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Health & Fitness

ONCE AGAIN AN OPPORTUNITY LOST IN WILDOMAR

Instead of standing out from the crowd, Wildomar once again follow the lemmings into obscurity.
 
They will paint a white line and tell everyone their safe.

A recent article in a news publication speaks of the wonderful 2 million dollar projects (2 separate projects) over the next 3 years to construct 4 miles of bicycle lanes along Clinton Keith starting at George Avenue going South Southwest over the freeway to Grand Avenue were it will travel Northwest along Grand Avenue first to David A Brown Middle School, the second project will continue this to Corydon Street at the Lake Elsinore border where it will connect to an imaginary trail, just like the Bryant Palomar Trail in Wildomar for which the taxpayers are on the hook for $400,000 for the next 30 years.
For reference the California Department of Transportation Highway design manual defines bikeways as follows: 
Class I Bikeway (Bike Path). Provides a completely separated right of way for the exclusive use of bicycles and pedestrians with cross flow by motorists minimized. 
Class II Bikeway (Bike Lane). Provides a striped lane for one-way bike travel on a street or highway
Class III Bikeway (Bike Route). Provides for shared use with pedestrian or motor vehicle traffic. 
These projects will consist of widening the shoulder in the places that will be designated Class II, the California DOT guidelines requires a minimum of 1.2 m of width (47 1/4 in.) when no curbs are present and there is no street parking, then painting a white line and telling people they are safe as cars wiz by. The areas were a Class III bikeway is present will have a sign only telling people this is a Bike Route. 20 pound bicycle vs. 2,000 pound vehicle has no winners.
This is what everyone else does. 
Wildomar is a unique community in that we have a creek, some call it a ditch or flood control channel, that runs approximately 3 miles through the center of the west side of Wildomar. This creek with its laterals that extend out to Grand Avenue on the west and Palomar on the east has service roads in most places of 13 feet in width that would accommodate the required 2.4m (94 ½ in.) Class I Bikeway, along with minimum cross traffic as there are only 4 bridges over the creek. Building a Class I Bikeway would set Wildomar apart from every other community in the valley and inspire two of them to complete their portion of the Murrieta Creek Trail system. This may also inspire the City of Lake Elsinore to complete the connection of the Regional Tail system connecting Palomar Street to the levee allowing citizens to travel from the “The Diamond” in Lake Elsinore all the way to south Temecula while accessing schools, parks and shopping without fearing for ones life.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/oppd/hdm/pdf/chp1000.pdf 

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