Mountain Cyclists Defend Safety Record

In Jeff Meyers’ otherwise fine article on Sycamore Canyon on July 7, he claims that hikers are gravely threatened by mountain bicyclists who have no regard for safety. This characterization and the quote from Ranger Brit Horn asserting that there have been accidents and lawsuits involving bicyclists are the only mention of bicyclists in the article. This is a one-sided view of mountain bike use.

It is worth noting that bicyclists are legitimate users of fire roads in Sycamore Canyon; that the vast majority of bicyclists ride carefully with high regard for the safety of other users; that CORBA’s (Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Assn.) volunteer Mountain Bike Patrol works closely with the state parks to monitor and regulate bicycle use in Sycamore Canyon; and that, to our knowledge, there are no lawsuits involving “bikes running into and over people in the hills.”

Mountain bicycling, like hiking, allows one to experience the wonder and the beauty of the backcountry. Bicycles are human scale, have negligible environmental impact, and can be ridden safely and responsibly in multi-user settings like Sycamore. My group, the Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Assn., has been working hard to educate all backcountry users in the appropriate use of bicycles, and these efforts have often received positive coverage in The Times. Meyers’ focus on the negative case is frustrating.

Mountain bicycle use in the state parks has raised some difficult recreational conflict issues, and unfounded claims and sweeping generalizations are particularly troublesome in this point in time as the state parks formulate new policy. To characterize all bicyclists by the few who ride irresponsibly is like characterizing all hikers by the few who smoke cigarettes on Sycamore’s tinder-dry trails. In both cases, reckless and dangerous behavior threatens all users; in both cases, education and enforcement are the solution to this problem; and in both cases, this behavior should not reflect on the large numbers of responsible users.

JIM HASENAUER

Van Nuys