Impact of Giro di San Diego Bicycle race on Valley Center


Planning Chairman scores bike event for lack of time to plan for it: This week Valley Center Community Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith sent a letter to the County criticizing the Dept. of Public Works, which controls special event permits, for not giving Valley Center’s public safety agencies enough warning to be able to plan for the Giro di San Diego bike race that occurred Sunday—and which caused a major traffic snarl. See the full text of the letter below.

 


 

Special Event Permit Coordinator Robert Fuller
DPW / Transportation Division, Special Event Permits
County of San Diego,
5510 Overland Ave., Ste 410, Rm 470 (MS0334),
San Diego, CA 92123

Sir,
I am emailing you today as the Chair of the Valley Center Community Planning Group, a Director of the Valley Center Fire Protection District, and most importantly a Valley Center resident, to express concerns regarding the Giro di San Diego bike race that occurred yesterday through Valley Center:
1)     Bates Nut Farm, a major business in Valley Center has had their primary Pumpkin Patch event during October weekends every year going back several decades, with weekends closer to Halloween being the heavy visitor days.  There is significant heavy traffic from outside Valley Center in and out of Bates Nut Farm this time of year on Woods Valley Rd between Lake Wohlford Rd and Valley Center Rd.  Bates was given only a few weeks notice of the race and apparently no opportunity for effective input to minimize their customer’s delay and frustration.
2)     The Valley Center Fire Protection District was given only a few weeks notice of the race and apparently no opportunity for effective input.  According to VCFPD Chief Joe Napier, fortunately there were no significant incidents during the race period of time.
3)     The Valley Center Community Planning Group was given 2 weeks notice without the opportunity to comment and minimal time to at least spread the word farther into the community and media.
4)     I personally observed 4 and 5 wide bicycles moving on Valley Center Rd where there is a designated bike path that allows single/dual file bicycles, resulting in significant incursions into the vehicle travel lanes.  I see these as totally unacceptable actions by the racers that unnecessarily risk safety and impact the ability of Valley Center residents to get around.
5)     The bottom of Valley Center Rd hill into Escondido is undergoing road construction that results in having only two narrow lanes of traffic.  As the race began at Kit Carson Park in Escondido, I would have expected that Escondido DPW would have been consulted early on in the planning process, the applicant been made fully aware of the road construction that was a common element in all of the race routes, and would have implemented mitigation to minimize impacts on vehicles and racers.  However, I personally observed no mitigation having been implemented in the construction area.
At a minimum, involving  the Valley Center Fire Protection District much earlier in the race planning process is essential to minimizing the impact on Valley Center residents, Valley Center businesses, Valley Center roads, and Valley Center safety service impacts.  For instance, VCFPD could have informed you well ahead of time of the impact of running one of the race routes down Woods Valley Rd where Bates Nut Farm is located.  In that case, requests to move the race to November and/or changing the race route away from Woods Valley Rd would have had an opportunity to be seriously considered, if not fully implemented.
These comments also apply to the periodic professional bike race that goes through Valley Center.  In that race, there are also significant concerns regarding spectators along the route and the trash and other debris they have previously demonstrated they leave behind.
Please advise as to how you intend to address these serious concerns.

Regards,

Oliver Smith
Valley Center resident
Chair, Valley Center Community Planning Group
Director, Valley Center Fire Protection District

3 responses to “Impact of Giro di San Diego Bicycle race on Valley Center”

  1. Shelley Scarr says:

    One of the more dangerous sections was up and down the north end of Cole Grade Rd. that leads into Pauma Valley. Some of us were heading to and from churches down in the valley and encountered the bikers coming and going. It was pretty scary, as there are blind curves and no where to go when you had bikers in front of you and racing down hill behind you. Some bikers were too far out in the road and didn’t seem to understand the danger for them or us. One friend even had one biker kick or thump her car at the bottom of Cole Grade and 76 because she was waiting to turn and he apparently felt she was blocking the way. If I had been an elderly person driving there that day, I’m not sure I could have negotiated safely down that road, or could have been set in a panic with all the cyclists near my car. According to the map, there were different routes through Valley Center, which didn’t leave you an alternate route to take and avoid the danger. It would have made more sense to close down one road. However, being fire season and sinceit was a bad weather weekend, there was concern either way if we’d had to evacuate. Some of us felt we were being held captive in our own town by this event, as it was tough to travel safely, and in and out, on several main roads in Valley Center.

  2. John J. R. says:

    Fuller didn’t follow the 7-P’s.

    4) I personally observed 4 and 5 wide bicycles moving on Valley Center Rd where there is a designated bike path that allows single/dual file bicycles, resulting in significant incursions into the vehicle travel lanes. I see these as totally unacceptable actions by the racers that unnecessarily risk safety and impact the ability of Valley Center residents to get around.

    This is a regular occurrence Lake Wohlford rd. even when there isn’t a race. They won’t yield to traffic, flip you the bird or slow down.

  3. Joel Johnstone says:

    Regarding #4: If you saw riders out of the bike lane on Valley Center Road in the morning it’s because they were told that the route was closed to traffic from Kit Carson to Lake Wohlford. The last email the riders received contained this text at the very top:

    “This creates a TOTALLY AWESOME mass start event with fully closed roads and a full CHP-escort through 19 stop lights. You will be escorted all the way to the Lake Wohlford climb, which will also be completely closed.”

    I participated in the ride and did notice that most of the intersections were controlled by a CHP officer, but some were not. The entire stretch between Kit Carson and Lake Wohlford was supposed to be controlled.

    In response to Shelley, Cole Grade Road is a steep downhill and bikes will go the same speed as cars. Under these circumstances, a bike should be in the middle of the lane since it’s unsafe for a car to pass.

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