http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2005/09/21/news/news2.txt

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Prompted by the recent deaths of two bicyclists on Pacific Coast Highway, a coalition wants city and state officials to address unsafe conditions on the highway.

By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times

Members of a group representing bicycle riders say they want to meet with city and state officials to ask why unsafe conditions are tolerated on Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu, and what the city and state can do about it. But even city officials who want to accommodate the cyclists are worried about doing anything to attract more riders to Malibu's congested eastern end.

"What were they thinking when they approved that cement barrier?" asked Aaron Kirsch, a board member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

Kirsch was referring to a temporary construction barrier that has been in place for months on Pacific Coast Highway west of John Tyler Drive, a barrier that bicyclists said should not have been approved.

Investigators said the barriers forced two men to steer their bikes into a 50-mile-per-hour traffic lane Sept. 10 with tragic results. Scott Bleifer, 41, of Santa Monica, and Stanislav Ionov, 46, of Calabasas, died after being hit by a catering truck.

The driver, Victor Silva, a 37-year-old Compton resident, was arrested and charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Silva reportedly told witnesses he could not slam on the brakes on his catering truck because hot food would have spilled and his cook, who was preparing food in the back of the truck, would have been injured.

"Bikes are not routinely thought of when decisions are made to close roads or sections of them," Kirsch said in a recent telephone interview.

"No one in transportation is thinking about cyclists," echoed Kastle Lund, the coalition's executive director.

Lund said the city of Malibu put bike safety on Pacific Coast Highway in low gear when it elected not to participate in a county master plan for bike safety improvements. Participating in the plan would have allowed Caltrans or the city to apply for government grants for safety projects, such as bike lanes, signs or minor widening projects.

"We were told that Malibu has no provisions for bicycling infrastructure, and they are not planning to build any," Lund said.

The bicycle coalition was following up to see whether the initial response received earlier this summer from city was accurate.

"Our feeling was the City Council or manager was not aware that this was the message being conveyed to the bicyclists, and we were following up on this when the accident occurred," Lund said.

City Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, who also rides a bicycle on PCH, said she was unaware that such a perception existed.

"Malibu's General Plan embraces bike use along PCH," she said.

But attempts in the 1990s to establish a bike path along PCH in Malibu were rejected after strenuous opposition from some residents along the highway east of Malibu Pier, where vital on-street parking could have been restricted to make way for a bike lane.

Since then, the number of bicycles using the highway has increased dramatically.

"This is a real political hot button," Conley Ulich said.

"It's a real shame that families can't enjoy a bike ride together with the views of the Pacific Ocean west of Trancas," the councilmember added. "There are nice shoulders out there that generally are not used by parkers."

"But for eastern Malibu, we may not want to encourage more bike riding," she said.

City Public Safety Commission Chair Carol Randall, whose son-in-law was killed on PCH three years ago while standing in front of her house, promises a fair hearing on the matter, which has been referred to her commission for study by the City Council. But Randall also expressed fears about any steps the city might take to encourage bicyclists on PCH, particularly where it is lined by driveways in eastern Malibu.

"It's very irresponsible to encourage something that we know is not safe," she said. "I invite them to try to back out of my garage on any weekend onto PCH."

Bike riders bristle at the suggestion that the highway cannot be made safer along the congested and twisting eastern end of Malibu.

"Malibu promotes itself as this pristine and natural place. For them not to take steps to make bicycling safe and attractive is just not right," Kirsch said.

Kirsch said the biggest obstacle might be Caltrans, which has allowed landslides to encroach into bike-able shoulders, poorly placed construction barriers and other hazards.

The curves and narrow lanes of one of the most treacherous stretches of PCH, between Temescal Canyon Road and Topanga Canyon Boulevard, are actually located in the city of Los Angeles. The entire highway is under the jurisdiction of Caltrans, but the bicyclists said Malibu has been lax in asking Caltrans to take steps to make it safer.

Both sides said common ground could be found. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl has announced plans to convene a summit meeting soon to address the issue as a result of the fatalities.

"The bikers need to work with us," Conley Ulich said. "They have [a motive] here: they don't want to die."