Why did the cyclist cross the Cross Valley Connector before it was officially open?

Because it was there.

Read it and weep motorists!

That’s right. I came, I saw, and I rocked the “Gap” by pedaling my bike over the 1,100 foot bridge on the very last leg of the hundred million dollar, decades-old dream that is the Santa Clarita Cross Valley Connector.

You know what else? I took up the entire road, laughing maniacally as I weaved back and forth as if it was my tax dollars alone that built it.  As if I owned it!

Which I did.

BOOM!

Now since I am the first Santa Claritan of all time to cross this very important bridge under my own power, let me just say how pleasurable it was. The pavement was smooth, the incline gentle, and the view…well she was pretty. Indeed, even Canyon Country and the nebulous region known generally as “Whittaker Bermite” look attractive from this distance, and it’s a lot of fun to ride down into the Newhall Ranch/Bouquet Area.

Best of all, there was very little traffic.

It’s so fun in fact that I recruited another cyclist to break the law with me. He described the experience of being the first as “neat”

I know you’re jealous of my awesomeness Santa Clarita, but don’t hate on me too much, for you too can experience this amazing road next week (it looks like they just have to stripe it and fill in some holes!)

Maria Gutzeit informed me of the happy news that Los Angeles County will host a bicycle master plan workshop in Castaic next week.

The bicycle master plan “seeks to encourage the use of bicycles as a general means of transportation, ensure the safety of bicycle users, and provide guidelines for the development, expansion, and implementation of the County’s bicycle infrastructure,” according to this website.

The meeting will be held February 23, 2010 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the Castaic Regional Sports Complex. At the workshop, you’ll be able to hear what the plan is about and offer your own input about bicycling infrastructure in unincorporated Los Angeles County, which is all the yellow parts in the image below:

I’m looking forward to this meeting. Having ridden all over this place we call home, I find the west side of town is more frightening than just about anywhere else. For starters, we only have two bike lanes in the area -one on Stevenson Ranch Parkway from Old Road to Pico Canyon, the other on Valencia Blvd into West Ridge- and the other streets in the area are very high traffic, narrow or poorly maintained.

It’s a testament to the City of Santa Clarita that riding is so good in much of the city, especially the east and north side of town. It may not enjoy full connectivity but it’s quite mature compared to the west side.

But this is a great first step for the County. Ultimately, I’d love to see Class II lanes lining north and southbound Old Road from Castaic to the Newhall Pass. That would go a long way to making the west side more rideable.

And if I’m really dreaming, it’d be so cool to have a bike path that runs from the mighty Pacific ocean along Highway 126 all the way to the City’s Class 1 path on Newhall Ranch Road.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

What about you? Do you live in Unincorporated SCV? What would it take for you to try bicycling to say, the market or the park, rather than drive your car?

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From the LA Times comes the cheery news:

Speeding may be dangerous for drivers, but it could soon be a boon for California’s fiscal health.

Tucked deep into the budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Friday is a plan to give cities and counties the green light to install speed sensors on red-light cameras to catch — and ticket — speeding cars.

Those whizzing by the radar-equipped detectors at up to 15 mph over the limit would have to pay $225 per violation. Those going faster would be fined $325.

Red-light cameras are already in place in communities across the Southland. The governor wants to install speed detectors in 500 of those cameras, which would nab an estimated 2.4 million speeding violators a year, according to the state Department of Finance.

If you thought the red light cameras on some intersections in the SCV caused controversy, wait till these devices go in!

Imagine, you’re on your way to work, running a few minutes late, so you push it up to 60 on McBean or 70 on Soledad. Our roads are tailor-made for high speed motoring, it’s so easy!

4-6 weeks later you get a whopping $325 ticket in the mail, even though a law enforcement officer never stopped you.

Your first reaction is denial. Then you slowly remember how you made your car whine that one day back in May. Then your reaction is outrage, and finally, you decide to go to the City Council and complain about Big Brother. The next day, you’re mentioned on SCVTalk and people laugh at you.

But is it possible to beat these cameras? Two possibilities:

Or you could just, you know, slow down!

After the NYC Department of Transportation sand-blasted a popular bike lane out of existence in Brooklyn, some vigilantes repainted it late at night:

Lest we think only the east coasters have fun, Bicycling magazine wrote about some renegade Los Angeles lane painters last year. The LA painters only wanted a safe and marked way to cross some downtown bridges.

If you ride long enough in the SCV, you come to sympathize with these big-city cyclists. But at the same time, we here in the suburbs have it worse. It’s scary out there on Santa Clarita’s roads. Unlike big city roads, many of our large roads operate at almost highway speeds with few traffic lights or traffic calming measures.

And that’s the way people here want it, even as they kvetch about speeders, traffic, and gas prices.

As a result cyclists are relegated to a nice but incomplete network of Class I and II lanes throughout the SCV. Sure we have some on-street lanes here and there, but try actually completing a cross-valley trip on them, and you’ll end up in the middle of a big road like McBean, dodging speeding cars.

I’m not one to advocate vigilante lane painting, but boy would it be a fist-pumping/power-to-the-people moment if someone in the SCV actually did it on one of our busier boulevards, like say Lyons from Peachland to Railroad. Just saying.

One sure way for the City to get into my good graces is to post press releases like this that just make me swoon:

The City of Santa Clarita submitted an application to the Bicycle Transportation Account to request $390,564 in funding for the Bicycle Video Detection Project. If approved, the project will add bicycle video detection devices along two local roads to better detect vehicles and increase cyclist safety.

The Bicycle Video Detection Project uses cameras mounted on traffic signals to automatically detect the presence of a bicycle waiting at a traffic signal. The devices eliminate the need for cyclists to wait for a car to trigger traffic signals or dismount their bicycle to push the pedestrian button.

If funding is approved, Bicycle Video Detection devices will be added along Bouquet Canyon Road from Seco Canyon Road to Plum Canyon Road and Soledad Canyon Road from Canyon Country Park to Shadow Pines Boulevard.

“By applying for the Bicycle Video Detection Project, the City of Santa continues its commitment to the local cycling community,” said Mayor Frank Ferry. “Because the local roadways selected for the project feature Class II bicycle lanes, video detection would significantly increase safety and enhance the riding experiences for Santa Clarita cyclists. “

Video Detection cameras are viewed as a superior solution to in-pavement loop detectors currently in place because they are not dependent on metallic objects for vehicle detection. The City selected the project due to its eligibility for the funding source, transportation benefits, connectivity, cost, safety, constructability, and potential for multiple uses.

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to ride up to an empty intersection, stop and wait. And wait. And wait some more. And wait until you are so tired of waiting for the light to change that you either get off your bike and push the crosswalk button or run the red light like you stole the bike you’re sitting on. And at some intersections in the SCV, the crosswalk button simply doesn’t work, which means you have no other option but to run the light.

Some SCV intersections, however, have bike friendly detectors in the ground. The new bike lane on 16th Street, for example, culminates over a patch of freshly-buried sensors that treat bicycles in the intersection the same as cars.

The solution above, if the City wins the funds for it, strikes me as an elegant and less expensive method to detect cyclists in intersections. Not sure it will work as well as ground-based sensors, but  I welcome it.

Put an end to traffic light discrimination of cyclists and support the city in this application!