Comfort is King

There's a famous road along the river in the town I live. It attracts cyclists from all over the county. It is easily the most popular route around. Much of the road is now flanked be a bike trail, which opened last year. The first six miles out of town, however, has no trail, but a very small shoulder. The speed limit is 35 MPH, as the road has lots of curves. There really isn't a good way for me to avoid it.

Over the last several years, and especially recently, groups of motorists with heavily modified cars use it like a racetrack. They consistently approach 100 MPH. One of them recently crashed and was reported to have been going more than 120. They ride up and down all day any nice weekend. A cyclist I recently met got a severe knee injury trying to get out of their way. He told me a friend of his also got somewhat injured in a separate incident.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get them to stop? I'm will to try almost anything. Thanks.

jack pot 

freedom of the road ...... if cars are there and it's twisty the squids are just over the horizon .................... in Tx a call to the DPS or local sheriff would probably get a radar LEO out to your race track

Iride01 

Complain to the police, sheriff, or whatever law enforcement is in that jurisdiction. You might have to also call your elected representatives too and maybe even the local news media.

If none of them act on your complaint, then you might have to become an activist and organize others in your area to get something done.

If you can get some of the motor cyclists to read this forum, then I'll tell them to stop doing that. <grin>

Bald Paul

Spike strips.

Troul 

bollards

FBOATSB

You're going to have to get a Go Pro posse together and document as many license plates as possible to force LEO action or you may just get lip service unless there is a rash of fatalities.

noimagination

That's a tough one. I'm afraid that any effective solution may take a significant amount of effort and time. Essentially, you're talking about turning yourself into a community organizer. If you're serious, try approaching it from that angle. Look up effective strategies and tools for that type of effort.

I could be wrong. If you have a responsive police force, then maybe a few complaints would be enough to have them crack down, but the little history you've provided doesn't indicate that the responsible law enforcement agency is very proactive.

Fortunately, in my locale the drivers of modified cars are among the most courteous around cyclists. Actually, strike that: as a group, they are by far the most courteous, even better than LEOs. They can be, on occasion, a pain on the highways, but for whatever reason, around cyclists they pass safely and at reasonable speeds. In 30+ years of cycling in this area I've had one concerning encounter (a fairly close pass) with a driver of that type of car. The roads around here are fairly tightly policed, that probably has a lot to do with it.

polyneux

My city has started instituting a crackdown on car meets and street racing as they've started to do it more and more and take over more and more blocks and roads etc with their nonsense.

Putting complaints in with your local Sherriff/PD but also with the city (the same way you'd ask for traffic management on a home road that might lead to speed humps being put in).

The carbros say "well if we had a racetrack this wouldn't happen" but we all know that it still would regardless (and might even increase since it would draw people with the kinds of cars that race and maybe don't feel like paying the track fee that day or its closed... or it's just not as nice as the windy road.)

If its a group you can somehow identify (via social media etc) that will help because you will learn the particulars of when and where.

homeless in ca.

Keep records of all your complaints to the city and police so when someone is killed you can prove their negligence as well.

FBOATSB

Also you and your posse should start collecting videos posted showing the shenanigans of the racers. Surely they've got their street racer groups and yoo toobs to show off their madd skilz just like cycling clubs. Archive them before they can take them down if they start to catch heat from LEOs or reporters.