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A grand jury report released July 10 showed that while San Mateo County cities have made improvements on bicycle safety in the last two decades, there’s more work to do.
This is the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury’s second report on bike safety in the county, with the first in 2002. The new report states that cities have put increased effort into making it safer for bike riders, a marked difference from the 2002 report, which came to the conclusion that bike safety wasn’t important to most San Mateo County cities. Some of the improvements throughout the county include the availability of bicycle maps and routes in San Mateo County, with most of its cities and towns creating and updating their bicycle and pedestrian master plans.
Despite this apparent progress, the jury report says the county has seen no increase in residents cycling. It cites the California Household Travel Survey, which reports approximately 1% of residents saying they use a bicycle as transportation in 2002 and again in 2023.
According to the civil grand jury report, Woodside and Portola Valley share similar topography that affects bicycle use in the towns. The report notes that Woodside has focused heavily on large community cycling events, while Portola Valley has focused on weekend cyclists. Woodside invested in a safe routes to school program for children who want to use cycling to get to school.
“In both cases, the communities concentrate on ensuring quality of life for residents,” the report said. “They both see mostly recreational bicyclists … however, the communities don’t make a strong effort to track riders or accidents.”
The report also said that the towns are inconsistent with the enforcement of rules, only paying attention to “problem locations.”
The grand jury report said most cities and towns in San Mateo County could improve by tracking metrics, as cities can’t fix problems if they aren’t tracked. The report also listed consistent enforcement of cycling and driving rules as a core improvement to bike safety.
The jury report called upon the Bicycle Friendly America Certification by the League of American Cyclists. Menlo Park received the organization’s Gold certification in 2017. Portola Valley and Woodside are not listed in the certifications.
“I’m glad that the grand jury dedicated their time to the important topic of bicycle safety because it’s such an important mode of transportation,” Menlo Park Mayor Jen Wolosin said.
The report gave recommendations for ways cities and towns in San Mateo County to improve their bike safety, including effective education for both bicyclists and drivers about the bicycle rules of the road, consistent communication between branches of government responsible for bike safety and collection of enforcement details and data about cycling accidents and incidents in order to receive funding from agencies for bicycle infrastructure.
Portola Valley Mayor Jeff Aalfs and Woodside Mayor Chris Shaw said they had not yet read the grand jury report and could not comment on it.
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Would this extremely long sentence ever pass an 8th grade English composition course?
The report gave recommendations for ways cities and towns in San Mateo County to improve their bike safety, including effective education for both bicyclists and drivers about the bicycle rules of the road, consistent communication between branches of government responsible for bike safety and collection of enforcement details and data about cycling accidents and incidents in order to receive funding from agencies for bicycle infrastructure.”
Additionally, What are those referenced “recommendations’? Certainly the new Almanac Leadership has higher standards in Journalism!
I assume the article is referring to the SMC Civil Grand Jury rather than the Grand Jury.
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem: “Despite this apparent progress, the jury report says the county has seen no increase in residents cycling. It cites the California Household Travel Survey, which reports approximately 1% of residents saying they use a bicycle as transportation in 2002 and again in 2023.”
Perhaps the Civil Grand Jury should not blame the cities and that the lack of ridership is not due to safety concerns. In Menlo Park, an additional stop sign was put in at the Middle/San Mateo crossing. I stop at this stop sign approximately four times per day. In the months since the Stop Sign has been present, I have seen exactly two bicycles at the stop sign, one of which ignored the sign and blew through the crossing without stopping. Perhaps the lack of ridership is not due to safety and more about distances and the fact that we have so many families with multiple children being delivered to multiple, different locations.
I am also not sure it is the role of the Civil Grand Jury to increase bicycle transportation rather than carry out their primary responsibility which is to be a watchdog over county government officials.
Many people report that they would like to use bicycling for transportation but do not feel safe because of road conditions and driver behavior. The Civil Grand Jury report points out that ridership will not increase so long as these conditions persist. Transportation is a major contributor to climate change and it is important to develop alternatives to auto dependency. Bicycling is an important alternative, especially with the advent of e-bikes which make it much more accessible – if people feel safe on the road. It is the responsibility of government at all levels to make it safe.
STLubin:
“Many people report that they would like to use bicycling for transportation but do not feel safe because of road conditions and driver behavior. ”
Really? “Many people”? How many? What percentage of adults? You sound like Trump. “Many people think I’m doing a great job”. Give me a break.
If you’re going to use ebikes as some kind of panacea, you’d be better off riding a motorcycle. An ebike is like a moped, it has just enough power to get you into trouble, but not enough to get you out. Ebikes are more “save the world” unrealistic ideas that are being promoted.
Can we please get people to stop biking on Kings Mountian Road and Old La Honda. It’s completely unsafe…
Good luck banning bikes on KMR. They tried limiting the length of buses to prevent accidents and the Girl Scouts went berserk because apparently they have always used long buses and have no intention of making any accommodation for anyone else’s safety.
Stuart, it’s all a bad mixture. But I don’t know why cyclists have to ride narrow two lane roads with no shoulder. Go down to Canada road for a nice ride.