Our View: Tour of California is good for the area, but county
officials must do a better job of communicating with residents
It’s too bad that road closures to accommodate the third stage of the inaugural Tour of California inconvenienced South County residents and commuters.
A 17-mile loop of South County roads including portions of Bailey Avenue, Willow Springs Road, Uvas Road, Oak Glen Avenue, Hale Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard were closed for a few hours for the Feb. 22 event.
County officials said they notified by mail residents who lived on the closed streets and posted signs along the affected roads for a week before the event. The closures shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone who regularly uses those streets.
It appears, however, that county officials didn’t stick to the posted closure times. The roads were supposed to close at 10am, but people reported that roads closed as early as 9am.
In addition, it appears that county officials used inconsistent criteria for deciding who was able to get through the closed roads.
County officials need to mail notifications far ahead of next year’s race, and they need to look into additional ways of notifying people who don’t live on the route but use the roads much the way Caltrans does before a road closure.
We also think that officials should be flexible with road closures. If no cyclists are nearby, it shouldn’t be a problem to let traffic pass.
It sounds like County Supervisor Don Gage understands – no doubt from a steady stream of phone calls to his office.
“Next year it’s going to be a different story,” Gage told reporter Matt King. “They will have to find a better way to handle it.”
Finally, we hope that residents and commuters who were inconvenienced by this event will also show some flexibility. Building a world-class cycling event in California is good for the economy of the state and the region. It’s an opportunity to spotlight the beauty of South County’s rural, verdant hills and vistas.
It will take a bit of sacrifice, just like the Gilroy Garlic Festival does, to accommodate an event that has the potential to greatly benefit our community.
But this event, and its greater good factor, are worth that sacrifice.
