For those outside California, it should be noted that in the areas of the statistics - San Diego, Orange and LA Counties - that Pacific Coast "Highway" is not exactly a highway. What most people think of when they hear PCH is that stretch between Morro Bay and Big Sur, winding along above the ocean with no civilization and no intersections. Where these statistics are compiled, for the most part it's just another street, albeit in many places wide with good bike lanes and a nice ride. Through Newport Beach, though, most of it is narrow, with street-side parking and just a general nightmare.

 

I want to know how many of the pedestrian-related ones involve broadsiding somebody carrying a surfboard across the street. I feel like I'm dodging those every time I go down there to visit family and ride in Oceanside/Carlsbad...

 

I had something similar. Just a few weeks ago our group was going on PCH in Huntington Beach (a major surfer city). Our group was in a single paceline, and as we approached a bus-stop, a guy who was waiting for the bus suddenly swung his surfboard out into the bike lane. I was the lead rider, and I saw 3 fins of the surfboard coming at me, and I yelled "f*** f****" and took evasive action by veering to the left side of the bike lane while trying to duck my head out of the way. Luckily the surfboard didn't some close to chopping my head, but I yelled mainly for those behind me to take evasive action and for the surfer to pull his surfboard back. I'd imagine if we were in a double paceline I'd have rammed into the rider on my left. And that's with us already slowing down the pace to 16-17 mph already (because I just knew sh*t like this might just happen). The other dreaded accident that's always on my mind is getting doored by one of the car alongside the road. That's why I use a bright 800 lumen flashing headlight, it gets their attention (most of the time).

 

Where I live, which is about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz (or about 65 miles south of SF), it is a non-divided two-lane highway. There have been several fatalities involving cyclists in the last few years. One of them was a UC cop who taught bike safety amongst other things, and another was a safe rider who got caught up in a freak accident where a driver lost control of a Tesla and it crossed the road and flipped off the embankment and hit him head-on, on the shoulder.

I've ridden the length of it (and 101) all down the West Coast without incident, but that was in 1988 and 1991. I think it has gotten quite a bit more dangerous now. I try to stay off of it, even though it is one of the main roads into town from where I live.

 

You can ride Hwy 1, I just wouldn't recommend you do it on a weekend. Every year the Naval Postgraduate School Cycling Club does two rides on the 1. In the spring from Monterey to SF, and in the fall from Carmel to Paso Robles. Both rides are along the 1 and traffic is never bad, but the ride is always on a Friday. I use to ride from Monterey down to Big Sur once in a while during the week and never had any issues.

 

I rode from sf to san luis obispo on the 1.

Don't think I'll ever do it again.

Too much traffic and lookie loos.

 

Much of my early cycling years were spent on Pacific Coast Highway. In the early 1970's I was part of a bicycle club whose Sunday morning ride rode the highway from the Santa Monica Pier Pier north past Malibu. Or did we get onto the highway at the Incline or Entrada Drive? I can't remember. Anyway, it's always been dangerous. I remember a guy (a great guy who was an actual French waiter) being killed on it.

 

Had a car-bike hit directly in front of me in the late 90s on PCH just north of Santa Monica. I was the last guy in a paceline and a car drifted over into our paceline and hit the left butt cheek of the rider in front of me. The car's mirror folded, and the car drifted left and continued on without stopping. She (the rider) was angry at me because she thought I had swatted her butt. I'm not sure she ever believed me that she had actually just been hit by a car.

 

That's why I liked living on Oxnard. Riding down to LA County line and back was nice, though once on the Oxnard plain it turns into a freeway (I would ride the shoulder illegally between a couple of exits). Going north it ends and you have to get on the 101, which is like a freeway but with cross traffic in that area, until you get to the SB County line. But never felt any danger at all on there.

scott s.
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I cycled across the country this past summer, to Olympia (Washington), where I picked up 101. I took it around the Olympic Peninsula, down through Oregon, and Northern California...and then picked up Route 1, in Leggett....and that took me right into San Francisco.

101 was phenomenal, until I hit California. Once I crossed the state line, it was probably the worst cycling of my entire trip. 101 turns into a damn Freeway, and the drivers are obnoxious. This is coming from someone that cycles in Manhattan and surrounding NYC areas, every day.....and dealing with Cattle Trailers in the Midwest and Logging Trucks in the PNW (both being surprisingly conscientious). I found relief after getting to route 1, which is similar to Oregon's 101 (about 75% as nice though). If it wasn't for the Redwoods, I may have went legitimately insane in Northern California. It was that horrific.