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Pedaling Diego: San Diego's Growing Bicycle Mania
Point by point correction of factual errors, cited by page no. (p.) and paragraph(¶) in the article.— January 17, 2011 10:12 a.m.
Pedaling Diego: San Diego's Growing Bicycle Mania
p. 30, ¶2: The SKLZ – Pista Palace team is neither a ProTour team nor a professional continental team. It is a local regional team that is eligible to compete in local level races. By the same token, Pro Tour and professional continental teams are not eligible to compete in local races. Many flyers for local races mistakenly offer a “Pro, 1, 2” field when what they really mean is “Elite, 1, 2.” “Elite” refers to the age group between 23 and 30, although qualified riders who are between 17 and 23 as well as qualified riders over age 30 may still compete in Elite fields. p. 31, ¶2: The term is “Fred,” not “Freddie.” p. 31, ¶4: “Torrey Pines Grade,” not “Torrey Pines hill.” The author has apparently never ridden up or down it.— January 13, 2011 2:05 p.m.
Pedaling Diego: San Diego's Growing Bicycle Mania
p. 24, ¶7: “All right,” not “alright.” The Velodrome is not a “stadium.” Sean Burke is not a professional rider, he is Category 2. He is a level 3 coach. Sean Burke is not “supplied by the City.” He is a private contractor and takes half of the coaching fee. The other half goes to the San Diego Velodrome Association general fund. The track bikes used for coaching are not “borrowed from the City’s collection.” They are the property of the San Diego Velodrome Association. They are entry-level track bikes, not the typical “fixies” ridden by local hipsters. The frame geometry is different and they are geared much higher. Don’t try to do tricks, bar-spins, or skids on these bikes. They are not the same as the urban “fixies” the author refers to later in the piece, although he apparently doesn’t perceive the distinction. The corners at the San Diego Velodrome are banked at a relaxed 27 degrees, not particularly exciting. If excitement is what one is after, check out the LA Velodrome in Carson with its 45 degree banking, or even 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs with 33 degrees. On the San Diego track one can trackstand in the corners. In LA if one slows below about 15 mph the bike slides out from under one and both rider and bike make a quick trip to the apron below. The San Diego Velodrome is covered with a resin impregnated fabric that is slick as snot with the slightest hint of dampness. It is dangerous and foolhardy to even try to walk across the wet track, much less ride a bike on it. The only part that is now concrete is the ill-advised and rapidly deteriorating sprinters lane. p. 26, ¶7: Entry-level racers will never hear a countdown “Five, four, three, two, one, GO!” The starting instructions given by the starter at a non-championship race are as follows: “Timers ready, rider(s) ready, (gunshot or whistle).” National championships is probably the only time most track racers will have a countdown and it will be a series of electronic beeps starting at 30 seconds to go: (At 30 seconds) – BEEP (At 20 seconds) – BEEP (At 10 seconds) – BEEP (At 5 seconds) – BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BOOP! Riders starts on the BOOP! At national level tracks such as LA the rider’s rear wheel will be released by the starting block on BOOP! to prevent a false start, otherwise if the rider starts early the starter will fire the pistol twice and the rider will have one more chance to start properly in most time trial events. It is more than likely that a rider competing at the national level will be trained by a level 1 coach who knows this. p. 26, ¶13: If riders are in pain after their efforts, something is seriously wrong with the way the bike fits.— January 13, 2011 2:02 p.m.
