Columnist Steve Lopez, Like Me, Points Out the Uneasy World of the Bike Trail

Recently Steve Lopez, the always interresting, and informative, columnist of the LA Times, did for the Santa Monica Bike Trail what I tried to do for the Huntington Beach Bike Trail, and the Newport Beach Back Bay Trail, in 2006, camera in tow (More than 3 years of coverage of the issue of Motorist, Cyclists, and Pedestrians getting along, and the Share The Road Campaign, can be explored, at your leisure, in this Archive of posts.) ;-D

Steve writes:

Paradise. Nirvana. Whatever you call it, we're lucky mugs to have a tranquil respite from the urban madness and permanent bottlenecks.

But wait. Do I see a collision in the making?

A woman is pushing a stroller, a teenager is on a skateboard, a man is walking a dog on a leash -- all of them idling along on a path that's marked BIKES ONLY -- and here comes a cyclist, closing in on this knot of nudniks. The cyclist slows, he weaves, he shoots past them and all are safe. But it doesn't always work out like that...

The term "bike path" doesn't leave much room for ambiguity. But pedestrians just can't seem to get it...

 the hazards are mounting because so many people are on cellphones or using iPods, oblivious to the world around them...

None of this catapults the issue to the top of our list of regional concerns. But how hard is it, really, to enforce regulations and prevent accidents? Southern California does a lousy job of accommodating bikes on city streets.

You'd think we could at least get it right at the beach, but hazards abound.

Read the whole piece: On Santa Monica's beachfront bike path, an uneasy mix.

Oh, and BTW, this is the same Steve Lopez responsible for the magnificent human interest story that was the basis for the great film The Soloist. ;-D