A local group wants the county to make Bouquet Canyon Road safer.
On Jan. 11, 2016 the county announced it would be evaluating the safety of rural stretches of the road, where traffic collisions often result in fatalities.
The Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition petitioned Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich to impose new safety measures including reduced speed limits, more pavement on the sides of the road to allow them to move right when cars pass and more signage to warn motorists of cyclists.
Their letter to Antonovich follows:
Dear Supervisor Antonovich,
We write in the aftermath of the tragic death of 19-year-old Elena Kramer on Jan. 4, 2016, while driving on Bouquet Canyon Road.
Bouquet Canyon Road is a popular route for riding bicycles in Los Angeles County and has been designated as a proposed Class III bikeway in the County’s 2012 Bicycle Master Plan. However, its present condition poses a danger not only to occupants of motor vehicles but also to cyclists.
On July 11, 2009, Stevenson Ranch resident Joseph Novotny, 43, was killed while riding a bicycle on Bouquet Canyon Road. A car traveling northbound crossed into opposing traffic and struck Novotny and two other cyclists as they and others in their cycling group were riding southbound, single file near the fog line (there is no paved shoulder), about 3 miles south of Spunky Canyon Road. The two other cyclists were badly injured. In addition to this incident, many other bike riders have experienced close calls on Bouquet Canyon, often due to speeding motor vehicles.
No doubt the investigation currently underway will inform the Board of Supervisors that there has been an unceasing string of deaths on this important transportation corridor between the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys, including no less than 7 deaths of motor vehicle drivers and/or their passengers between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2015 alone.1 Many of these deaths involve the loss of control of motor vehicles—implicating the road design, the speed limit, and lack of adequate law enforcement.
Bouquet Canyon Road is a popular route for cyclists who often ride it as part of a loop including San Francisquito Canyon Road and either Spunky Canyon Road or Lake Elizabeth Road.
However, Bouquet Canyon Road is narrow and winding, and the speed limit over most of its length is 55 miles per hour. Motor vehicle drivers all-too-frequently exceed the speed limit, either because the road alignment is a tempting challenge for sport or because they become frustrated by slower drivers who are more timid or more prudent than they. It’s not just automobile drivers; motorcyclists use the road as a race track, endangering themselves and occupants of all other vehicles—cars, trucks and bikes alike. And this despite the fact that several school bus stops are located along narrow curved sections of the road.
While Bouquet Canyon Road’s designation as a proposed Class III bikeway is grounded on the assumption that the “vast majority” of such roads have shoulders that provide “the same physical separation as bike lanes do” (see Los Angeles County Bicycle Master Plan, at p. 101), most of Bouquet Canyon Road between the Santa Clarita city limit at the south and Lake Elizabeth Road at the north has no paved shoulder or only inches of pavement right of the fog line.
Additionally, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies have informed members of the public that coverage is stretched so thin between the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys that they can only traverse the canyon roads such as Bouquet and San Francisquito Canyon Roads twice each day.
SCVBC urges Los Angeles County to implement the following safety measures on Bouquet Canyon Road:
1. Install signage cautioning operators of motor vehicles that bicycles are present. These signs should also inform motorists that bicycles may use the full lane, since by law they may do so where, as on Bouquet Canyon Road, the lane widths are substandard. The “Share the Road”-style of sign has been discredited. http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/09/02/share-the-road-signs-dont-work/
2. Extend the pavement far enough beyond the fog line on both northbound and southbound lanes along the entire length of Bouquet Canyon Road so that persons riding bicycles can move to the right, while still in motion, to allow cars to pass. SCVBC does not recommend a standard 4-foot-minimum “rideable” paved shoulder along Bouquet Canyon Road as that amount of added width could have the perverse effect of encouraging motorists to speed. http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/why-12-foot-traffic-lanes-are-disastrous-for-safety-and-must-be-replaced-now/381117/
Additionally, SCVBC supports the proposals made by Elena Kramer’s mother, Cassandra Parks, that:
1. The speed limit on Bouquet Canyon Road be reduced from 55 to 45 miles per hour;
2. Speeding fines along Bouquet Canyon Road be tripled;
3. Sheriff’s patrols be increased along on Bouquet Canyon Road (as well as other corridors such as San Francisquito Canyon Road, Lake Hughes Road, Lake Elizabeth Road and Spunky Canyon Road); and
4. Finally, if guard rails are installed along portions of Bouquet Canyon Road, as Ms. Parks proposes, the rails should not be installed in such a way as to eliminate a paved shoulder that can be ridden on a bicycle.
Far too many deaths and injuries are occurring on Bouquet Canyon Road. It is time that Los Angeles County takes immediate action to stop the carnage and to use this opportunity to conform Bouquet Canyon Road to the County’s current plan to designate it as a Class III bikeway as set forth in the Bicycle Master Plan.
Very truly yours,
Catherine L. Rivard
Steering Committee Member
Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition
The Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition is the Santa Clarita Valley’s advocacy group supporting safe and enjoyable bicycling for transportation and recreation, and is a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.
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16 Comments
Nice
Good
More taxes ?
Where us this at?
Ride your bike somewhere else!
They need to fix the west San Francisquito Cyn bike path so people don’t have to do the suicide run to cross Newhall Ranch Rd
One of the scariest places to ride around here for sure.
I would happily pay for bikes to have their own lane or bike path, literally anything to stop this….
I have an idea, don’t ride your damn bike on little canyon roads. Just a thought. I’m really sick if coming around blind corners at the speed limit and having to slam on my brakes because in the road some team of bicyclist thought they can take up the hole lane and not ride single file. Then they get mad when I lay on my horn. Also this is a hobby they are not ridding there bikes to work their doing it for the fun of riding so if riding your bike on Bouquet isn’t safe DON’T DO IT
Add a tax on them and put in bike path for them.
