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.

1302 B Street

1224 B Street

1042 Miller

Piles are on B Street at Miller.

815 B Street

This bicycle-eating pile was graciously placed in front of 815 B Street. Imagine riding down this street after dark.

Notice that there are no cars parked on the street. That's because B Street is the only street in Davis that has on and off bike lanes. During the day on weekdays, no parking is allowed. In the evenings and weekends, parking is allowed, which also effectively blocks the bike lane. And B Street is a major arterial!

Fall on B Street

This is just one short stretch of B Street that shows what Davis' greenwaste policy does for cyclists. This time of year results in hundreds of these piles, many of which encroach on bike lanes.

Yard and Water Waste

Here's a strategically placed pile of yard waste that not only blocks the bike lane, but also prevents motorized traffic from smoothly merging into the right turn lane. A nice added touch is the enormous amount of water being wasted due to runoff.

Picture was taken in early August this year. Location: next to an apartment complex on the Southeast corner of the intersection at Covell and Sycamore.

This pic is from December 2006, before these lanes were double striped. Kind of shows the problem, doesn't it? Not only are the bike riders at risk of bike-eating branches, a few branches are lying in wait for pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Location: In front of the high school on 14th Street, just across the street from the church featured in the previous post.