Pedaling Diego: San Diego's Growing Bicycle Mania
Cover quote: “I got hit by a car,” he says. “And it wasn’t by accident.” This is the first thing one reads after the banner headline. It is not a particularly encouraging thought for novice cyclists who may have limited experience sharing the roads with traffic. It’s not a good way of introducing the subject to someone who might be on the fence about using a bicycle for transportation. p. 19, last ¶: “It’s just so refreshing to be on the attack…” “The fight-back has begun.” The tone here is confrontational and hostile, two unfortunate characteristics that give San Diego’s Critical Mass a bad reputation. p. 20, ¶2: Obligatory Lance Armstrong reference, last refuge of the non-cyclist. p. 20, ¶3: Writer admits to having been cycling for a few weeks. That’s not even adequate time to research a high school term paper. p. 22, ¶1: I have never seen any photographic evidence from Tours de France of the past depicting participants with Ubangi-style earlobe or lip stretchers. The “old-school racers’ cap” is called a “casquette.” p. 22, ¶7: “Lugano” tire is made by Schwalbe, not Schwinn. p. 22, ¶9: Riding a road bike down the Silver Strand bike path doesn’t make one a road racer. p. 23: If a rider’s quad muscles and butt get sore during a short, flat ride, the fault is not the shape or size of the saddle. It means the bike does not fit properly. Most likely the saddle height is too low. If the hands become fatigued that is another sign of poor fit. Something is definitely wrong if one is leaning all of one’s upper body weight on the hands. p. 23: Herons are blue-grey. The white ones are egrets. p. 24, ¶1: I never read anything about the writer joining a team. How could he possibly be on a team if this is his first ride on a road bike? p. 24, ¶1: If the writer is “busting a gut” on a short, flat road ride and complaining about it being “all this way,” either the fit of the bike is all wrong, or he has been sitting on the couch for too long. p. 24, ¶2: The writer claims to be riding on the Silver Strand bike path but talks about being passed by “racers.” I just looked at the SCNCA race calendar and can’t find any record of a race down the Silver Strand bike path. USA Cycling would never permit a race on such a course. He then claims that said racers take him to be a pro, like them. As far as I know, Chris Horner is the only Pro-Tour team member who lives in the area even part time. My observation has been that most experienced competitive racers avoid two way bike paths like the plague. In this case, serious road riders prefer to ride on the road on the Silver Strand to avoid just the kind of danger posed by novices such as the author. Pretending to be a rider on a Pro-Tour team is typical Fred behavior and is frowned upon.— January 13, 2011 1:58 p.m.
Bicyclists’ Demise
Correction: I stated above that drivers are accustomed to looking to their right before entering an intersection. I must be dyslexic. What I should have written is this: Drivers are looking to their left before entering an intersection; they are not expecting traffic, including bicycles, to be coming from their right. Sorry about that, Chief!— April 5, 2010 1:47 p.m.
Bicyclists’ Demise
diegonomics wrote: "My rule of thumb is this- stay on the sidewalk, and if you can't, either ride the wrong side of the road, or, if you are on the shoulder going with traffic, go the speed of traffic or as close as you can." 1. Riding on the sidewalk is even more dangerous because a cyclist will still have to cross intersections and driveways. Motorists who fail to notice cyclists have even more difficulty seeing them on the sidewalk. Cyclists also come into conflict with pedestrians there. In San Diego it is illegal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk in business districts. And imagine how long it would take to get to work on a bicycle if one's speed was limited by riding on sidewalks. There are no sidewalks on Kearny Villa Rd. anyway, so it's really a moot point here. 2. It is illegal and VERY DANGEROUS to ride contraflow or against traffic on a bicycle. Drivers are looking to their right before entering an intersection; they are not expecting traffic, including bicycles, to be coming from their left. Cyclists have been seriously injured and killed by hitting wrong way bicycles head on. There is a very good reason why this "bike salmoning" is against the law. Antigeekess wrote: "cyclists should stay out of the street and stop creating a hazard to themselves and others by trying to mingle with cars." According to laws in every state of the union cyclists have the same rights and duties as motorized road users. In most other countries of the world there is little conflict between motorized and non-motorized road users. Only in the U.S. do drivers of motor vehicles exert the kind of hegemony that states "do not use the road because we will kill you if you do." And about bicycles: "they slow down auto traffic..." Automobile traffic NEEDS to be slowed down when in proximity to non-motorized road users. Municipalities need to employ traffic calming methods where the potential for conflict exists. Freeways provide intentionally isolated opportunities for motorists to travel at speed. There are no bicycles or pedestrians to watch out for. Kearny Villa Rd. is a good case in point. Traffic needs to be calmed there to protect non-motorized road users. As we leave the bad dreams of the 20th Century behind, we need to rethink our transportation methods. U.S. transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in D.C. on March 11: "Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized." I'll end with my favorite recent quote: "Referring to bicycling and walking as 'alternative' transportation is like calling women alternative men." --- Harriet Tregoning, Washington DC Office of Planning— April 5, 2010 1:40 p.m.
Critical Crash
JB, that sounds like a veiled threat. FYI - One never knows when the cyclist one singles out to mess with is packing heat. It happened within the last few years in San Francisco. The cyclist pulled out a gat and shot the cage driver dead. He was never caught. His bicycle didn't have a license plate.— September 23, 2009 3:02 p.m.
