Mount Diablo’s bike safety

Model should go big: “I’m down from Reno for the holiday and we cruised up to Mount Diablo. Imagine my surprise to find your column (about bike safety on Diablo) Sunday morning. The situation up there is very impressive. Heard a lot of thank-yous from bikers for simple courtesies, and there’s mostly a sense of real cooperation and respect amongst all the players. Pretty cool. Definitely would like to see the model go big.” — Jim Irvine Blind corners: “As a cyclist who rides Mount Diablo three times a week, I must say that the number of cars that continue to pass bikes on blind corners continues at around 40 percent, which is just too high . ... You could add a line, that by passing on a blind corner, the driver isn’t gaining much time on their drive up the mountain — and that since you’re driving up such a beautiful mountain, why not enjoy the view?” — Mike Hrast Courtesy goes both ways: “I’ve been a road cyclist for 30 years, including 20 riding Diablo. My impression is that cyclists are way more discourteous than motorists . ... One nice thing you can do as a cyclist when ascending the narrow roads of Diablo is to pull over, stop and let the car traffic pass if you’ll be blocking a lane on a long uphill curve. It only takes a few seconds, but the karma points are huge.” — Steve Lombardi Cars-only, bikes-only: “I drive on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto in my work truck on Saturdays and Sundays. The bicycle riders are everywhere on this narrow two-lane road. They are a huge safety issue. I would like to share the road this way: ban all bicycles except for six hours on the weekend, and then during those six hours, ban all motor vehicles except for homeowners and emergency service vehicles.” — Hans Roth Bikes vs. shuttle bus: “A group of us rode out from San Francisco to Point Reyes Lighthouse this past weekend and were turned away by park rangers about 4 miles from the lighthouse. They said it was closed to all vehicles including bicycles, except the Marin Airporter shuttle buses. As you can probably guess, we were disappointed. The ranger said there was some sort of incident between the bikes and the shuttle buses. I guess the buses won and now have blocked access for bikes on weekends. I am sure there’s room for both.” — Alan Schacter