The Newport Back Bay conservancy is proposing to restrict bicycling to north bound only along the Newport Back Bay trail.  Don’t let this happen.

The Newport Beach Bike Master plan committee is meeting this evening at 5:00 in room 100 of the Newport Beach Civic Center and will discuss bicycle access to the Newport Back Bay.

The first item of business is discussion of a letter to the committee from the Newport Bay Conservancy limiting bicyclist access to the back bay. This is a critical bicycling corridor connecting PCH to the San Diego Creek Trail, and bidirectional access to the Back Bay needs to be open for cyclists. Their proposal is to allow bicyclists to only go north bound – and to maintain vehicle traffic.

With Newport Beach as one of our major bicycling venues, it is imperative that the committee hear from you, the bicycling community.

As anyone who rides this beautiful route on a regular basis this path is widely used in both directions by bicyclists, walkers, joggers and skaters. And vehicles are only allowed in the northbound direction.  It is our position that eliminating vehicle traffic in the early morning and on weekends would reduce conflicts and make this path safer for everyone. The answer is not restricting bicyclists.

Inexperienced bicyclists and those who are less fit will not use the path if they cannot go both directions. The hills that would need to be navigated are too steep and most bicyclists do not want to compete with vehicles on the open road.  That is a major reason they use the back bay. It is quiet, it is safe and it is flat.

If you can please attend the meeting at 5:00 this afternoon in room 100 of the Newport Civic Center. Or send your comments to ()