I have to decide how badly I want to ream SCAG next Wednesday. Should I at least be conciliatory and recognize the efforts of their line staff to pay attention to these issues, or should I totally rip into them for their stupid ideas, that have never worked, and their poor public involvement process, which just hit a new low in the 2008 RTP cycle? (I have been involved in RTPs since 1997, that’s how long I’ve been in the business, and I’ve never seen it that bad as the last cycle.) Jessica, and Ryan, are doing a good job with what they have. They are trying harder. Nor do I want ot discourage innovation. The question is whether SCAG’s policy and programmatic failures are a problem of the past administration, or are systemic, and could mean that SCAG should be disbanded and MPO status devolved to the local county transportation commissions.

Personally I like the idea of ciclovia events being in community retail areas – so folks connect with their communities. Freeways are set apart from the areas where we people actually walk and ride.

I totally agree a longer route would be better.

Given the resource dillema, a shorter route may be more viable to get things started. Maybe have some sponsors / donors to cover the costs associated with traffic control?

Again, I’d really like to see this happen.

I’d love to make a ciclavia happen in Santa Monica.

To safely close off a road for an adequate distance, maybe 3 or 4 blocks to start, we would need some traffic control devices. Also, if it were in a business area, where I think it could be most viable to start, we’d need buy-in from all or most of the businesses.

Can this be done by an active group, given the limited resources of the City? To make this happen the City would have to rent additional traffic control devices, deploy and monitor the traffic control devices, staff traffic officers at key intersections (overtime pay), and notify all affected businesses.

Those are the challenges I see; I’d very much like to see them overcome and welcome any ideas.

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Great point.

And it’s the one thing they politically won’t consider. Part of what makes a sprawling city like London so great for public transit isn’t just its 12 tube lines and dozens of commuter rail lines but a comprehensive bus network with bus only lanes.

It takes a tremendous amount of political courage for any politician, especially a southern California one, to tell a motorist that their single-occupancy vehicle is not our highest transportation priority.

If Metro moved from transportation model of moving “vehicles”, where a bus and car are treated the same, to one of moving “people”, where the greater the number of people being moved, the higher the priority, it would revolutionize transportation planning in L.A. Good luck on getting politicians here to go along with that.

The other suggestion is eliminating free parking, which is also politically problematic..

I was the SCAG lead on this study that was done for $125K. I think it was a great step in talking about getting people out of their cars. Something our transportation decisionmakers definitely need more presentations and venues that this is the key topic for the meeting.

I was excited in the morning when the study – that’s looking at first and last mile barriers to transit – was presented to the first joint meeting of the City of LA planning and transportation commissions. It was incredibly valuable to have these two commission discussing ideas such as walking bicycling, parking and pricing and more.

Josef – you’re completely right on about the safety element – it’s actually 30% of all traffic fatalities in the state of CA are bicyclists and pedestrians – unacceptable.

I’d be happy to talk more about this or discuss ways it could be done better. I am working on bicycle and pedestrian regional planning at SCAG and would welcome any and all advice/input/criticism. you can reach me at meaney(at)scag.ca.gov

I’ve been living car free in LA since 1997 and am committed to pursuing ways to rethinking the overpowering role we give to the car in our neighborhoods/streets/communities in So Cal – there is much to discuss and critique. All the more reason to for increasing citizen involvement in public decisionmaking.

btw – metro is doing a foldable bike study to see potential ways bike might be subized for those interested in purchasing. Various vendors have lent Metro bikes to ride for a limited time to see how they work. NYC MTA sells a foldable bike for $299 right off their website. At this point – so early in the study – who knows what policy reccomendations will happen but I think it’s important to be looking at all the various ways and strategies to make provide ways for people to get out of their cars. It’s def valuable to hear people ideas on it – let me know if you want to discuss with me more.

Perhaps we all need to rally around making a ciclavia happening? quit studying and get to walking and bicycling? I do think it is contagious – once you are able to see the alternatives to driving and how it impacts your community and life – it’s pretty infectious (with the right land use and transportation elements to help support it). No doubt something we need to be dicussing a lot more of – whenever we can.

Glad to see all the comments and the post.

LOL. Yeah, well luckily it’s not literally true that there are no good places to ride a bike in LA, just not nearly as many as there should be.

I just looked up Metro’s bike map (http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/bikes/images/la_bike_map.pdf) and it looks like you’re in luck if you live in Silver Lake, along the Orange Line or near Venice Blvd.

Good luck in most other parts of the city.

Hey, I see your point. Fear is one of the main things that keeps me off a bike. However, for people who live in areas with bike lanes and calm streets a folding bike subsidy could be just the thing to challenge their driving habit.

It doesn’t matter if you give away folding bikes for free as long as most people are scared to use them on our city streets. Without the foundation of safer and more accommodating routes, most people will continue to drive as if their lives depend on it, and as for as they will be concerned, it does.

SCAG isn’t the most powerful planning agency ever since most land use authority and money is at the county or local level, but it’s useful to think about stuff besides the (difficult to implement) fundamentals of complete streets and density near transit.