Glass on the Road

I know that this sounds like a trivial subject but I believe that it is a symptom of something more insidious. Of course, I may just be paranoid.

Regardless, the has been an inordinate amount of glass on the roads in SoCal as of late. A couple of weeks ago, my club members had numerous flats on our Saturday Social Ride. Personally, I have been having to swerve around too many patches of freshly broken glass over the past month.

Why do people need to throw bottles out of their cars?

Back in the 1980s, California did not collect deposits on bottles and cans. My cycling friends and I supported the adoption of a state law to start collecting deposits and to establish recycling centers. Of course we supported the proposed law to help the environment, but we also supported it to try to decrease the amount of broken glass on the road.

The first proposition failed to pass in the land of propositions, but the second time it passed. When the law went into effect it really did seem to help. However, over time, the positive effects of the law seemed to diminish. Over the past 10 years or so, there seems to be a cycle of increasing and decreasing amounts of glass on the road. Unfortunately, this latest spate of broken glass seems worse than ever.

What does this mean? I'm not sure. It might be the economy. It might be a declining social consciousness. It might be that people are out to get cyclists. Who knows?

I'm not happy and I'm concerned about the core reason for all of the glass.