“If it were potholes that were causing these cyclists to crash, you would fix them immediately”

Shawn Wallace’s latest testimony in front of Encinitas Public Servants and Bureaucrats over the safety issues of Blakespear’s Hazardous Bikeways

Shawn Wallace, the Encinitas resident, former Olympian track cyclist, target of certain “biking activists,” and critic the fad of “protected” bikeways was back this week with an oral comment presented in front of the Encinitas City Council. His speech (sped up to 1.25x in this video) comes after another solo bicyclist crash with the so-called “protection” on the Coast Highway 101 stretch that received such “treatment” back in early 2020 under the regime of Catherine Blakespear.

Here is a rough transcript:

Good Evening Mr. Mayor, Council, City Staff.

Shawn Wallace, I live up here in [inaudible] for the last twenty years.

I’m sorry to take your time this evening but I did want to make sure that everyone was aware that we recently had yet another cyclist go down after hitting the wheel stops on the 101 in Cardiff, picture up here [see below].

You see the bollard, the wheel stop I’ve circled and the concussed cyclist behind. Um this crash was on the same site where my neighbor from just up here uh his bike hit one of the wheel stops a few months ago, unfortunately he died.

This time the victim should recover but his injuries are not trivial: broken clavicle, five broken ribs, concussion, and a brain bleed and he woke up in hospital.

If it were a potholes that were causing these cyclists to crash, you would fix them immediately.

Well I can assure you that the wheel stops - the bollards- are every bit as dangerous as potholes. In fact I could perhaps bunny hop a pothole but I can’t bunny hop a wheel stop or a bollard. If I hit them, I’m going to crash and that’s what’s happening. And I can assure you that until these roadway obstacles are removed that cyclists of all sorts will continue to crash and we’ll continue to have this sort of injury and tragically we will continue to have fatalities.

Thank you.

This bikeway and others of this “design” were also subject to a great dressing down by Cycling Savvy’s Keri Cafferty in How to Ruin a Buffered Bike Lane.

The “Blakespear Bikeway Blunder” as its known in Strava has been responsible for one death and over 30 recorded injuries with several of these trips requiring a trip to the hospital for the victims.

Below is both the photo screenshotted from the Encinitas: Please Restore Safe Cycling Facebook page that Wallace included during his oral comments as well as further commentary on the victim of the crash who was a member of the North County Cycling Club, a recreational but not racing-oriented club. (A lot of non-cyclists and “biking advocates” seem to believe that everyone dressed in lycra is a racer. That is far from the truth.)

For those who want to scream about helmets, NCCC requires all riders on their rides to wear helmets. Bicycle helmets have severe limitations on what they can and cannot do. Please see here.

And for those who want to scream about paying attention, please read this first.

Wallace isn’t finished either.