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Letter: More bike safety, biker courtesy needed

I am a freshman at Woodside High School and a resident of Woodside. I wanted to express a serious concern on some of the major roads in Woodside and Portola Valley.

I (ride my) bike myself quite a bit, but my concern is of the bikers, particularly on Portola Road, who endanger our lives daily. They go in groups and are mostly out of the bike lane talking very loudly so they cannot hear a car behind them. And a similar situation is happening on the other side at the same time, and if a car swerves and moves on towards the oncoming traffic, then it can cause a head-on collision.

We have encountered this scenario so many times, particularly across from Portola Farms and the Old La Honda road area. My parents are careful driving, but another driver coming from the opposite side might miscalculate and we can die in an instant.

Bikers should go single file if it's a thinner line and a blind turn. They never stop at a stop sign on Alpine road, and it can again be very dangerous.

We also have tons of trash thrown into our mail boxes by the biking community, and it's not fair to homeowners to clean out other people's messes.

I am writing to bring awareness to the bikers that they must abide by the rules and keep our towns clean and safe. We need more police presence to ticket them, or possibly more signs to alert both cars and bikers of blind turns. I propose bike riding rules in our towns posted every two or three miles to bring more awareness and education .

I hope some day we have safe roads for bikers and drivers.

Nadir Jang

Portola Road, Woodside

Posted by brandon, a resident of the Woodside: Kings Mountain/Skyline neighborhood, on Sep 28, 2012 at 6:58 pm

Nice Nadir!

Posted by Alex, a resident of another community, on Sep 30, 2012 at 11:29 am

"and if a car swerves and moves on towards the oncoming traffic, then it can cause a head-on collision."

It is dangerous and illegal to cross the center line on blind curves or when oncoming traffic is present.

Posted by Deegan Adams, a resident of the Portola Valley: Los Trancos Woods/Vista Verde neighborhood, on Oct 6, 2012 at 10:17 am

Nadir,

I couldnt agree more. You make an excellent point. It is not hard for them to ride in a single file. If they would like to socialize maybe they should do it after their bike ride. Arastradero is also a major problem. People do not realize how dangerous this road is for bikers and cars. I have friends who are professional cyclists that avoid Arastradero for this exact reason, even though it is very beautiful. Unfortunately Nadir, it seems like this situation calls for the police to be stationed at different areas of Portola Rd and Alpine during the weekends to enforce these laws, but I dont think the San Mateo Sheriff has the resources or the man power to divert to this every weekend. And to all of the safe cyclists out there: THANK YOU FOR BEING CONSIDERATE OF EVERYONE!