The Santa Ana River Trail is a wonderful facility -
even though it is not a real Active Transportation corridor or ideal Class I bikeway
( CLOSED after dark, and only 10 MPH Speed Limit! )
Much of it meets the County's own standards for a multi-use path; offering BOTH a
TRAIL for pedestrians, mountain bikes, and equestrians
and a paved PATH for bicycles, eBikes, pedestrians, wheel chairs and strollers to enjoy.
OC Parks maintains it well and it is a real gem of public space.
Now that the OC Sherrif is enforcing the long standing no camping and no storage ordinances,
and the County is offering court mandated options for homeless citizens, we are less likely to
find long term camping along the facility.



SART CLOSED FROM TAFT TO GARDEN GROVE BLVD - February 2018 - present)

Most recently (Feb - April 2018) a 3 mile section has been closed to all public access to clear out
homeless people from Taft  (Ball) to Garden Grove Blvd (Memory Lane)
There is no posted detour - you are on your own, but the OCBC has identified the best
work around; side walks and on street option but it is 5 miles of traffic; not the pleasant
experience of being away from traffic on a Class I bikeway.
None of it is Class II and only Taft is even Class III so teh County & Cities are afreaid to designate the detour.

Downstream: Exit the SART at Taft (east bound if the gate is open) to southbound Main.
Take Main south to Collins west bound.
(take Struck west to Katella if you want to get to the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center
to connect to a train or bus...)
Collins gets you to Eckhoff south bound to Orangewood (worst bit is getting through the 57 freeway interchange
& dealing with the narrow bridge over the river)
Lewis skirts between Orange & Garden Grove but unlike City Drive, has no on-ramps at the 22 freeway to deal with.
Garden Grove Blvd is busy, has on-street parking and is not bike friendly,
but gets you east bound directly back to the SART downstream of the closure.

Upstream is the reverse; go under Garden Grove Blvd & exit the SART on the upstream side of the bridge 
(if gate is open on that side), turn Right (west) on Garden Grove Blvd, turn Right (north) on Lews, turn Right (east)
on Orangewood, Left (north) on Eckhoff, Right (east) on Collins, Left (north) on Main, then Left (NW) on Taft
& get back on the SART.

All of the left turns are at signalized intersections so you can use cross walks for box-turns if you prefer.











The river flood control project (2016 - present) continues to cause problems up stream of
Gypsum Canyon to the County Line, and down stream from Gypsum Canyon to  Yorba Linda Blvd with  confusing
Class 4 'protected bikeways' installed along La Palma Ave contributing to some wrong way 'salmon' riding.



91 FREEWAY EXPANSION DETOUR 2013-2015
In 2013 the SART was badly detoured until the OCBC got involved, and was sacrificed
17 mos for the auto-centric 91 Freeway expansion from Lake View to Tustin / Rose
and had that major detour in Anaheim for a LONG time - see more here





Orange Olive Road access point (2010 - present)

One of the local access issues for the SART in the City of Orange - un-changed for YEARS other than some one crashed through the access gate into the trees, and the cell tower has had a new fence put around it...

What happened at the SART Bikeway access from Orange Olive Road at East Riverdale Avenue in the City of Orange ?

The way it WAS: (before Summer of 2010)
(Note even GOOGLE MAPS still showed & routes bikes on the old East access in November 2011)



Just West of the tracks, on East Riverdale Avenue there was a curb cut to a popular staging area with parking,
a gate for maintenance access to SART and an opening in the fence for trail users with a paved connector to the path.
Just East of the tracks there was a trail access gate with an open PAVED access gap for path users to SART.
A few years ago a cell phone array was added to the existing SCE power line tower, and the old hard pack dirt was
torn up and backfilled with soft sand.  The paved access opening was not re-sealed when the access road was resurfaced,
and the closed gate says NO TRESPASSING (on SART?)

Here is what the staging area / trail head /trail access looked like before

Nice curb cut, parking for maybe 10 cars if well parked, signed no overnight parking,
monument to De Anza's camp just left of the drive way.
Fence on near right side separated the staging area from the rail road tracks.

