What is it About OCTA and Bikes?
What is it about the Orange County Transportation Agency and its love of bicycle boondoggles? We know they are obligated to pretend they care about multi-modal transportation, but why the silliness? FFFF readers will recall we talked about the ludicrous $800 per bike ride fiasco overseen by former County Supervisor and OCTA Boardmember, Shawn Nelson.
Now it appears that Nelson’s sclerotic successor, Fullerton’s own Prince of Potholes, Doug “Bud” Chaffee is following in the noble tradition.
I just received a self-promoting e-mail from Supervisor Chaffee touting OCTA bike day. For ten bucks you get bike training, a nifty bike helmet, bike lights and a delicious lunch. What the subsidy for these days of fun is the public is not informed. However the impoverished need not worry; for “scholarships” are available on a limited basis although we are not enlightened as to who might qualify, and how. The provided link says nothing about “scholarships.”
Now while there’s nothing wrong with bicycle safety, per se, one wonders why we are paying for classes on how to ride a bike, and on “fun” bike tours and “advanced” bicycling skills. And why does the public have to pay for the political promotion of “public servants?”
This needs an Ambassador.
Anyone know an Ambassador in the Fourth District?
File this under “I don’t want to work for the people in my district, I just wanna have fun” . Who exactly will show up for this?
I died lol.
When is the last time geriatric Bill actually balanced himself on a bike? These transitcrats love telling everyone else how they should travel.
Another FFFF instant classic
Well you can’t really fit a lot of stolen campaign signs on the back of a bike.
Oh look at that picture, Jan Flory!.
I didn’t know that witches can come out into the light!.
A witch falls from her broom when it loses the ability to fly and she lands in the Fullerton Metrolink area, near downtown. Wow, She should had wait until Halloween.
“Now while there’s nothing wrong with bicycle safety, per se, one wonders why we are paying for classes on how to ride a bike, ”
Public safety. The public good. The normal kinds of reasons for spending tax dollars.
Check out any article about bike paths being added, and you’ll see plenty of road rage comments from unhinged people angry with cyclists not following traffic laws.
We have a whole infrastructure for minting new, qualified drivers, very little for making responsible cyclists.
And maybe some of those road rage freaks will get out with their family at one of these events and have their hard hearts softened a little by learning what it is like to ride on our roads.
We should make the classes mandatory, if they’re so damn important. Let’s make all bike riders tour Old Town Orange for their self-improvement.
That’s a good idea. Orange has about the same sized population as Fullerton, and its restaurant and retail filled downtown is somehow under control, even though they also have a nearby college, historic homes, and a train station. Why doesn’t downtown Orange have wall to wall bars servicing staggering drunks spewing on sidewalks and fighting in parking lots? Why does one see families enjoying an evening out on a weekend in downtown Orange, while nobody in their right mind would take children to Fullerton’s downtown on a Friday or Saturday night because it’s filled with drunken douchebags from party buses?
Go ask Whitaker and Fitzgerald.
Doug Chaffee cares about bicycling in Fullerton this much:
https://fullertonrag.com/2017/08/17/where-the-water-buffalo-roam/
https://fullertonrag.com/2017/08/16/city-council-sells-out-bicyclists-in-favor-of-illegal-street-parking/
Not sure why the Fullerton component is called a “Showdown,” but the program is probably worthwhile. Teaching cyclists to ride safely is not a simple as one might think. There are survival techniques well worth knowing. A reasonable public subsidy would pay for itself by helping to prevent accidents. I encourage riders to take part in it.
“A reasonable public subsidy would pay for itself by helping to prevent accidents.”
What’s “reasonable” and how in the world would it pay for itself?
I don’t know. Less than the cost of a fire truck and paramedics, plus police squad cars at the scene of an accident, for starters.
Bike accidents usually require paramedics or just the coroner.
Start ticketing the asshole cyclists who think the rules don’t apply to them and the road safety problem solves itself.
Also if cyclists want to take over roads like Wilshire, oh I’m sorry “Bike Boulevard”, then perhaps we should require a license to ride the bikes and a tax to pay for the road.
Show me some wear and tear on a road caused by me on my bicycle and I’ll pay for it. In fact, take a look at the Tour de France going on right now and tell me if you think all of those riders speeding over the same road at the same time are likely to cause it more damage (if any) than a single lightweight automobile. https://www.letour.fr
As for “asshole” cyclists, there are some who don’t seem to respect the rules of the road–I’ve seen them, and then there are motorists who are entirely ignorant of those rules as they apply to cyclists, or just choose not to respect them either. Road safety problems are generally not caused by cyclists, in my experience. Either way, OCTA’s road safety course is provably a good intro to riding safely.
Funny. I think Nelson’s about to climb on a girl’s bike. That’s appropriate.
They all have that design. And, you can’t see it in the picture, but the baskets are placed right in front of the headlights.
It identifies as a tricycle.
More importantly, why is Chaffee missing his front teeth?
Cycling in Fullerton is nothing more than a great way to be killed or maimed. That won’t change until cars are 95% automated which, coincidentally, will make bikes even less appealing.
I wish our fat public officials would look out for our health and not try to push us into oncoming traffic for their own sense of smug.
Why not just bring in something like lime and let them make money? We all know the city only knows how to waste and the county is only a bigger waster!
Bike safety training should be free no doubt! Many other cities have wonderful programs for bicycle safety because getting more people on bikes is important to them because know all the amazing benefits that come with getting more people out of cars.
This is ridiculous that they’re asking for money. No one will show.
Why? Because they can’t say no to a grant or the proceeds of a tax. I wonder if this comes from the gas tax.
Next up: Classes on when to come in out of the rain.
To clarify, a change was made prior to the first workshop last Saturday and all workshops are now free. The program is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. Information can be found at https://walkmorebikemore.org/orange-county/
So Eric, how come OCTA needs TWO “spokesmen” publishing pabulum?
OTS – the same boobs who encourage random traffic stops.
So y’all fucked up the “scholarship” nonsense, right? Just admit admit it and move on to your next boondoggle.
But thanks for reading FFFF – at least the taxpayers are getting something out of that.
Eric, I find it amusing that so many of our stalwart “journalists” end up working for government agencies disseminating the same tripe they formerly did as “reporters.” Seriously, dude you people are everywhere sucking at the government teat.
nelsons sausage fingers are way too distracting!