OC Bike Coalition Releases Bikeway Guidelines Opposing Class IV Bikeways

Irvine, CA - The Orange County Bike Coalition (OCBC) releases Bikeway Guidelines that opposes building Class IV bikeways. In preparation for the Irvine Mobility Summit, guidelines from the bicycle community are provided to the City of Irvine to facilitate building great bicycle infrastructure. "We are grateful that more cities like Irvine are planning mobility solutions that include consideration for non-automotive transportation," said Pete van Nuys, Executive Director. "Irvine is planning more Class IV bikeways, which we oppose due to the known hazards Class IV bikeways cause to the riders that use them."

The OCBC Guidelines are posted on the website at www.ocbike.org/guidelines and are available for all to use as needed.

The OCBC is expressing opposition to Class IV lanes due to the vertical hazards that are used to create a visible separation between a bikeway and the road. The separators are typically a concrete curb a few inches tall and/or plastic bollards up to about 2' high. "Any time a rider needs to pass another rider or avoid debris, they also have to navigate around the separators and may crash due to the separators. This is also a problem for car traffic when a car needs to pull over for emergency vehicles, avoid a road hazard, or they have a mechanical issue with their car," said Pete van Nuys. "The separators are insufficient to truly protect a rider from a car bearing into the bike lane and only add hazards to bicyclists."

The OCBC specifically disagrees with the Class IV bikeway built on Cadence in Irvine's Great Park area. Irvine has not provided any records of car/bike incidents on Cadence that would warrant building this bikeway for safety purposes. When the city was advised that this is a heavily used route for recreational riders and that the riders will not ride in the new lane, it has acknowledged that recreational riders don't want to ride in Class IV bikeways.

The Cadence bikeway was very expensive at over $500,000 for 1.24 miles of road. The cost per foot is almost four times the cost of building a normal road and all the city did was install curbs. The Class IV bikeway on Cadence is becoming known as "The half million dollar bikeway to nowhere" since it is not connected to other Class IV bikeways, shopping centers, business or schools. Irvine's plans are to build 13 more short sections of Class IV bikeways in various locations in Irvine. The current plans do not connect these Class IV bikeways to each other or to significant destinations.

Councilman William Go stated at a March listening event that the goal is to replicate an Amsterdam bicycle culture and to obtain the Gold Level certification from the League of American Bicyclists' "Bicycle Friendly Cities" program. Mr. Go also stated that after the 14 Class IV lanes are finished, the City will work on the high school issues.

According to Pete van Nuys, "Irvine has a very large bicycling commuter base with school aged people that appears to be put on the back burner. The City also has a huge recreational rider community that is being ignored. On top of this, there is an e-bike challenge that all Cities are experiencing, especially Irvine. Irvine seems to be planning to spend $10 million on bikeways to nowhere without addressing the current needs."

Orange County Bike Coalition
1900 N. El Camino Real
San Clemente 92672
Paul Self
949-378-0665
paul@paulself.com

About the OCBC
The Orange County Bicycle Coalition encourages safe bicycling through advocacy, education and recommended infrastructure improvements to streets and paths by state and local governments. "Unlike bicycle clubs, we don't organize weekly rides. However, we do love to ride, and we work for all Orange County bicyclists by providing feedback and suggestions to government agencies seeking funds for bicycle projects. We also offer letters of endorsement for projects that meet our standards."

The Orange County Bicycle Coalition, also known as OCBC and OC Bike, was founded in 1991 and has worked tirelessly since then to improve bicycle access and safety in Orange County, California.

This release was published on openPR.