Streetsblog Los Angeles

Isaiah (center) speaks with Malcolm Carson (L), Tafarai Bayne (R) and Andres Ramirez (far right) at a bike-to-work-day pit stop sponsored by Community Health Councils and TRUST South L.A. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

Stop any cyclist in South L.A. and ask them their thoughts on bike-to-work day and I can almost guarantee you’ll get a snort, a dismissive hand wave, and an, “Aw, man, I do this every day!”

It certainly describes the reaction I got from most people I spoke with who were riding in the area yesterday. And, it describes a lot of the reactions we got while handing out snacks, maps, and patch kits to commuters heading home on their bikes last night at the corner of Vermont Ave. and Martin Luther King Blvd. in South L.A.

So used to their daily ride were the commuters, in fact, Andres Ramirez and Malcolm Carson of Community Health Councils (CHC) — sponsors of the bike-to-work-day pit stop along with TRUST South L.A. — often found themselves chasing after cyclists and trying to convince them to stop, sometimes without luck.

Andres Ramirez (CHC) points to where new lanes will be along MLK Blvd. to a flower vendor on a bike. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

“It’s FREE!” usually did the trick.

Once they managed to get them to stop, it was the cyclists’ turn to be curious about what we were doing there.

“So, bike-to-work-day is…um…it’s a thing?” a puzzled Isaiah asked, pulling out his calendar.

He regularly rides his bike or the bus between his home in Hyde Park and the south edge of downtown, where he works.

We tried explaining it was a once-a-year thing to encourage people to try cycling.

“Oh,” he said, putting his calendar back in his backpack.

He was suddenly more interested in the “Every Lane is a Bike Lane” bumper sticker.

Malcolm Carson (CHC) speaks with a woman taking her son out to run some errands at a Bike-to-Work-Day pit stop. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

“Can I put this on my bag?” he asked excitedly.

He was tired of people harassing him as he rode along MLK Blvd, he said. Especially because there wasn’t really anywhere else he could ride — he’d recently been cited for riding on the sidewalk near Crenshaw.

“I’ve seen these big billboards saying I can use the lane,” he said, “but people still honk at me to get out of the road.”

He was glad to hear that bike lanes were going in along MLK. Maybe he’d finally be able to ride in peace.

Yes, cars don’t respect cyclists at all, agreed a bicycle flower vendor (above). More lanes were definitely needed in the area.

Even with lanes, one woman (left) with her adorable son in tow wasn’t sure she’d feel safe enough to get in the road.

“My husband rides on the road,” she said. “But I stay on the sidewalks. It’s much safer that way.”

* * * * * *

"This is my car!" Moammar said, patting the handlebars of his bike. We caught him on his way home to Culver City after apartment hunting south of USC. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

We did meet a few people who were cycling by choice. Read more…

The past few months has literally been a battle as the LADOT readies to begin implementing the 2010 Bike Plan by adding bike lanes to a Northeast neighborhood in LA.

After reading the Boulevard Sentinel’s (a local weekly paper) opinion on the negative impact bike lanes would have on this small community, I wanted to show what the positive impact would be. When I heard that Josef Bray-Ali, owner of  Flying Pigeon Bike Shop, was having a friendly bike ride to support local businesses and bring positive cycling awareness to the area, I decided to see it for myself. 

Photo: Hal Bergman Photography

Passionate and energetic, Josef Bray-Ali is cycling a enthusiast, a father and fellow neighbor to not only the residents in the area but also the businesses. He and his brother opened Flying Pigeon in HIghland Park in 2008. In 2012 they moved the shop down the street to Cypress Park.  He describes Figueroa as an “old streetcar suburb arterial road” which used to have two street cars running up and down. 

Photo: Hal Bergman Photography

Read more…

Ahh! All that green is reflecting up at me! Photo of the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane Opening via Jan Perry.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times weighed in on the debate over whether or not the city should, or shouldn’t,repaint the fading Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. The editorial calls for the lane to be repainted, but only after the city tries to find a shade of green that works for the filming industry per their representatives at Film L.A.

It’s always nice to call for a compromise, but one thing the Times is missing is that the current state of play is a compromise. The city, with the full support of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, originally planned to paint the Spring Street Lane going south green AS WELL AS the Main Street lane that runs on a parallel street green going north. Film L.A. managed to squash this second part of the proposal. If every time the Spring Street Lane is up for painting the city “compromises” then advocates for safer streets will see the the lane getting less useful every time it’s up for painting.

Maybe it’s time for advocates to call for painting the Main Street lane green as well, so we’re not starting from the current state of play with any “compromise” reducing the value of existing infrastructure. I will add that when discussing the editorial with some of the city’s bike advocates, off the record because this was an off-the-cuff conversation and not a policy of their organizations, it was repeatedly suggested that a good compromise should involve the city using the kind of paint that won’t fade in just one year.

Even with all of the press on the terrible impact that the green paint has on filming in L.A.’s historic core in Downtown Los Angeles, we still don’t have a great idea of data backing the argument that the lane with its current paint is bad for filming. We know that they claim that the paint and its reflective surfacing makes it harder to edit. After we showed the world that taking the lane out really isn’t that hard in post-production, the story changed a little. Now its the reflection, not the paint itself, that’s really super hard to edit out.

So here’s our challenge, we’ll show you our data and ask that you do the same. We can show the benefits of both green bike lanes and the Spring Street lane in particular, with data. If you tell us the extra cost of this editing and what percentage of a budget it would be, people can decide what is worth more. Also, could you please tell us cost be of temporarily covering the lane and editing the covering in post production? Without this data from you, we really can’t gauge the seriousness of your argument.

There's a wealth of data on the value of the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. There's a dearth of value on the cost to Film L.A. of the magic green paint.

Read more…

Photo:Let's Go L.A./twitpic.

An anonymous reader points out that bike lanes are being installed on South Figueroa Street between Wilshire Boulevard and Cesar Chavez, a cool 1.1 mile stretch of road. While he asked for anonymity, he/she did add:

I cycle a lot, but don’t commute. Watching cyclists going north on Fig makes me nervous, so this will probably help. Not sure I’d want to be between the curb and the bus, but it’s better than the way it is now. Now if DOT will tell its DASH bus drivers that the 7th St bike lanes aren’t for passing stopped cars .

For their part, LADOT confirmed the addition of the new lanes and that new Continental Crosswalks are also being painted along the corridor. The new infrastructure is not being painted as part of the MyFigueroa! plan which is still under environmental review.

First person to post a link to a picture of the new lanes in the comments section wins a Streetsblog t-shirt. A map of the newly painted lanes can be found after the jump. Read more…

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A couple of weeks ago, Streetsblog asked our readers to submit pictures for the Spring Street Photo Contest. We will accept votes on Streetsblog through Saturday at noon. