Why Long Beach residents are being urged to ‘please walk bikes’

The Long Beach Boardwalk is a hotspot for activity during the summer months and warmer weather, attracting all kinds of visitors, including those on skateboards, electric bikes and others who treat the bike lane as a racetrack. That has been a cause for concern for the Long Beach men and women in blue for months.

Since the police can’t be everywhere at once, the department began placing large, yellow barriers along the bicycle lane so cyclists and in-line skaters must ease off the speed to get around them last August. The barriers were being placed between the Lafayette and Laurelton Boardwalk entrances.

“We’re still considering putting up those physical barriers again at some point in time to further educate the public on proper etiquette on the boardwalk,” Acting City Manager Ron Walsh said. “We do have additional resources this year on the boardwalk, though.”

The barriers were accompanied by police “specials” — officers-in-training for a lack of a better description. They also often work many of Long Beach’s city events, like National Night Out.

The special officers were there to monitor bikers and give out tickets if necessary. The main concern is with E-bikes and electronic vehicles, other than normal cruising bikes.

“The Tour de France people are still out,” resident Rich Rothberg said of fast riders on the boards. “When they’re out early in the morning, it doesn’t really bother me. But if you’re riding like that on a Saturday afternoon, you shouldn’t be. If you want to solve the problem, you really have to stay on top of the E-bikes and fast riders more.”

There have also been green signs on the boards to distinguish where bikers can ride. Now, there are signs at the entrance of just about every ramp, too. There are new signs at both ends of the boardwalk and one in the middle as well.

“The boardwalk is for slow cruising only,” Walsh expressed. “If somebody is going at an excessive rate of speed, which we do not condone, there is an acculturation that’s going to have to take place and we’re moving in that direction.”

Walsh said he doesn’t think that the city is there yet, but it’s not something that’s off of the radar. The summer specials and police officers have become more and more in tune with this, but Walsh said the last thing we want is one of the specials tackling somebody off a bicycle.

New signs have also been placed to urge bikers to either slow down or get off their bikes altogether, but they aren’t on the boardwalk. The signs have been placed in around the central business district urging people to walk their bikes on the city sidewalks. Walsh said people riding on these crowded has been a concern and an issue.

“We’re putting two special officers in the center of town because we’ve received a lot of complaints about bicyclists riding on the sidewalk in the central business district,” Walsh said. “There are many people who find this extremely difficult for them and when they see a bicyclist pass them on the sidewalk, they get very upset. We’re trying to do the best we can to get these signs going up.”

The signs, which are primarily placed on trees, light posts and poles from Magnolia to Edwards Boulevards, are clearly visible to all using the sidewalks. The entire central business district will have new signs for that will also direct people to the bike lanes that are being established around the city. Walnut Street, from end to end, is going to have a bike lane, Broadway will have bike lanes, and other streets and boulevards will have some as well. “We’re really trying to keep people out of the central business district with bikes and put-up signage to direct them to where they can ride.”

“Talk to your kids, talk to your families and tell them to not use electric bikes on the boardwalk,” Walsh said. “Pedal slowly, watch out for the pedestrians, be mindful of who is walking on our boardwalk. We try to make it as safe as we can.”