I feel for the fallen riders but this request is, at this point, unfitting for this area. There are now way too many people up here. Traffic is insane as it is, and with bouquet as confined as it is now. How would one expect their own lane? If may thing they need to expand bouquet to a 3-lane vehicle road
As a mother that has lost her son Wyatt Savaikie, just fourteen years old on Bouquet and Seco (Santa Clarita City limits) at a city intersection, in a crosswalk with the right-of-way, I believe it is incumbent of the City of Santa Clarita and the County of Los Angeles to implement much needed and much overdue traffic calming safety measures throughout Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County. I am in support of reducing speed limits in the meandering canyon roads but I believe strongly that we have an obligation to address the ridiculous speed limits, coupled with a lack of calming measures in our city boundaries for bicyclists and pedestrians alike. I also believe that traffic fines should be doubled and tripled for red light runners and people speeding throughout the city and beyond. So many lives have been lost not only in our meandering canyon roads but right here within our city boundaries, such as my son in city limits to absolutely no fault of his own, other lives taken along Plum Canyon Road, Haskell Canyon and the list goes on and on. Without reducing speed limits, without implementing traffic calming measures such as signs with Pedestrian Crossing ahead, etc., many more deaths can be expected. It is no longer a question of if their will be another tragic, senseless loss of life but when. Our posted speed limits are not survivable for pedestrians or bicyclists. Heck when traveling at these speed limits not even drivers are not safe when car crashes occur. The need for an increase in penalties for those that speed, those that run red-lights are needed. Sadly we have learned that even when a red-light, speeding driver kills an innocent child, the penalty applied to the responsible driver is just over twice the amount of one red-light ticket. Yep, our child was hit, killed on impact by a red-light driver and we found ourselves sitting in Traffic Court, traffic court for manslaughter. The driver will face up to $1000 fine, that is it. Unfortunately some drivers just do not seem to think about others but with increased penalties perhaps their pocket books would cause those drivers to consider paying closer attention. Sheriff’s know our speed limits are dangerous, they know that a bicyclist, a pedestrian can not survive at our posted speed limits, no one can be expected to survive being hit at 45 and 50 miles per hour never mind the fact that many are traveling far beyond the posted speed limits. Surely Mr. Antonovich, Los Angeles County, City of Santa Clarita and all those charged with public safety must address safety not only in our meandering canyons but they must and are charged with protecting those of us that live, walk, ride our bikes within the city boundaries. Enough is enough. Our city must direct public funds to support increased monitoring and patrol where ever they are need. This is suppose to be a planned community and yet our roadways that everyone must cross to get to and from schools, parks, gyms, etc., are simply not safe and it is really time for our those charged with protecting the public to adopt changes that reflect public safety on our roadways.
Not all of us were happy when they took out the red-light cameras. The psychological effect alone was a deterrent.
To SCV.COM, It wasn’t until our children were about 12 years of age that we permitted them to cross Bouquet Canyon. I cannot help but believe that if we had kept the red-light camera’s up our beautiful, young and loving son would be home with our watching the Superbowl with our family and friends today. While I do not completely know how to comprehend the Red-Flex Camera ticket history, one thing I was able to see on-line was this, there were more tickets seemingly issued at this intersection then any other intersection in the valley, further there were more (by far) reported screeching halts at Bouquet and Seco then any other intersection in our city. Just cannot help feel that Wyatt would be here today if the Red-light cameras had been left up, especially at intersections with a consistent high amount of violations. When the city decided to remove the Red-light Camera’s, having had the benefit of reviewing the historical records of problem intersections they should have figured out why certain intersections consistently had these problems and implemented calming traffic measures and direct funds for law enforcement to properly monitor these intersections. Wyatt was lost to us just a few months after the city turned off the Camera’s and took down the penalty signs. In the last several months law enforcement has done a good job of monitoring this intersection when they can. Having our backyard nearly back up to that site, we hear the sirens go on, soon we hear the sheriff on their speakers directing drivers to pull over. While we are encouraged and hopeful that their hard word will result in the reduction of speeding and red-light drivers and therefore injury or loss of life, they cannot be there 24/7. As a mother, I wish our family had the knowledge of how many violations were taking place at this intersection. Honestly hearing how many tickets are issued when they are being monitored would of been a huge determent to our family and neighbors to avoid that intersection at all costs, we did not have the benefit of the same statistics as our city, Los Angeles County and other entities charged with protecting our children and loved ones from dangerous roadways. Again, I agree that the Red-light cameras did serve as a deterrent and there is no one that knows that more then our family, neighbors, friends and caring community members. Everyday I think to myself, if only they had not taken down the red-light cameras. We surely hope and pray that speed limits are reduced to survivable speed limits, that tickets are increased, that traffic calming measures are in place and maybe putting the red-light traffic cameras back up as one of those calming measures.
Newsflash for motorists: bicycles (and pedestrians) have just as much right to use the paved road as your car does, unless the road is a freeway with signs forbidding pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Also Bouquet and the other canyon roads are not safe to drive fast on even if there were no bicyclists. There are deer crossings, boulders falling down the side of the canyons, animals on the road, and the Pacific Crest Trail crosses both Bouquet and San Francisquito. SLOW DOWN.
Petition the city-state to set up a special “Road Use” registration style program into which all bicyclists who wish to use the roads pay into. I feel, as a motorist, we already pay far too much for what we get in keeping the roads repaired and kept up. Why should we be saddled with paying for special road work done for their free recreational use? If you want to use the road, pay for it as well!