EXPERIENCE COUNTS—A cyclist takes the Santa Susana Pass Road recently. The riders who use the pass tend to be experienced, resulting in fewer collisions involving bicycles. The Santa Susana Pass was restriped last month, making the twisting mountain road that connects Simi to the San Fernando Valley a safer route for bicyclists and drivers alike.

The idea for the change came from concerned Simi resident Bill Clark. The self-described “citizen activist” suggested to the county a new way of restriping the lanes that gives bikers more room to ride.

An avid mountain biker, Clark said it was important to him that cyclists have better access to the canyon roads, especially since the pass is the only road connecting Simi to the city of Los Angeles.

“There’s room for bicycle riders, and cars stay toward the middle of the road,” he said. “Hopefully it’s going to be better for everybody.”

Clark said he contacted the county last year about restriping the pass. He spoke with Richard Herrera, a traffic engineer with the Ventura County Public Works Agency transportation department.

“We met because he was concerned with the striping out there,” Herrera said. “He’s a bicyclist, so he wanted us to provide more room on the shoulder areas for the bicyclists.”

Herrera said he told Clark that when the pass came up for an overlay project, they would restripe it to provide wider shoulders. The project was completed about three weeks ago but only in the Ventura County portions of the pass.

“By striping it this way we do have pretty consistent a 12-foot lane in each direction and wider shoulders than before,” Herrera said. “There’s more room for bicyclists now. It’s still kind of narrow in some spots, but that’s all the pavement that’s out there.”

In addition, the right-turn lane for Box Canyon has been shortened so that it no longer “wipes out” the bicycle lane leading up to the turn, Clark said.

Herrera said he often gets calls from concerned citizens like Clark, whose suggestions are taken into consideration by the county.

“We can’t always do what they’re asking for, but if it’s within reason and follows standards, we can do that sort of thing,” he said.

According to Officer Terry Uhrich with the California Highway Patrol, of the 30 traffic collisions that have occurred on the Ventura County side of the pass since 2005, only one involved a vehicle versus a bicycle.

And none of the 41 traffic collisions on Box Canyon during the same time period have involved bicyclists.

Uhrich gave two reasons for those statistics: Drivers tend to slow down on curving mountain roads, and the bikers using the pass are typically experienced riders.

Still, Uhrich did have tips for cyclists and motorists using the pass.

“Obviously, slow down, especially with the rainy season coming up,” he said. “And bicyclists need to stay over as far to the right as possible.”

Clark’s advice to bikers is to ride single file instead of side by side, to wear bright colors and to stay out of the car lane. At the same time, drivers should not hug turns or swerve in and out of their lane. And perhaps most importantly, he said, drivers should be patient if there is a biker ahead of them.

“If it’s on a mountain road, sometimes they don’t have a place to go,” Clark said. “Be patient, don’t get upset. . . . Sometimes they don’t have room to get out of the way.”