Bike riders at risk from their own actions

“Saving gas but fueling danger” (Sept. 22) properly identifies the risk bicyclists pose to themselves and others by their dangerous operating habits.

I live at an intersection with three-way stop signs. In the more than 30 years I have lived at this intersection only once (honest!) have I seen a bicyclist stop at the intersection. This habit of not stopping generally reflects the disregard for traffic regulations exhibited by most bicyclists. Bicyclists, experienced or not, as a class ignore the rules of the road, apparently in the belief that they are exempt from them or that their contribution to reducing global warming permits them to operate above the traffic laws as a reward for their quasi-public service.

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Some of the very worst offenders are the bicyclists who dress as if they are participating in the Tour de France, travel in packs, are accomplished at flashing the great American road sign at motorists – which they go out of their way to offend – and are a menace to all in the way they operate their bikes.

Although bicyclists generally disregard traffic laws, I discovered that police in Chula Vista, for reasons not clear, so rarely ticket bicyclists that there is no separate record of citations. Folks who fight $4 gasoline by riding bikes are fine with me, but not observing the traffic rules is bad, bad, bad.

TOM DAVIS
Chula Vista

How about a year off for city's parking meters?

I have spoken out against the parking meters on Third Avenue in Chula Vista for nearly 20 years. Is it any surprise that customers prefer the malls where the parking is free, you don't have to hunt for change for meters and you don't get parking tickets? There are lots behind Third Avenue where you can park for 2.5 hours for 25 cents, hardly a source of revenue but definitely a source of irritation.

Now the owner of a Third Avenue business I frequent tells me that soon the cost per minute at the meters will be going up and that the city is negotiating with Ace Parking to take over the lots.

Who came up with this idea? Yes, the city is in financial trouble, but this scheme is not a cash cow and will just result in more closed businesses.

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania whose downtown was dying because of nearby Pittsburgh and the large malls. The town reached out to small businesses and reinvented itself as a destination for antiques. Today it is more alive than it was decades ago.

I am calling on Chula Vista to reject these new revenue sources and to cover the parking meters for just one year as a trial. The loss of the present revenue, with its pennies per hour and quarters in the lots, is not going to bankrupt the struggling city, but it might help the merchants on Third Avenue. They certainly deserve no less.

DIANE GUSTAFSON
Bonita