Jack's Electric Bicycle

Street Sweeper

Over the weekend I accidently plowed through a fresh pile of broken glass which included some really wicked shards. I thought for sure my tires would be punctured, but they weren't.

I got lucky – this time.

With two large piles of glass at two locations that I travel over repeatedly 6 days a week, it was time to take action.

So today when I made my trip I brought a small broom with a 2 1/2-foot-long handle, a plastic dust pan and two plastic bags.

The first cleanup was in a really bad location at the southeast corner of the Central Avenue and Sutter Road. The bottle was shattered where the southbound bicycle lane meets the crosswalk.

I took out my Oompa Loompa-sized broom and went to work. Within two minutes, the glass was bagged and ready to be dumped in the trash can behind my nearby office

After a few more business related chores, I travelled northbound to the intersection of Central Avenue and Hiller Road. Once again, a bottle had been broken in the crosswalk where it crosses the northbound bike lane. I’ve been dodging this mess for weeks.

Within a couple minutes, the glass was bagged and ready for disposal.

There was a definite dorkus malorkus quality to both of the cleanup scenes – a guy with a helmet wielding a tiny broom and furiously sweeping as cars whizzed by. Such is the life of a big-time newspaper publisher.

But I think that the four minutes spent on this little project was a good investment. It may save me from a flat tire.

I didn’t mind the work, and I plan to keep the broom and dust pan handy for future messes. But it raises a question: Shouldn’t the street sweeper machine visit McKinleyville more often? It’s been about two months.

Perhaps the county is waiting until the fall, when more leaves fill the streets and need to be cleaned up before the first rain. It’s my understanding that the real purpose behind those machines is to clean debris to prevent the storm drains from getting clogged. It's not about cleaning glass for bicycles.

This week I’ll call Public Works and find out what’s going on.

posted by Jack Durham @ 8:27 PM