Why isn't the Placer County master bike plan, (signed by the Placer County board of supervisors in 2002, and the Town of Loomis Bike Master Plan signed February 11, 2003), being implemented with the new construction on Barton Road?

Barton Road is designated (per the Placer County and Loomis master bike plan) as a Class 3 On-Street Shared Bike Route, which should include a bike lane 2-4 feet wide. The new construction of Barton Road, south of Rocklin Road is a death area for anyone riding a bike. This road was built only two months ago but, unbelievably, if a child's rides a bike on the this road he or she can be killed. This new road has a 2 inch bike lane next to an vertical asphalt curb; if children ride this portion, the wind from a large truck can push the child's wheel into the vertical curb, causing injury or worse.

I spend a lot of time on my bike, and because I spend some time working on bike advocacy issues, I have had an interest in how the law affects cyclists. Overall, I have found that just about everyone has a pretty incomplete, and sometimes outright wrong, knowledge of the law as it relates to bikes.

Then comes along Bob Mionske. For those who followed bike racing in the 1980s, you'll know him from his racing in various Tour de Frances and Olympics. After he retired from racing, he went to law school and become a lawyer in Oregon. Now he has published a book called Bicycling & The Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist.

Home page