Few people know this but when I first found out I was accepted to graduate school at UC Davis I was in the midst of a bicycling trip up Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco with a buddy of mine from college. When I learned of my acceptance to UC Davis, we added an extra leg to our trip to go to Davis to check things out.
I arrived to learn that there was someone named Sue Greenwald running for City Council and everyone asked me if I were related to her (little did I realize at the time how much that would intersect my life), and to learn that the bicycling capital of the world (or at least the nation) dumped their lawn and tree clippings in the bike lane.
A few years ago, the city talked about a containerization program, something most communities have long done, and you would have thought the city was proposing cutting down native forests. The citizens revolted and the pilot program was a failure.
The issue seemed dead, so I am very pleased to see John Berg in the Davis Bicycles section write on the hazards of tree trimmings to bicyclists.
Mr. Berg writes, “Imagine driving a car in Davis after a severe Pacific storm, dodging downed trees and limbs, crossing over into the opposite lane, or even hopping up onto the sidewalk at times. Now, imagine if no one cleaned up the debris for weeks, and you had to deal with this every day.”
He continues, “That’s exactly what Davis cyclists, including school children, have to deal with many days during fall and winter, due to yard waste being dumped into bike lanes week after week. Even though it is illegal to block bike lanes, the city does not have the resources to enforce many of the violations.”
“Almost every cyclist in Davis is familiar with this problem. Apartment complexes with hired gardeners are responsible for a lot of the obstructions,” Mr. Berg writes. “But private homes also contribute to the problem. For example, you can’t ride on B Street at this time of year without leaving the bike lane several times.”
And the dangers are real whether bicyclists are trying to avoid the pile or drive over a seemingly innocuous pile. Sometimes you misjudge how far the pile extends. And sometimes when paying attention to other things in the road, one does not see the pile until it is too late.
Writes John Berg, “Worse, the combination of leaf piles and rain is dangerous. Even with good lights, experienced cyclists have crashed after running into the extremely slippery piles. A certified cycling instructor writes, ‘A pile already caused one crash for me when a motorist changed lanes into my path, forcing me to move right and into a pile of wet leaves to avoid hitting his car. I went down.'”
The compromise idea after the residents revolted was double striping some of the bike lanes to keep waste confined to the area between the bike lane and the curb. According to Mr. Berg, this has worked but the pilot project due, to fiscal restraints, has not been extended to the rest of the city and would not work in parts of the city where the bike lane abuts the curb.
Writes Mr. Berg, “The League of American Bicyclists, a national organization established in 1880 to promote proper paved roads for cyclists, awarded Davis the Bicycle Friendly City Platinum award in 2005. This award was renewed in 2007. Unfortunately, yard waste in bike lanes tarnishes platinum. City programs, such as Safe Routes to Schools, and the sustainability effort, are harmed when leaves bring down cyclists.”
He suggests that in the ideal, citizens would not put yard waste into a bike lane. Instead he believes it should either be composted or placed into a container before pick up.
He writes, “Every citizen who needs to deal with yard waste should think about the consequences of their actions, especially if they have bike lanes in front of their house. And gardening maintenance professionals should have clear instructions as to where not to place the greenwaste.”
He concludes, “Automobile drivers never expect their progress to be blocked by obstructions. In Davis, of all places, this should be true for cyclists as well.”
For the life of me, I simply do not understand why Davis cannot go the route of most communities and put their waste in a container. It is not like this has not been done in most places.
We have to really decide what we want to be. We have the National Bicycling Hall of Fame and yet we have one of the main routes through town still to this day without a safe path for bikes. And most ironically, we dump waste in the bike lanes right outside of the museum. That makes no sense.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
This was the biggest fight I had in my time on the Woodland City Council. We were forced to go to containerization due to run off concerns.
After a huge fight our streets look better, they are safer for bicyclists, and we actually saved money for residents. I have not heard anyone complain about this is more than three years.
Matt Rexroad
662-5184
Thank you highlighting John Berg’s article Mr Greenwald and for the testimonial from Mr Rexroad. I don’t think the issue of green waste is an insurmountable problem for Davis. It does not concern every street and, if we had the will, we could do a rapid survey of the most dangerous areas and develop solutions for those areas. There are many bicycle advocates here who would volunteer to help with this inventory. Containerization my not be required in each case.
If safety is our number one concern then we should look for creative solutions where the situation is unsafe. I am not too proud to draw on successful models to adopt from other cities and I believe we could solve this problem in weeks if not months if we all got behind it.
Just FYI, the City of Davis Bicycle Plan–2009 (available here:http://cityofdavis.org/bicycles/planning.cfm) lists the “control or elimination of yard waste in bicycle lanes” as the first action under the objective “To provide a complete and safe bicycle network” see Appendix 1. Implmentation Plan page xviii.
I’m ok with the container, willing to pay for the green waste container, but I remember before the talk here was of raising our garbage fees in order to accommodate the container dumping. I’m not for that.
