemente
I walk the beach trail just about every day and get to enjoy the scenic beauty of one of the top attractions in San Clemente. Along with the physical benefits of the walk, there is also a social aspect of meeting acquaintances along the way who are also enjoying the trail. The negative side of the walk is dodging out-of-control bikers, and I see near-miss events with these bikers and walkers every single day that I walk the trail. I cringe to think that a toddler will be run down when darting from a parent’s grasp, with the end result a serious injury or fatality.
I am a retired safety professional with more than 42 years of experience in industry. We utilized the safety pyramid concept quite a bit to help in accident prevention. The safety pyramid concept is a tool that relies on monitoring near-miss events and making appropriate changes to reduce the probability of a serious or fatal accident. I can tell you that in my former career, we would have eliminated bike travel on the beach trail long ago. I recognize that there is a speed limit for bikes, but it’s unrealistic to believe that it can be enforced. The amount of near-misses that I see every day on the trail with out-of-control bikes is definitely predicting a serious accident or fatality in the future. The danger has increased exponentially with the introduction of electric bikes. It’s up to the city to determine if a toddler’s life is more important than allowing bikers to utilize the beach trail.
bikes are not the soul blame many people walk shoulder to shoulder with out yielding to bikes or even strollers
i was at the trail visioning meetings how bout you the narrow dirt path was a bad choice as a all weather wide path or high bread path would suit its use best thus even making it pleasant for wheelchairs
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I am also a retired safety professional. That’s a nice bunch of bla-bla about your pyramid. Bottom line is you are a selfish individual trying to use big words to push your agenda because you think the trail should be for what YOU think it should be for. IT IS FOR EVERYBODY! Maybe we should ban toddlers….after all that would suit me because I don’t have one. Dogs poop and pee all over the trail and all over the city and it’s unrealistic to think every owner will pick up.
Stop being such a self serving individual and make room for everybody!
In all aspects of life there are dangers everywhere. If we follow this line of thinking then no dogs should be allowed on the trail either since they also pose a risk to small children. In addition there are always a small percentage of people who do not follow the rules and are flat-out rude. Banning respectful riders like myself is nothing short of selfish and not the correct solution to the problem. I live one block from the beach and I’m on the trail everyday with my bike and not one person has ever complained about me riding near them. I’m very polite and careful. How about you just say something to folks who are not and we can collectively modify their behavior to be good citizens on our public trail.
It’s about tolerating all walks of life that enjoy the trail. Today there were 3 mom’s pushing strollers shoulder to shoulder on PCH on the pedestrian path. They could see me coming and NO ONE budged. They looked at me like I was the creep. I had to come to an almost complete stop to wait for them to move out of the way. Or the couple with their basset hounds on extra long leashes taking up the whole trail, walking as slow as possible in an attempt to be in my way and they had the nerve to tell me to walk my bike? Are you kidding? I was at a respectful slow crawl making it obvious they were my priority and they made no effort to make room for me. This hatred for cyclist is out of control. I am a person! On Ola Vista some teenager brushed my leg with his truck as he sped by me. I was in the bike lane! I was going the speed limit! I am a tax paying, business owner who owns a house in town. I’m a human with feelings and a family. That kid nearly killed me and he HONKED at me! I am watching out for you people. I’m training to hopefully go to Nationals one day. I might make it some day if one of you don’t kill me. I ride 250 miles a week training in between working and family. We are people. We are out exercising. We are using green energy transportation. WE can all share the trail. Please don’t kill me while I am out training, striving for goals. I am not the entitled one.
the small bones in my feet are arthritic and cause me much pain so i ride i cant walk 2.8 miles and back !! some day the coastal trail will be complete in california and will be many hundred miles long do you expect me to walk it ? the trail was poorly built with out the thought of ada access where possible much less a proper surface for wheeled fun and or much less the small wheels we see used by scooter kids and skaters ,,,i remember the cronies / cartel that was in power back then and their hatred of blue collar workers and scooter kids and their rich get richer policies . i ask council to finish the trail to the county line widen the two narrow bridges and start changing the surface to a more all weather and wheel friendly surface , i truly believe not only would this be a boon for our community but commerce also ::::::::::::::::::::::::::(-:P