Guest Editorial by John van Houten, M.D.
The city of Ojai has made a concerted effort to become a “green” city in the past few years. However, it has ignored one very effective way to be more environmentally responsible, and that is by promoting cycling as an alternative form of transportation.
Ojai is a haven for recreational cyclists and even pro level cycling teams due in large part to our beautiful terrain and agreeable year round weather. However, there is no support for cycling as a form of daily transportation.
Aside from the Ventura Bike Path, which is mostly useful for recreational riding, there are no designated bike lanes in the city, no shared bike lane markings, no safe marked bike routes to our local schools for our children to ride, and few bike racks downtown to secure bikes if we do choose to ride.
Because Ojai is a small town with wide roads on flat terrain in which most residents live within five miles of downtown, it is ideally suited for cycling as a means of transportation.
By encouraging cycling in and around our city, we could reduce the number of cars driven in our valley, which would lessen noise pollution, improve air quality, decrease wear and tear on our roads, and result in significant health benefits for those who ride.
In addition, increased cycling would promote and encourage more local shopping. It is also well documented that as the percentage of trips by bike increases, the safety of cyclists and motorists both increase as automobile speeds tend to be slower in areas of high cycling traffic.
A number of larger U.S. cities with much more complex road grids that have successfully promoted cycling as a viable form of transportation include Portland, Oregon, Madison, Wisconsin and even New York City. These cities have actively encouraged its citizens to jump on their bikes rather than jump in their cars for their commute to work or for that short ride to the store for milk.
They have done this by creating greenways that make it safe, easy and convenient to use a bike. If Ojai truly wishes to be “green”, it needs to make cycling an attractive option for those of us wishing to move around our beautiful valley in a more environmentally friendly manner.
John van Houten, M.D, lives with his family in Ojai.
John van Houten highly recommends the following book:
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities
http://www.amazon.com/Pedaling-Revolution-Cyclists-Changing-American/dp/0870714198
Related Articles
May 16, 2008 – Pedaling Toward Cleaner Cities –When Will Ojai Catch Up?
http://www.ojaipost.com/2008/05/pedaling_toward_cleaner_cities.shtml
May 16, 2008 – Ojai’s First Ride of Silence
http://www.ojaipost.com/2008/05/ojais_first_ride_of_silence_1.shtml
May 13, 2008 – May is National Bike Month
http://www.ojaipost.com/2008/05/may_is_national_bike_month.shtml
July 14, 2006 – Oak Grove Cycles
http://www.ojaipost.com/2006/07/oak_grove_cycles.shtml
Suza’s Traffic Updates and Ojai Bicycle Articles
http://www.suzafrancina.com/traffic_updates.shtml
Editorial by John van Houten, M.D, published in the Ojai Valley News, Letters to the Editor, 09/18/09
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally agree! As soon as the San Antonio bridge is finished, I plan to ride my bike to work. But the rainy season may be here before it’s completed!
I like the idea, but we can also make the community more cycle friendly by encouraging more cyclists to observe safety and courtesy rules of the road. Riding on sidewalks, riding the wrong direction in traffic, riding in crosswalks, failure to signal, and other daily indiscretions endanger cyclists, pedestrians and drivers. If we successfully encourage more people to ride, we’ll need to more seriously enforce the rules of the road to keep everyone safer.
A few days ago a two-year old boy was seriously hurt when a car hit the bicycle trailer he was riding in. There is a discussion about bicycles and cars sharing the road on the VCStar blog:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/sep/18/boy-seriously-hurt-when-car-hits-bicycle-trailer/
My thoughts on safely sharing the road to follow.
Anonymous #2, I totally agree. Cyclists must learn to abide by rules of the road. And motorists need to slow-down and learn to share the road with those on foot, skateboard or bicycle.
Every day, especially immediately before and after school, I see cyclists doing crazy things that increase their chances of being hit by a car.
Every school, from kindergarden on up, should provide mandatory bicycle safety education, including all the rights and responsibilities of both motorist and cyclist.
I honestly believe that bicycle riding should require a license, same as car driving. Just yesterday I saw a group of high school age boys, who ought to know better, zig zagging across the highway near the Y intersection, acting as if their bikes were toys, not legitimate transportation.
I hate to sound like a broken record but the ignorance of both motorists and cyclists is appalling and demonstrates a huge gap both in motor vehicle and bicycle education.
Lack of education, plus a lack of safe bicyle/pedestrian infrastructure, is a recipe for a fatal accident waiting to happen.
People of all ages, but especially young children, often feel safer riding against traffic or riding on sidewalks because there are no clearly marked bike lanes, signs, etc.,
Ojai is long over due to implement the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure mandated about a decade ago by the adoption of the Bicycle/Pedestian Master Plan. You can borrow a copy at City Hall or possibly the Library.
A bicycle/pedestrian friendly infratructure says loud and clear that the safety of people walking, skate boarding, riding bicycles, other human-powered vehicles, wheel chairs, etc., is more important than the conveniece of cars.
Back around 1999, when I was on the City Council, the City had a golden opportunity to create a safe route to Topa Topa and other schools, on Grand Avenue and connecting streets.
Instead, the council caved in and decided that convenient car-parking on both sides of the street was more important than the health and safety of school-age children.