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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.<br><br>
In my experience, a useful article will do three things:<br>
1. Be specific to a certain government agency (for example, City of
Oceanside)<br>
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.<br>
3. Explain how to generalize to other agencies (what kinds of differences
might exist) and how to discover the system.<br><br>
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:<br>
traffic engineering<br>
field engineering<br>
roadways<br>
capital improvement<br>
development services<br><br>
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:<br>
1. Did they not know that they are supposed to be helping solve the
problem, instead of just whining to their friends?<br>
2. Are they unsure how to report the issue?<br>
3. Are they cynical that their input will mean anything to
anyone?<br><br>
<br>
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.<br><br>
Good luck in your continuing efforts to serve the real needs of the
cycling public.<br><br>
-- Trevor<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
At 06:14 PM 9/17/2007, Richard Duquette wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">List mates<br><br>
Does anyone know a local <b>government resource directory</b> that is
bicycle specific.<br><br>
Im thinking of subject matters such as:<br><br>
1.Road repair<br>
2.Notice of defective or dangerous conditions<br>
3.legislative contacts within the cities<br>
4Traffic/engineering.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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<b> within the local government</b> to facilitate
constructive change.<br><br>
Thanks in advance<br><br>
Richard L. Duquette<br>
<b><i>Bicycle Injury Lawyer since <font color="#FF0000">1983<br>
</i></b></font>Carlsbad, CA<br>
<b>760-730-0500<br>
<a href="http://www.911law.com/" eudora="autourl">www.911law.com</a></b>
<br>
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