sbsheriffUpdate by the Goleta Police Department
Due to weather, the traffic safety operation will be rescheduled for Tuesday, March 28, 2023 from 1 pm to 5 pm in the City of Goleta.
By the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office / Goleta Police
The Goleta Police Department will conduct a traffic safety operation Tuesday March 21, 2023 from 1 pm to 5 pm focused on the most dangerous driver behaviors that put the safety of people biking or walking at risk.
These violations include speeding, making illegal turns, failing to yield or provide right of way to bicyclists or pedestrians, or failing to stop for signs and signals.
“Cars aren’t the only ones who use our roads” Traffic Supervisor Sergeant Noel Rivas said. “Bicyclists and pedestrians have the same rights but face even more risk without the protection’s vehicles have. Please be cautious.”
The Goleta Police Department offers steps drivers and pedestrians can take to greatly reduce the risk of getting injured or in a crash:
Pedestrians:
- Be predictable. Use crosswalks, when available.
- Take notice of approaching vehicles and practice due care.
- Do not walk or run into the path of a vehicle. At 30 mph, a driver needs at least 90 feet to stop.
- Be visible. Make it easy for drivers to see you – wear light colors, reflective material and carry a flashlight, particularly at dawn, dusk or at night.
- Be extra careful crossing streets or entering crosswalks at night when it is harder to see, or when crossing busier streets with more lanes and higher speed limits.
Drivers:
- Follow the speed limit and slow down at intersections. Be prepared to stop for pedestrians at marked and unmarked crosswalks.
- Avoid blocking crosswalks while waiting to make a right-hand turn.
- Never drive impaired.
Bicyclists
- Obey traffic laws, use hand signals, use lights at night (front white light and rear red reflector), and wear a helmet.
- Bicyclists must travel in the same direction of traffic and have the same requirements as any slow-moving vehicle.
- Avoid the door zone: do not ride too closely to parked cars.
- If there’s a bike lane, use it, unless making a left turn, passing, or approaching a place where a right turn is allowed.
- Yield to pedestrians. Bicyclists must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians within marked crosswalks or within unmarked crosswalks at intersections.
Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Yes, riding on sidewalks should be part of the dangerous behavior of bicyclists!
So the police plan to….*checks notes*…do their jobs for a 4-hour window one day next week? Incredible!
Sacjon
Single file is not the law unless there are more than 5 cars behind the cyclists that cannot pass. Even so, you, the driver in 2023 are required by law to move into the next lane over when passing a cyclist in the bike line whether or not they are side by side
“If there’s a bike lane, use it” – and that means SINGLE FILE. You must ride “as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway…” (CA VC 21202). Yes, there are exceptions to this, but none of the exceptions are “so you can ride next to and talk to your budd(ies).”
I almost hit a car head-on on Cathedral Oaks, coming around a curve upon 2 chatting spandex warriors riding 2 abreast, the inner cyclists being inside the car lane. If I had passed them 1 second later, I would have been in a serious accident with my children in the car. STAY IN YOUR LANE. Share the road, remember? It goes both ways.
If the Goleta PD/Sheriff really want to make a difference, patrol Cathedral Oaks for 30 minutes and you’ll hit your quota of violating cyclists.
A week ago I was carefully pulling out of
the American Riviera Bank parking lot in Goleta. I was glad I was extra cautious because two kids were riding e-bikes on the sidewalk 20-25mph. They would have T-boned my front wheel because of their reckless riding on a side walk. Hopefully they’ll get some of those riders.