Here is the official Woodland green waste policy:
“Green Waste Recycling – Weekly and Monthly Street Pile Collection
From Feb 2nd through October 31st, Waste Management will provide monthly green waste street pile collection along with weekly green waste cart collection.
From November 1st through February 1st, Waste Management will provide weekly green waste street pile collection along with weekly green waste cart collection.
Woodland residents are asked to fill their green waste carts first before placing their green waste in the street.
Please remember: Grass clippings MUST NEVER GO IN THE STREET and MUST ALWAYS GO IN THE CART.
Residents may place their green waste out on the street up to seven days prior to their collection date. Please see calendar provided with cart, on back page of quarterly newsletter or call Customer Service for clarification of the service date for your neighborhood.”
[url]http://www.sacramentovalley.wm.com/woodland.asp#greenwaste[/url]
Arggggghhhhh – this little issue makes me so-o-o-o angry, believe it or not. At some point in time, citizens were allowed to “bag” their yard waste in black plastic bags. It worked great. It was inexpensive (no need for the city/citizens to pay for another green plastic container to crowd and smell up their garage; another truck to pick up just yard debris from large green plastic containers), kept the debris in a small, neat, orderly, contained, dry pile. Then citizens were directed by the city not to put yard debris in black plastic bags, but just dump it onto the curbside raw – where it blows around, gets wet and slick, and causes all sorts of problems for cars, bicyclists, pedestrians, pets.
Why is it that Davis cannot stick to simple and inexpensive solutions? No, they have to come up with some elaborate, expensive solution that costs citizens an arm and a leg – like containerization that will require another green plastic container and a special pick-up truck for it. I already have two huge smelly containers that take up nearly half my garage. A third one, and the car won’t fit! This is just beyond silly… go back to the black plastic bags for heaven’s sake!
Are there any reports of an accident or near accident involving this green waste? I have never seen it as a problem. Perhaps I am misinformed. Then again, perhaps it isn’t a problem.
Slippery streets due to wet leaves will not be eliminated if leaf piles are prohibited. My guess is that, in fact, it will make the streets more slippery as falling leaves left on the street(not in piles) are much more slippery. Bike riders must now pay close attention to avoid a car door opening in front of them. News-flash to bike riders… Paying rather close attention to your surroundings is necessary to avoid mishaps.
Elaine, I for one like NOT having to use black plastic non biodegradeable bags…comment on that….
It is not primarily “slippery streets” that is the problem. Rather, it is the problem of bicyclists having to veer into the street–potentially into the path of cars–to avoid the piles of green waste. This is especially a problem at night on poorly lighted streets even if using a light.
One hears very little about bicycle accidents involving piles of green waste because they are typically not reported to the police or the police do not respond. However, you can ask our current mayor about his experience withe a leaf pile…
I was riding behind my friend home from Sushi and we were going down B Street. A stick coming out from a pile went into their spokes and totally gauged their leg. They said later on they reported it to the city, so maybe there is a report somewhere regarding these instances. Definitely sucks, and hard to see even with lights at night.
Also, as far as the black plastic bags Musser- as someone who used to garden at the city garden plots and use the city compost, I can tell you about 1/3 of their “compost” was shredded black plastic bits. Once they went to no black plastic bags, this went to like zero plastic bits in the “compost.”
SODA: “Elaine, I for one like NOT having to use black plastic non biodegradeable bags…comment on that….”
cd: “Also, as far as the black plastic bags Musser- as someone who used to garden at the city garden plots and use the city compost, I can tell you about 1/3 of their “compost” was shredded black plastic bits. Once they went to no black plastic bags, this went to like zero plastic bits in the “compost.””
The black plastic bag system worked well for years, and kept debris from blowing around all over the street. The city cannot afford a “containerization program” that will involve another big fat plastic container and a special truck for pick up. If you don’t like the use of black plastic bags bc it offends your sense of eco-friendliness, feel free to compost your yard clippings. Who’s stopping you? But to just freely dump yard waste in the street/in bike lanes so it gets spread all over the place and becomes a hazard makes no sense whatsoever…
I have been “attacked” by the green waste on multiple occasions. Once this left me with a stick embedded in my ankle; multiple times I’ve had twigs and the like in my toes. I have no choice but to ride close to the piles as I ride on Anderson Rd between North Davis into UCD during rush hour. Cars are friendly, but they often don’t allow room to share their lane. One particularly troublesome spot is the northeast (northbound) corner of Anderson Rd and Russell Blvd where autos are merging; the bike lane is completely obstructed by green waste at least once a week (until enough bicycles run over it and compress it or move it out of the way.)
Night riding is especially exciting as a stick poking out from a pile cannot be seen unless you own a particularly bright (and expensive) bicycle light. I have even seen bicycles and other heavy trash dumped in the waste that could possibly kill a bicyclist if they did not see the pedal or large tree limb poking out of the pile.
This a serious danger to our local society that will become more serious as our population increases. It is also easily taken care of and could possibly decrease cost in the long term as the need for two trucks and their operators driving down the road is reduced to one.