Cars rip down Edinger Avenue in Santa Ana as schoolchildren – some on bicycles – make their way home. In a county that averages one bicyclist death a month, the scene is terrifying.
But while most people see a hopeless and deadly standoff, with bicycles and cars sharing the same road, 18-year-old college freshman Maribel Mateo and her brother, Tony Gatica, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, see opportunities for safer streets.
The teenagers already have done what many adults considered impossible. Mateo and Gatica managed to push through a state bicycle safety grant application worth $2.37 million. The planned improvements include barriers separating bicycle and car lanes in one of the busiest – and most dangerous – parts of Santa Ana.
“I was so glad, happy and really proud,” Mateo said of the effort, standing on the sidewalk at West Edinger and South Fairview Street, where safety improvements will soon be made.
The winding road from idea to execution, however, was – and remains – lengthy.
TEENS PERSEVERE
Five years ago, Mateo, her brother and a collection of children at Santa Ana’s KidWorks Youth Empowerment Network program learned about transportation needs and started attending city meetings.
Few adults took their input seriously. After all, transportation is technical, complex, wonky. Still, city officials invited the students to conduct walkability assessments, and the teenagers jumped at the chance.
They scoured routes they knew their friends used to get to school. They talked to some 200 people who relied on bicycles for transportation. They shot video. Soon, they came up with three areas they considered in dire need of safety improvements.
City officials applied for state and federal grants and received funding for two of the areas. They invited the students who went to KidWorks to take on the third grant application.
Gatica recalls the process as slow and tough.
Experts dismissed suggestion after suggestion. It was a huge struggle to get the students together at the same time. With most teens living with their families in cramped apartments, simply finding a place to meet was difficult.
But Mateo and Gatica were determined. During the application process, their father, Rufino Mateo, who commutes by bicycle to his job as a cook, was hit by a car.
“He couldn’t walk,” Mateo quietly confided, “and his bicycle was broken.”
But with money tight, Dad still had to work. He found another bicycle and pushed through the pain.
SAVING LIVES
While watching clusters of kids navigating traffic and street crossings on Edinger, Mateo pointed out that many people in her hometown of Santa Ana can’t afford cars, her family included. To get around, they take the bus, bicycle or both.
She talked about Bike to Work Month, which is May. It’s also the same month for the Ride of Silence, a global campaign for safer streets that memorializes cyclists killed by motor vehicles.
While gathering the information for the grant application, the KidWorks team documented that from January 2011 through this past May, on the 1.7 miles they studied, there were at least a dozen bicycle crashes, most involving cars.
Weeks after their study, Priscilla Vallejo was killed July 13 while riding her bike to school. The 13-year-old died after being hit by a truck in a crosswalk at South Center Street and West Edinger Avenue.
Lynnete Guzman, community engagement coordinator for KidWorks, joined Mateo and Gatica on the sidewalk off Edinger. Traffic noise nearly drowned out their conversation.
As she usually does on her 2.5-mile commute to work, Guzman rode there on her bike. “Why fight over a parking spot?” asked Guzman, who helped the teenagers with the application. Gatica explained he arrived by skateboard because his bicycle is busted after another cyclist hit him.
Mateo said the multimillion-dollar grant will help alleviate some of the dangers. The improvements will take several years to implement.
To celebrate getting the grant, the KidWorks crew went to Knott’s Berry Farm. Still, they continue their work by pushing what’s called “active transportation,” moving by human power. Their latest effort was leading a night bike ride with, yes, plenty of lights.
Both brother and sister already plan careers as civil engineers. Their goal? To help make a safer world.
Contact the writer: dwhiting@ocregister.com
