Bike Path Needs

As an avid cyclist, I am grateful for the many local road and bike path improvements that have been accomplished the past few years.

However, I wish to bring a couple of things to the attention to the powers that be:

(1) The new bike path in Carpinteria that passes under the 101, is extremely dark, even in daylight hours. Traveling under the wide, unlit, freeway underpass, is akin to stepping from a well-lit theater lobby to the seats and hoping you don’t step on someone’s toe or sit on their lap.

I have contacted Caltrans and the City of Carpinteria about this, but nothing has been done. I understand the need to conserve electricity, but I believe safety should be of paramount concern.

Perhaps it’s just my old eyes that don’t adjust well, but I believe this lighting issue is worthy of review.

(2) The Summerland bike path is a huge improvement over the traffic road. However, someone made a mistake when they planted vines along the fence which subsequently uprooted the pavement.

The city, some while back smoothed the pavement, but it’s buckled again, worse than ever. This is quite a hazard as bikes speed down towards the highway, on a blind curve, while bouncing over rough pavement.

At this moment, the freeway is being widened and about one-third of the bike path is constricted, though passable. It seems now, or at least in the near future, a decent, permanent repair, should be performed on this bike path. With all the heavy equipment and material there on location, perhaps a deal could be struck to do it now. Temporarily, bikes could use surface road again.