Privileging Local Users

“It’s the Business District that insisted on the traffic lights.”

I met Charlie Gandy for coffee early Sunday morning and when you’re in Belmont Shore with Charlie it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to Sharrows. Every time I hear something different — Belmont Shore has 13 traffic lights along 2nd Street; they’re timed for a crawl and at this slow speed traffic doesn’t intimidate pedestrians. Does it work? Belmont Shore is thriving, a mad dash of human density. The Business District likes it that way.

The slow speeds made Sharrows easy to imagine — the cars aren’t moving much faster than the bikes. “The BD decided to privilege local users over commuters just passing through as fast as they can go,” Charlie drives his point.

I’d planned a ride with John Tillquist for over a month; John keeps his boat in Long Beach, home in Riverside, so it sometimes takes a little planning to work in a ride. He’d blame my schedule, I’m sure.

Now I remember… I timed this ride so I would be gone for the the 8th Annual Coastline Car Classic. It’s held at Big Corona beach, too close to my house and although it’s a great cause — it’s a day and 2 nights of noise, amplified noise, so this year I would be off on a day-long ride instead. John and I know each other from Tech Coast Angels, but it was years before cycling came up; now we try to squeeze in a ride as often as we can. Often big rides, too. We did the San Diego Century in June, Sunday an even 50 miles. That’s the benefit of having bicycling friends in Long Beach — it’s a good workout to go visit.