[SDCBC] Points of Contact Directory

[Trevor Bourget]

I don't know how other cities in the county work, but I know that 
City of San Diego does not have a single "point of contact", and it 
is my opinion that the "bicycle issue coordinator" is a fundamentally 
broken idea.

In my experience, a useful article will do three things:
1. Be specific to a certain government agency (for example, City of Oceanside)
2. Explain one or two actual examples of discovering an issue, 
reporting it, tracking it, escalating it, etc to its conclusion. This 
should include the actual contact info used for that issue.
3. Explain how to generalize to other agencies (what kinds of 
differences might exist) and how to discover the system.

It will be good to have a web page with a list of all of the 
government agencies (Caltrans district 11, SANDAG, the county, and 
the incorporated cities) and a pointer to their web presence. A 
glossary of terms for the layman would be perhaps useful:
traffic engineering
field engineering
roadways
capital improvement
development services

There are two kinds of bicyclists: those who have reported at least 
one problem and probably continue to report new ones they discover, 
and those who have never reported a single issue. It would be the 
goal of the article to get the average highway user over their first road hump:
1. Did they not know that they are supposed to be helping solve the 
problem, instead of just whining to their friends?
2. Are they unsure how to report the issue?
3. Are they cynical that their input will mean anything to anyone?


A very useful resource you could think about developing, would be a 
GoogleMap annotated with known problem conditions. I think Portland 
has such an idea on their web site. Then people who know how to work 
the system don't have to be the same as the ones who go riding and 
know what to report. If we make known the URL of this resource to all 
local government agencies, it could be argued that they are 
immediately put on notice concerning hazards. This can only be better 
for cyclists to recover damages, and for agencies to react sooner and 
with better quality results to repair such hazards.

Good luck in your continuing efforts to serve the real needs of the 
cycling public.

-- Trevor

p.s. I've been thinking of instituting a "pothole prize" along the 
route of the SDBC training rides. Every week hundreds of bicyclists 
ride the same route and point out the same issues to each other, yet 
nobody reports them. Imagine writing a note "to fix this pothole, 
call this number", wrapping in a $1 bill with a $.25 for weight, and 
dropping into the pothole. Perhaps each note could be different (to 
fix, visit this web site). Eventually the pothole would get 
somebody's attention, and perhaps make them a convert. It may be a 
"street person" who could use the $1 for themselves but would put the 
$.25 into a pay phone to get our street fixed.

p.p.s. I asked the city to mill and roll the defect in the bike lane 
on San Dieguito Rd where SDBC paceline training occurs weekly. They 
didn't do that, but certainly its current condition is less dangerous 
than before.

At 06:14 PM 9/17/2007, Richard Duquette wrote:
>List mates
>
>Does anyone know a local government resource directory that is 
>bicycle specific.
>
>Im thinking  of subject matters such as:
>
>1.Road repair
>2.Notice of defective or dangerous conditions
>3.legislative contacts within the cities
>4Traffic/engineering.
>
>With such a compilation, it would be easier to empower the public to 
>take constructive action to protect bicyclists.Publishing it on a 
>web page could be cost effective.If there is such an animal, could 
>you point me in the right direction.
>
>Im writing an upcoming article for cyclists & this would be helpful 
>content.Im leaning toward a tone of cooperation between the public & 
>the government.One of my friends was just elevated to city manager 
>in Oceanside.Hes an engineer & was a get a done type of guy, not to 
>mention a cyclist.Moreover,it would be nice to know of cycle 
>friendly contacts within the local government to 
>facilitate  constructive change.
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Richard L. Duquette
>Bicycle Injury Lawyer since 1983
>Carlsbad, CA
>760-730-0500
>www.911law.com
>_______________________________________________
>
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