Bollards

I drive up and down Studebaker Road several times a week and I drive by the new bollards for the bike lanes. During my drives I have never seen a bicycle in the designated bicycle lane. I would think that on weekends the lanes could be quite busy, but I have not observed that yet.

Today I was traveling on Studebaker Road at 5:20 a.m. and saw a light coming toward me in the bicycle lane and I thought, wow, the first bike I have seen using the bollards. Wrong, turns out the light was attached to a jogger.

This brings me to one of my pet peeves. Walkers and joggers using the street instead of the sidewalk. Other than the Lakewood Village area, I do not see any reason a pedestrian, no matter how fast they travel, should not be using the sidewalks and leave the streets to vehicles. Pedestrians in the street require vehicles to slow down, wait for oncoming traffic and, in general, create a safety hazard for drivers and pedestrians.

In Lakewood, I have seen the former mayor, who is also a current candidate for councilperson, running in the street forcing drivers to slow down and wait for oncoming traffic. I doubt the sheriff’s department will be giving him a warning and I doubt the city of Long Beach Police Department will be giving out warnings to pedestrians using the streets as sidewalks either. After all, we do not want to discourage a healthy hobby, no matter how dangerous the activity is.