On the East side it looked like this:


The paved connector path was clearly torn up from cell tower array addition several years ago.
A large utility box was set in soft sand where the connector path used to be. SART pavement ends at
the gate (here shown wide open) and the pass through opening to the right of the gate is still there,
but pavement had degraded.  Connection is obviously in use daily by bikes that can manage
the dirt to the curb of East Riverdale Avenue.
The degradation of this access to SART was tolerable as the staging area left another access on the
West side of the tracks for road bikes.

But then it got WORSE!

NOW (2010) the railroad has improved THEIR crossings through Orange and have completely eliminated the
legitimate access to SART.  More riders are now using the abandoned East access, because the West staging area
has been fenced off. (A narrow DIY paved path has now been laid by a local rider.)
The curb cut was removed and curbing was installed. The staging / parking area is now open to SART but not to
the street at all.  A new access gate has been installed about 200 feet west of the tracks, and a nice new sign was
posted that said "Bike Trail 200 Feet "but the access gate has no pedestrian / cyclist / equestrian access gap, and
is always locked. (The sign may have been removed rather than provide bikeway access.)
Here is the fenced of staging area on July 18th 2010:   In 2013 it is unchanged.

It was nice that they left the historical marker (brick block on left) in place
but there was no sidewalk to get to it and it was in disrepair.


I am sure The Orange Bicentennial Commission would rather have had this monument put inside the fence
or along the SART where it could be read.
It was salvaged (before it was stolen for scrap metal), and handed over to OC Parks - who relocated it very nicely
on the SART where it can be seen and read by trail users.

The old gate (some times locked) is now INSIDE the fenced area on the West side - accessed only from SART,
and the access gap is still there as well... but a NO TRESPASS sign has been added to the back fence.

Who owns this vacant lot? County Flood Control and the City of Orange no longer wants to manage parking
so it has been closed off and left rough. The the vacant space on the east side of the tracks has been abandoned
to the utilities who tore up the old servive access road.

Most distressing is that enough local pedestrians and bikes have created a clear path through the brush on the SART
side of this fenced off lot, just to get around this fenced off area, and then along the tracks to get to the street!
Obviously the intent was to keep people away from the tracks, but this fence is actually feeding them onto the
railroad right of way!

With no developed or maintained legitimate access, 'man gate' or equestrian access, the people have traveled
where they can & created these 'natural' connectors: (Orange lines)


Orange Lines = 'Natural' paths of travel in use now (Obvious from soil compaction, lack of weeds, foot prints & tire tracks)
Red Lines = Chain Link fences
Blue Line = Class 2 on street bike route (Bike Lane)
Green Lines = Legal routes for cyclists to and from 'Natural' paths
Yellow Lines = Questionably legal routes;
     North bound from a dual left turn or right turn lane...there is no through lane to get to SART access
     East bound left turn from SART to get to the Bike Lane... there is no cross walk to eastbound street.

By 2017 OC Parks added a nice pocket park play ground for children - but there is still no man-gate to access the park
from the homes along East Riverdale without crossing (no crosswalks) to teh man gate up stream of the tracks.

Notice that the City of Orange provides NO CROSS WALKS to help pedestrians or side walk riding cyclists get across
East Riverdale or Orange Olive. 

Wouldn't it be nice if the cell phone company were held to replacing the paved connector
to the existing 'man gate' that they destroyed on the East side of the tracks?  

And if the City of Orange added a complete Class 2 bike lane in BOTH directions, and a cross walk or two?
And a through lane for bikes to proceed North to the SART... 
     and some Sharrows where the street is to narrow for a Class 2 bike lane?

The County could consider adding a pass through 'man gate' at the new access gate just West of the old staging area,
& add a few amenities to the rough abandoned area ...if landscaped with some ground cover, a water faucet,
hitching post & port-o-let,  it could serve as a nice picnic area for SART trail users to enjoy - well off the bike way.
How much better would this look?



If you want to see improvements, Please contact OC Parks, OC Parks Comission, City of Orange,
the SART Official Community Website and the Orange County Bicycle Coalition!
       
Posted Nov 2010
Updated April 2018