City ordained hazards

This magnificent specimen was found today next to....wait for it....City Hall. All of the property next to this pile is City owned, which implies that it was a City crew that made sure bikes would be diverted into traffic at one of the busiest areas in the downtown.

The location of this pile is about half a block north of the intersection of Fifth and B Street - the pile is on B Street. Many cars and cyclists use this route to get downtown and to the University. I had to be careful while taking this picture to avoid traffic.


The second image is the same pile viewed from the side. It's about as long as a parked car. The building across the street is the School District headquarters.

Bicycle Friendly? Not at this location...

And a bit more irony - the US Bicycle Hall of Fame is three blocks down the Street, at 3rd and B Streets.

No tickets for leaf piles

So, can a leaf pile in a red zone be ticketed? Is that bike in the bike lane?

This is a very busy bicycle intersection in Davis - A Street at Russell. But no one blinks when the house on the corner (it's a frat or or sorority - I can't tell the difference) decides to nuke the bike lane, as well as part of the traffic lane. The address is 440 A Street.

And.....City Hall is right across the street.

St. James strikes again (sigh)

Location is on B Street at the South end of the church property.

Mayor Ruth told me that she spoke to the head priest last week about keeping bike lanes clear, after I sent an email to the City Council, but apparently he's hard of hearing. The catholic church may care about people's souls, but they obviously don't care too much about cyclists' safety.

This pile was placed on the street today, Saturday, but won't be picked up until late next week. Because a lot of yard work is done on weekends, the bike lanes are effectively obstructed most of the month during leaf fall.

Incidentally, most of the posts so far have involved leaf piles, simply because this is the time of year for such problems to occur. Future posts will show other situations in Davis where cyclists have problems with the infrastructure.

St. James Church, again....

The pile near the stop sign was very carefully placed not only to obstruct cyclists in the bike lane, but to cause chaos for cars wishing to turn right onto B Street. Can you ticket yard waste in a red zone?

You would think that this would start to get a little embarrassing for the Bicycle Capitol of the US....

All of the last four pictures were taken today.

1224 B Street

1042 Miller

Piles are on B Street at Miller.

This is the image that finally inspired the creation of this blog. It is a bicycle rider's view of the bike lane on 14th Street in front of St. James Catholic Church. The picture was taken yesterday, Thankgiving Day, at 4 pm. To get some perspective as to the size of those piles, cars can be parked to the right of the right bike lane stripe without intruding on the bike lane.

Davis used to have single striped bike lines, and yard waste like this blocked the lanes all the time. In the last couple of years, we've been trying out double striping on major arterials, just to prevent this kind of situation. Apparently, some people (churches?) don't think cyclist safety is important if they've got leaves to dispose of. Imagine the reaction if those piles were in the middle of the (car) traffic lane. The police would be there within minutes.