Residents Urged to Attend Bike Meeting

It's been almost a week since bicyclist Debra Deem was killed on her bicycle in Newport Beach, now residents are urged to attend today's Bicycle Master Plan Oversight Committee Meeting to express their concerns about bike safety.

Debra Deem was the most recent bicyclist to die on a Newport Beach Street. Deem, reportedly the wife of an Olympic cyclist, was killed on the afternoon of Aug. 27 on East Coast Highway after she was hit by a minivan, Newport Beach police reported. April Morris, a bike safety advocate, urged residents in an email Friday to take the Newport Beach Bicycle Survey and show up to today's meeting saying, "in order to ensure that the Bike Master Plan considers the type of bicycle safety improvements that we believe will help minimize the deaths of our cyclist friends." 

Morris has worked with other advocates to provide the city with a "punch list" of projects to be funded through the city's bike safety fund. The list includes signage for drivers entering and exiting the 55 freeway at Coast Highway and the repainting of faded sharrows, or shared lane markers, on Coast Highway

Community members can stop by Surf City Cyclery in Costa Mesa, 257 E. 17th St., to pick up a free Newport Beach Memorial Ride t-shirt to wear to the meeting in memory of Leaf and Campion-Ritz.

The bike committee meeting will take place today from 5-6 p.m. in the Community Room at Newport Beach City Hall, 100 Civic Center Dr.

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