Disrespecting the bike lane in Santa Monica Pt 2

(by Mihai Peteu)

As a Santa Monica resident that relies on his bike for everything from work commuting, to running errands, to recreation, our city’s bike friendly image is starting to wear thin. The utter disrespect shown towards the few “safe” bikeways provided to us around town is simply despicable.  As previously reported, Santa Monica is very creative at finding ways of obstructing its bike lanes.

Today, I could have not dreamed up a better example of how frustrating it is to ride in a city that is perceived as bike-friendly yet places its cyclists in danger’s path every day.  For more than a two block stretch, between Lincoln and 10th St on Broadway, large trucks that were part of a location shoot were engulfing the bike lane on the south side of the street.  As you’ll see below, a cyclist navigating this street decides to take the sidewalk in order to avoid the madness.


I walked past this convoy of trucks, and twenty seconds after I snapped the first photo, I noticed this cyclist riding East on Broadway, which is when I snapped the second one.

I just want to point out the irony of this situation. Santa Monica Police has been known to ticket cyclists for riding on the sidewalk, sometimes as a way to harass riders.  Well, now that this example of the sheer disrespect for the most useful cycling thoroughfare in Santa Monica, the bike lane on Broadway, is right here in front of your eyes.  Maybe the city will refund some of those they’ve unfairly ticketed for riding the sidewalk?  Is it not obvious that cyclists’ safety is way at the bottom of the list?  “Eh, nobody is really using that bike lane, we can just put STUFF there”

Some of the most serious cyclist-car injuries occur when folks ride on the sidewalk.  I know this from personal experience.  But when you place a cyclist in the situation depicted above, most will opt for the sidewalk rather than merging into the traffic lane.  In the case of this film shoot, an SMPD police offer was present.  It is often required that local law enforcement is present during the entirety of a film shoot.  Therefore, the city was aware of this invasion of the bike lane, and was okay with it.

I can’t think of a better example of a double standard.  Nobody protects our rights as cyclists, but as soon as we slip up, we get put in our place.

Seriously though.  Don’t we pay the same goddamn taxes to keep this city up and running?  Will it takes a class-action lawsuit to put the city in its place?

Without institutionalized support for Santa Monica’s cyclists, all the services, facilities, bike valets and bronze awards don’t amount to much.  I strongly encourage all those that ride to always be aware of such situations and document them whenever possible – take a second to snap photos or shoot a video.  The more visual proof, the better.