Tag Archives: Bicycles

P.G. Looking (finally) Into Laws Regarding Electric Bicycles

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I remember getting hollered at by the tam o’shanter wearing cyclist when my children and I were an inch from the pavement as he sped by.

Easiest way to enforce safety would be to ticket any bike rider riding on the sidewalk. And as long as we are at it, make helmets mandatory for all riders regardless of age, on any two wheeled vehicle motorized or not.

Bike path speed

During the council meeting Wednesday, the council discussed existing city code and how it applies to e-bikes, bicycles and other devices on the coastal recreational trail, in parks and in other public spaces. The discussion focused on enforcement challenges, safety concerns and whether current regulations reflect current usage.

Currently, e-bikes are now allowed in Perkins’ Park, Lovers Point Park, Pacific Grove Golf Links, El Carmelo Cemetery, and the property ocean-side of Ocean View Boulevard to 17th Street. The exception is on the paved portion of the recreational trail.

P.G. Looking (finally) Into Laws Regarding Electric Bicycles

P.G. Bike Safety To Be Enforced

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First, we need some cops to fill the vacancies.

PG911 Bike Patrol

“E-bike concerns and safety have been a priority of our Police Department for some time now, especially concerning our youth,” said Mogensen in a separate email.

A Public Records Act request with the city found that in the three-year span from Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2025, police issued zero citations for the municipal codes related to e-bike regulations. KSBW reached out to the police department for comment, but a representative from the department said they would not comment ahead of the city council meeting.

A review of the 2024 Annual Report produced by the police department, the most recent one available at the time of publication, showed that the police department had four vacancies, or 17%, for sworn staff. The report said one goal for the following years was to increase bicycle patrols.

P.G. Bike Safety To Be Enforced

Need For Speed – Rec Trail

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Racers whiz by, tourists block the paved portion. Admin here was nearly run over by two E-Bikes on the sidewalk downtown.

Bicycle Crash

Pacific Grove took a different approach when e-bikes started appearing on the scene, and in 2020 set a unilateral 12mph speed limit on its portion of the Rec Trail. I am not a fast biker, but on flat ground, I can tell you that you don’t even have to break a sweat to exceed 12mph on a regular old human-powered bike. Five minutes of observation in P.G. is all it takes to see this bizarrely low speed limit violated, and the same old premise that predated the speed limit comes into play: Pay attention and be courteous.

Unfortunately, for busy stretches of multi-use resources like the Rec Trail, “pay attention and be courteous” may not be enough clarity. The potential for widening the Rec Trail is low, Garcia tells me, based on right-of-way. Look for more on potential signage and speed limits to come in the coming years as the data gathering process ramps up.

Need For Speed – Rec Trail

Don’t Bring A Bicycle To A Footpath

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Bicycle Crash In the Past

Bike riders always griping about walkers on the recreation trail. Keep your pedals off the foot paths and sidewalks.

A bicyclist in his 40s who was apparently riding on a footpath adjacent to Ocean View Boulevard in Pacific Grove this week fell onto a rocky beach and was taken to the hospital for injuries.

“He suffered traumatic injuries to his leg — possibly other injuries as well,” fire chief Gaudenz Panholzer told The Pine
Cone.

Don’t Bring A Bicycle To A Footpath

Ex Mayor Recovers Stolen Bicycle

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Carmel Mayor sees something and says something

at around 3:30 a.m. March 18, a security guard at the Monterey Plaza Hotel saw someone smash a glass door at the Mad Dogs & Englishmen bike shop and called police, who soon arrived to discover “someone had broken in and stolen a high-end electric bicycle.”

Having seen their post and photos of the bright red e-bike, former Mayor Steve Dallas was in Seaside shopping for his mother the next morning when he saw a group of men standing around a bike that seemed out of place. “I was getting something for my mom at Smart & Final and came back to the car with some drinks for her, looked up and saw this red bicycle,” he said. He recognized it as the e-bike stolen from Blevins and Watson — who opened their first Peninsula bike shop on Mission Street in Carmel several years ago — so he called Seaside P.D.

Ex Mayor Recovers Stolen Bicycle

Bike Control In P.G.

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Police chief needs to get out and look at what she’s talking about. Here’s two signs telling you where Monterey ends and Pacific Grove begins. What kind of crock it this?Welcome Trail Signs

Beginning next month anyone peddling a pedicab along the Monterey portion of the Recreation Trail will need to start braking along about the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The rickshaw-like bicycles, permitted on Monterey’s portion of the trail, are now banned in Pacific Grove.

Complicating matters is that although most locals know where Monterey ends and Pacific Grove begins, there is no city limits signage, making it a challenge for visitors.

Pacific Grove Police Chief Cathy Madalone said Monday the city is in the process of making signage that will welcome Rec Trail visitors to the city.

Bike Control In P.G.

Motorized Bicycles Get OK On Rec Trail

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Helmets required? Hello?

Bicycle Crash

Pacific Grove City Council voted 5-2 to allow two common varieties of electric bikes along the nearly mile-long and highly scenic stretch Monterey Bay Recreation Trail that passes through Pacific Grove. While e-bikes will be allowed on the trail, they will be restricted to 12 MPH. There is no speed limit for bicycles on the trail, and conflicts between bike riders and pedestrians there are a daily occurrence. Nevertheless, some council members welcomed the much heavier and faster e-bikes.

Motorized Bicycles Get OK On Rec Trail

Zero Net Change

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Bike stations would be located at places such as Middlebury Institute of International Studies, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Presidio of Monterey.

Councilman Alan Haffa was very supportive of the program, noting that his students at Monterey Peninsula College were enthusiastic about it while Councilman Ed Smith had concerns that people wouldn’t spend money on such a program when they can purchase their own used bike for a reasonable cost.

The city on Tuesday also approved its Climate Action Plan, which has been in the works for several years.

This makes sense – more bicycle riders exhaling more CO2 into the fragile atmosphere. Bicycle riding is causing global warming.

Zero Net Change

Hey P.G. Commuters, Monterey Says Ride A Bike

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Why not make all the tourists ride bikes. Put up a gate at the tunnel, resident cars only.

Expect delays

Construction on the Holman Highway Roundabout project is expected to begin in June. The project, up at the intersection of 17-Mile Drive and state Route 68, will likely push a lot more vehicle traffic onto Lighthouse Avenue, a Monterey artery that is already frequently clogged.

“Come 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m., it starts to back up, and from that point until about 7 p.m., it’s pretty slow here,” said Jason Costanza, who owns Monterey Seibuken Academy, on Lighthouse Avenue.

Monterey is hoping rather than getting frustrated with even more traffic this summer, people will take a new route to work.

“We want to get people to walk, and we want to get people to bike,” said Andrea Renny, with the city’s traffic and engineering department.

Hey P.G. Commuters, Monterey Says Ride A Bike