ASNC Member Steps Up to Protect Bicyclists from Hidden Hazard

Pat Griffith of the was riding her bicycle along the Arroyo Seco Bike Path on Sunday afternoon when she encountered a hidden hazard.

At the bottom of the ramp that leads into the path at Montecito Heights across the pedestrian bridge from , Griffith discovered the missing grate, which exposed a one foot wide, by three foot long gap in the river trail.

Sensing that most bicyclists riding down the ramp probably wouldn't see the deep gap until it was too late, Griffith made several calls the city's services directory.

"As we are going pretty fast, the last minute stop or swerve seems dangerous enough," Griffith wrote in an email to Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch. "And as it is all concrete, the landing after flying off one’s bike would not be pretty."

After making several phone calls to city departments, who deferred responsibility for replacing the missing grate, Griffith finally got a hold of the Los Angeles County Flood Control department, who stepped up and put a protective barricade around the missing grate.

As of Sunday evening, the dangerous gap in the path had been blocked off so as to be fully visible to any bike riders on the river trail.