Streetsblog Los Angeles

Too often, activists undertake a successful campaign of some sort and move on to the next campaign without taking the time to document what made their efforts such a success.  Not so with the recent Bike Parking Campaign in Pico-Union/Westlake undertaken by the City of Lighs/Ciudad de las Luces program of the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition.  While the campaign took the time to document their efforts in a blog post, the more accessible Bike Parking Resource Guide could be a guide book for any community that wants to take bike parking seriously.

"We believe this guide will have an important impact on creating a more accessible, empowering way for the community to make their neighborhoods more livable, especially with low-income areas like Pico-Union, that have been left behind in the city's planning process." explains Allison Mannos, the director of the City of Lights program,  "Our hopes are that other advocates and community groups in LA will read and be inspired by the report to start campaigns in their own communities to add much needed bike parking."

The campaign worked with the community and the Council Office of Ed Reyes to help bring bike parking en masse to the area.  The main things to learn from their process is  the importance of having a full community effort to identify parking needs and opportunities, an understanding of of what the spatial needs are to bring parking and the support of a local politician who let's say commands more respect from the city than your average activist.

The story of City of Lights' efforts to bring better bike parking to Pico-Union can be read in full at their blog.  in short, the staff heard repeated complaints that there were no places to chain bicycles near day laborer centers so the group began a campaign to urge the city to bring them. The first step was cataloging where bike facilities were currently located.  Next, they held a day-long event where the community set out to identify where the opportunities were for new spaces.  Armed with a basic knowledge of bike parking and some measuring tape, they set out on a Saturday morning to begin their efforts.  Once completed, the City of Lights staff identified 35-40 spaces that should have bike parking.  With the efforts of the local council office, they expect that the spaces will be installed sometime this spring after going through LADOT's application process for bicycle parking.

City of Lights stresses that this isn't the end, but the beginning, of their efforts to bring better biking to Pico-Union.  Streetsblog will check back with them as their efforts continue.