Editor,

Bicycle ridership is on the rise in San Mateo County. There was a huge turnout for Bike to Work Day in May. San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco and the county are drafting bicycle master plans. Redwood City has applied for a grant to implement a bike share program. There are so many riders boarding Caltrain with their bikes that commute-hour trains can’t accommodate them all. Yet even with these positive developments, some public agencies just don’t get it.

In early December 2009, SamTrans closed and locked the gate near its depot on Pico Boulevard in Redwood City. For years, the Pico Boulevard route has provided important access for bicyclists to the Redwood Shores levee trail. This gate closure also disrupts bicycle traffic coming from the Shoreway Road bike route into Redwood Shores. Riders must now detour onto Redwood Shores Parkway dealing with three lanes of high-speed automobile traffic. Bicyclists quickly contacted SamTrans requesting that the gate be re-opened. SamTrans responded that the gate was closed due to safety concerns and that an evaluation would be complete within days. Since then, repeated requests have come to nothing.

After nine months, it’s clear that SamTrans is in no hurry to resolve the issue. Correcting this mistake can’t be postponed forever. A deadline is in order. SamTrans should open the gate immediately or publicly explain why it can’t.

Mark Eliot

San Mateo