Avoid More Ghost Bikes

As a cyclist who rides for both sport and transportation, I love all the bike lanes and paths that make Santa Barbara such a bike-friendly place. There is one thing that I see the city is missing: three-foot law signs. In other big bike-friendly cities like Bend, Oregon, and Santa Rosa, California, I’ve seen signs stating the law that requires cars to give cyclists three feet of space when passing.

Even within the short three-month period that I’ve lived here, I can’t even count the number of times cars have nearly hit me because they did not give the three feet of space that is required by law when passing. I don’t think the people driving are doing so with bad intentions, I just don’t think drivers are properly educated on bike safety and etiquette.

The “ghost bike” memorials I’ve seen close to Cathedral Oaks Boulevard are further proof that there is still more to be done in regard to bike safety. The ghost bike memorials are typically made of a bike, spray painted all white, and flowers placed where the cyclist was hit and killed. It is quite unsettling and sad to be riding on a road and to come across a ghost bike. Especially on a busy road like Cathedral Oaks, where many cars and cyclists are traveling, I believe it would be worth the potential lives that could be saved to place three-foot law signs up.