Next Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. in Embarcadero Hall there will be a town hall meeting. The leadership of the I.V. Foot Patrol, county supervisors – including 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone – and the University will be there, available to hear your compliments and complaints about issues in Isla Vista. These sorts of meetings were once much more frequent in Isla Vista, and this year there is a concerted effort to start them up again.

The intended emphasis of this meeting is public safety of all sorts, but with a special emphasis on bicycle safety. While it will be possible to raise concerns about other issues such as the conditions on Gibraltar Road that may have contributed to the tragic death of Kendra Payne, the main goal is to air ideas and concerns that pertain to the situation in Isla Vista itself.

I bike through I.V. twice a day. People who don’t bike a lot in I.V. don’t understand how the I.V. streets really work. Bicyclists, skaters and pedestrians are so numerous they seize the initiative, particularly on the long east-west streets like Trigo where cars are sparse, and annoy motorists into obedience. Obviously this can get dangerous, and as I’ve gotten older I have also grown more timid at staring down cars.

I’ve heard that in the 1970s, there were signs at the entrances to I.V. that warned drivers that they were entering a dense zone of bikes and pedestrians, and that they should slow down and look out. Re-establishing those signs would be terrific.

My one serious accident, at Sue