Comments on: LA’s Worst Bike Amenities: Wilshire Crescent

By: Will Campbell

Will Campbell — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:34:07 +0000

Yeah, when my route takes me past this strip mall it's about 14.5 miles one-way between where I'm at in Silver Lake and the Culver City/Westchester border. My ride along 4th Street runs between Commonwealth at the east end all the way to Cochran at the west just before 4th runs into the Park La Brea compound.

Crescent Heights between Olympic and Venice is actually a great bike-friendlier street (especially if considering hellish La Cienega). Then I jog through the lower portion of the Crestview neighborhood to avoid the nightmare of the 10 Freeway underpass on La Cienega north of Venice. ONce on Venice I get into Culver City and onto the Ballona Creek Bikeway to Sepulveda, then south to Centinela and I'm at work. Takes me about an hour... about 10 minutes slower than if I did the same general surface street route by car. And at least 30 minutes faster than the soul-sucking, life-shortening freeway route of the 101 south to the 110 south to the 10 west to the 405 south.

By: Damien Newton

Damien Newton — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:54:37 +0000

Will, you are absolutely right about the street name. San Vicente is where my Mom works, it's McCarthy Vista where the strip mall is. Good catch.

PS - I've read about your commuting up 4th Street from close to (or from) the Downtown...you must have a pretty long bike commute everyday.

By: Will Campbell

Will Campbell — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:40:05 +0000

Looking forward to more of this and I'll be keeping my eyes wide for submission opps, but if that's the same strip mall I pass to and from work each day it looks like its the one on the southeast corner of Wilshire and McCarty Vista (which become Crescent Heights north of Wilshire), not San Vicente.

By: Eliot

Eliot — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:13:35 +0000

You didn't mention that the bike racks themselves are diabolically bad. Notice that rack is filed under "Poor Bike Parking" on this Portland site: http://www.portlandonline.com/TRANSPORTATION/index.cfm?c=34813&a=98040

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:50:32 +0000

Awesome series! I'll drop a line or two to any "offenders" whose contact info you post on here! If everyone does the same, we might make a difference.

By: Damien Newton

Damien Newton — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:48:33 +0000

Absolutely Becca. Anytime someone sees a new amenity they should email tips and I'll go out and grab pictures. I've done that before when "Sharrows" showed up in Westwood and I'd love to do more good news stories.

http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/04/23/new-sharrows-on-westwood-blvd/

By: Bekka

Bekka — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:38:41 +0000

It would also be nice to highlight places with good bike amenities. That way we can support local neighborhoods and businesses that take care of bicyclists.

For example, I noticed a large new bike rack appear near Intelligentsia in Silver Lake in addition to the regular city bike racks on the sidewalk. (Though I don't know if the new rack is keeping up with demand, on weekends there are so many bikes/vespas parked on the block it's starting to resemble Copenhagen.)

By: ubrayj02

ubrayj02 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:28:21 +0000

Maybe a re-visit to Dodger stadium is in order for this minor infraction of etiquette:

The new bike racks at Dodger Stadium are surrounded by a gate during games - as a place for visitors to hangout and smoke cigarettes. Yes, the bike racks are smoking hot during games, and your bike will be covered in ash and dust, and will have the faint aroma of an ash tray after each game. It was a bitch to get my bakfiets clean after a game I recently attended.

By: David Pulsipher

David Pulsipher — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:09:29 +0000

damien,

this will be a great re-occuring series and i look forward to it. hopefully these will serve as a catalyst for the offenders to mend their ways.