Q. A small group of us annually ride our bikes from Rancho Mission Viejo to Oceanside, going through Camp Pendleton. We have lunch and then take the Amtrak train back – a fun day. Some of the guys do not like riding through the Marine base, because there are no designated bike lanes, etc., so they want to ride along the I-5 Freeway. Please comment on the rules associated with riding bikes along this stretch of the I-5, an option that looks scary to me. My bike-riding friends and I are looking forward to reading your reply!
– Joe Macko, Rancho Mission Viejo
A. Honk often makes that trek to see family in San Diego County – always in a car.
His old bones shiver when he sees the occasional bicyclist in that stretch cruising along the shoulder. Looks extremely scary to him.
A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol out of the Oceanside station house, Officer Mark Latulippe, said he doesn’t like bikes on the freeway there at all, with vehicles zipping just feet away at 65 mph to 90 mph.
“Bicyclists – I don’t want them out there, honestly,” he said. “It’s not a safe place.”
Bicycling is legal across Camp Pendleton via freeway at times. Here is how the law works:
From Las Pulgas Road on the base to the Harbor Drive/Vandegrift Boulevard ramps in the Oceanside area, the law allows bicyclists on the shoulder for that stretch if there is no alternative. In other words, when the base is closed to them, Latulippe said.
When the base is open to bicyclists, they must take that route or could face a possible ticket, he added.
To learn more about when the base is open to bicyclists and how to get a permit to use the Marines’ bike trail, see Camp Pendleton’s website.
Q. Hi Honk: There is so much trash on the freeways. What happened to cleanup crews? Are they not cleaning because of the coronavirus? And maybe people should STOP throwing their trash out of their cars!
– Doris Maes, Long Beach
A. In fact, Caltrans did pull back cleanup crews throughout the state for a while.
For the first several months of the pandemic, the agency held back its maintenance crews from combing freeway shoulders, but they did return to that chore in June with social distancing, masks and other safety measures in place, said Jim Medina, a Caltrans spokesman for Los Angeles County. At least some of the others who normally help gather up trash were halted for a bit as well.
Various groups of trash collectors regularly hit the state’s freeways: Caltrans employees, volunteers and veterans, and paroles, too.
Sometimes, it seems, those tasked with cleaning up after others out there are overwhelmed.
“People litter,” Medina said. “It’s a constant struggle.
“Efforts to reduce litter cannot be borne by Caltrans alone,” he added. “The department continues to inform the traveling public of the impacts of litter to state highways, waterways, beaches, (the) ocean and other environmentally sensitive areas. The reduction of litter is the responsibility of every Californian.”
To be fair, in Los Angeles County, where some freeways are actually older than Honk, the shoulders can be real narrow making it dangerous to send crews out. Medina said sometimes a lane needs to be blocked off to protect the maintenance workers, who at times are also sent out in off-peak hours to reduce the chance of trouble.
The public can lodge complaints about any trashy freeway stretch at csr.dot.ca.gov.
Honkin’ fact: Orange County’s public-bus system averaged 127,000 weekday boardings way back in early March, before the pandemic hit. These days, Mondays through Fridays average 60,000, or the equivalent of 30,000 round trips.
In May 2004, the heyday of the Orange County Transportation Authority’s bus system, ridership hit 225,000 boardings.
“It’s important to note that overall these ridership trends and (the) decline over the years generally track with Southern California and the nation as a whole,” Joel Zlotnik, a spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority, told Honk in an email.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
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