You Down with O.L.P.?
Regarding the plans of the Academy of our Lady of Peace to push an expansion into a residential neighborhood that the Greater North Park Planning Commission recommends against as "out of scale" with the character of that neighborhood: If school principal Sister Delores Anchondo signed the CUP agreement in 1995 not knowing that enrollment was capped at 640, that would be a simple case of administrative incompetence. But evidence points to a pattern of deliberately misleading City code inspectors. At the administrative hearing which resulted in a fine and conditions to roll back enrollment to the CUP cap of 640 by July 2008, a contractor is on record testifying how he painted striping on a CUP required parking area, then came back to remove the striping fourteen days after the inspection was complete. It appears as if the school never intended to comply with the 1995 CUP from the time of its award. Remember, a CUP grants a privilege to operate under set conditions. It does not confer an absolute right. If the conditions are not met or, as in this case, are intentionally subverted, the CUP can and should be revoked. Evidently, there was compelling evidence of a violation, otherwise Administrative Judge Mandel Himelstein would not have levied the fine and order to reduce enrollment. I doubt that Judge Himelstein's order was made capriciously or erroneously. As a flagrant lawbreaker for thirteen years, the school should not be rewarded for its continuing violation of the law. It should be held to the conditions of the existing CUP of 1995. The school administration's arrangement to postpone the enrollment rollback from July 2008 to February 2009 amounts to using the overenrolled students as hostages in the hope that politicians will feel sorry for them and rule in the school's favor. This move further demonstrates the heartless, cutthroat tactics employed by the school's administration who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals at the expense of the surrounding property owners and even their students.— February 5, 2009 8:32 a.m.
Clawgate: Developer Ally UT Goes into Major Damage Control for Golden Boy Gloria
What disturbs me as a property owner and neighbor of Roxanne Govari is that an officer of the newly formed San Diego Voter Education Project is none other than Paola Avila, "Community Outreach Representative" for The Academy of Our Lady of Peace (or Our Lady of Speed, as it's known in our neighborhood because of the way parents, students, and staff use our neighborhood streets as a private freeway to and from this commuter school). After the City Planning Commission ordered the school to sit down with neighbors and come to a compromise, because they are the "big dog on the block," they refused to alter their approach or to negotiate in any meaningful way. In spite of the school's continuing refusal to work with neighbors, the Planning Commission rubber stamped their proposal for expansion into our neighborhood with no evidence that they had made any effort at all to cooperate. The school then called a meeting of their supporters. The post on their website urged parents and supporters to work together to "thwart" the efforts of its neighbors to seek compromise. Is that the kind of "community outreach" that Paola Avila and Todd Gloria advocate? It is now clear that Todd Gloria's supporters are the same pro-development folks who want to demolish historic resources in our community and push an out-of-scale expansion project into a residential neighborhood. Until I received this ugly hit piece last week, I was undecided about my vote for District 3. Now that I've seen the hand writing on the wall, I know better.— November 3, 2008 10:17 a.m.
Clawgate: Press Conference Called For Deceptive and Possibly Illegal Campaign Tactics in Gloria's Hit Piece
What disturbs me as a property owner and neighbor of Roxanne Govari is that an officer of the newly formed San Diego Voter Education Project is none other than Paola Avila, "Community Outreach Representative" for The Academy of Our Lady of Peace (or Our Lady of Speed, as it's known in our neighborhood because of the way parents, students, and staff use our neighborhood streets as a private freeway to and from this commuter school). After the City Planning Commission ordered the school to sit down with neighbors and come to a compromise, because they are the "big dog on the block," they refused to alter their approach or to negotiate in any meaningful way. In spite of the school's continuing refusal to work with neighbors, the Planning Commission rubber stamped their proposal for expansion into our neighborhood with no evidence that they had made any effort at all to cooperate. The school then called a meeting of their supporters. The post on their website urged parents and supporters to work together to "thwart" the efforts of its neighbors to seek compromise. Is that the kind of "community outreach" that Paola Avila and Todd Gloria advocate? It is now clear that Todd Gloria's supporters are the same pro-development folks who want to demolish historic resources in our community and push an out-of-scale expansion project into a residential neighborhood. Until I received this ugly hit piece last week, I was undecided about my vote for District 3. Now that I've seen the hand writing on the wall, I know better.— November 3, 2008 9:54 a.m.