Whose path is it anyway?
By Daily Press Staff Writer
SM BEACH — The kisses may have been hers and hers and his, but three isn’t always company on an increasingly crowded Santa Monica bike path.
Jack Tripper taking a tumble off his bike into the sand is an indelible image of Santa Monica,with its venerable bicycles-only pathway along the beach serving as a proverbial postcard to the world.
Only, Jack didn’t crash because a family of four was fanned out across the paved route, food coolers and sun umbrellas in tow.
“The pedestrians are out of control,” said Sabrina Champi, of Venice, echoing the sentiments of a large number of cyclists growing ever-more frustrated by the throngs of walkers on the pathway. “They clog up the path and it leads to trouble. I’ve nearly crashed into pedestrians several times. Mostly, it’s people that don’t realize it’s a bike path. It’s not the locals.”
Ironically, Champi and her boyfriend Jim Embrescia were roller skating on the bike path at the time, walking their leashed dog Frankie — also a violation.
The city’s municipal code states: “No vehicle of any type shall be permitted except unicycles, bicycles, bicycles with training wheels, wheelchairs and single-person tricycles operated by a person 18 years of age or older” should be lingering on a pathway set aside for bicycles, such as the 3.11-mile long stretch of the Pacific Coast Bicycle Routes within the city’s borders.
The beach path is the city’s lone dedicated bike path. There are separate walkways set aside for pedestrians that run along the coastline from the south end of the city to just before the California Incline, but posted signs are oftentimes ignored or disregarded.
When it comes to enforcing the rules of the bike path, more confusion arises. Beth Rolandson, a senior planner with City Hall’s transportation management division, said it was the Santa Monica Police Department’s responsibility to oversee.
However, Lt. Frank Fabrega, a spokesman for the department, declined to be interviewed for the story, intimating it was not the police’s responsibility.
“Maybe we better start enforcing the laws there,” said Mayor Bob Holbrook, alluding to a recent lawsuit in which a woman roller skating on the path tripped over a water hose and successfully sued the city for close to $60,000. “There is no enforcement, but it was built with dollars set aside for bicycles.”
On any given day, the bike path that runs the length of the city along the beach is stacked with roller skaters, skate-boarders, beach-goers, joggers, Segways, and some bicycles too.
It’s become so commonplace, and accepted, said Holbrook, that people have just given up complaining to the city about it. Holbrook warned that the city better take a closer look if it wants to avoid more accidents that could end up costing the city thousands in taxpayer dollars.
“The only thing you can do is get pedestrians off it,” said a bicyclist from Santa Monica, identifying himself only as “John.” “Maybe we should have a fence and some real access points.”
The New York native reported having rode bicycles in a number of countries, and in most cases pedestrians seemed to know their place wasn’t on the bicycle path.
“Any pedestrians are hazardous, they’re just not going as fast (as cyclists),” Embrescia said. “Either way, someone’s going down.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 18, 2006. Read the original PDF.