You can take direct action to resolve hazardous conditions.
- HUNTINGTON BEACH Pothole Repair-
for city street or parking pavement repair, usually within one week,
call: 714 960 8861
- CALTRANS Road Repair -
for PCH (Hwy 1), Beach Blvd. (Hwy 39) or other State highways
call: 949 936 3600
Leave us a Comment, below. Please copy the list below, and paste into the template:
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Please tell us:
1.) city
2.) street and/or intersection.
3.) time of day, day of the week, and date.
And tell us:
3.) which way you were traveling
4.) what happened– describe the incident or road condition
5.) names of other drivers involved, description of their vehicles
6.) any injuries
And don’t forget:
7.) the names of officials whom you contacted and the agency/department they work for
8.) IMPORTANT: what they told you then, or later, in response.
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That’s 8 (eight) chunks of information, all important. Thank you!
1.) Orange
2.) Walnut/Tustin to Walnut/Cambridge
3.) 7:30 AM, daily
And tell us:
3.) westbound & on the sidewalk
4.) I rode w/ my son to school, gave him a note that he would be riding to school until further notice and that I accept full responsibility. The principal told he their policy is not to allow kids below 4th grade to ride their bikes to school (some arbitrary safety rule that I was unable to find). I checked the policy handbook and found no such policy. I ride with him both before and he gets picked up by the YMCA after school (so he’s not riding by himself, ever).
5.) n/a
6.) n/a
And don’t forget:
7.) Karen Murkow: Principal, Cambridge Elementary, Orange Unified School District
8.) IMPORTANT: She said that she would locate the policy for me and that I can do what I want while he is in my care, but he cannot lock his bike on campus if I insist on him riding to school.
Your desire to have him ride to school is admirable.
First, the bad news.
The League of American Bicyclists also has a general guideline that kids under 4th grade– about 10 years old– not be encouraged to bicycle without adult supervision. No reflection on your son, but young’uns have some physical characteristics that make it harder for them to ride as safely as adults. For instance:
1.) they’re shorter and ride smaller bikes, so they disappear behind parked cars more readily
2.) they often accelerate faster, from 0 mph to 10 mph, than adults, so combined with their size they have a greater ability to “come out of nowhere”
3.) their peripheral vision is not fully developed; they actually don’t see cars approaching from the sides of their vision field as soon as adults
4.) even if they understand the Rules of the Road, they often just forget
5.) and again, no reflection on your son– they lack good judgment; they trust adults to look after them and, sadly, we don’t always.
Also, teaching kids to ride on the sidewalk is problematic: most bicycle accidents happen at intersections and when you ride on the sidewalk, every driveway becomes an intersection. His chances of being hit by a car go UP on the sidewalk.
Now the good news:
All across America parents are dealing with this reality with Safe Routes to School programs.
You shouldn’t have to go it alone. Seek the support of other parents at your school. Start a Safe Routes to School campaign and create “walking school buses” and “bicycle trains.” Parents can takes turns showing kids that daily exercise not only gets them to school but keeps them, and the planet, healthy. You can reduce the crush of cars caused by parents cuing up to drop Junior off at school– a 21st Century phenomenon that increases traffic, pedestrian danger, and air pollution around our schools.
Let us know how it goes, OK?