Rose Bowl cyclists on rough road with officials
This is a great article about how the city of Pasadena that claims to be the most bike friendly city in California is handling the growing number of riders on the Tues/Thursday ride. This is why everyone of us who ride a bike needs to get involved in our community politics.
For 60 years bike racers riding handlebar-to-handlebar in packs — known to bicyclists as a “peloton” — have trained and conditioned themselves by pedaling laps around the famed football stadium. The tighter the racers group themselves together, the less wind resistance they experience. And the faster they go.
There are occasional mishaps. They can run into cars, sideswipe pedestrians or joggers, and veer into each other. Lately, though, the bicyclists have been on a collision course with Pasadena city leaders.
Officials have set a deadline for peloton riders to help figure out how to coexist with others when they circle the outside of the football stadium.
As many as 150 pack riders turn out each Tuesday and Thursday for Rose Bowl rides. Beginning promptly at 5:55 p.m., bicyclists take 10 laps around a three-mile loop, ending at about 7:05 p.m. The rides are held during summertime months when daylight saving time is in effect.
But the early evening hours are also prime exercise time for thousands of joggers, walkers, skaters and baby-stroller pushers who also enjoy circling the stadium while the sun is setting beyond the arroyo’s steep wall.
Bike racers sometimes crash into pedestrians. And clash with motorists, golfers and soccer players.
Complaints involving the encounters prompted an investigation by the Pasadena Police Department, which led to a proposed crackdown on peloton riders at the Rose Bowl and elsewhere in the city.
Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian told City Council members that pack racing had grown dangerous. He played a video of peloton riders speeding around the Rose Bowl, forcing automobiles off the roadway, swerving around recreational bicyclists and joggers, and spilling over the streets’ yellow lines into oncoming traffic lanes.
Melekian said the pack riders are seemingly unorganized, with no group in charge or in a position of authority to set rules or procedures.
His officers cannot enforce traffic laws during the twice-weekly rides because the cyclists are in a tight pack and are dressed in similar uniforms and helmets, Melekian said.
“Identifying individual riders gets to be problematic,” he said. “The reality is there are some concerns that once the peloton gets going there could be chain-reaction crashes” if police tried to pull a rider over.
Councilman Sidney Tyler said the pack riders were spectacular — but dangerous.
“I do find the pelotons interesting to watch, but intimidating, particularly when they come up behind me or groups of pedestrians trying to enjoy the experience of the Rose Bowl,” Tyler said at a council meeting. “There are enormous numbers of people trying to enjoy the experience down there too.”
The city criticism roiled the local biking community — and prompted peloton fans to go on the offensive.
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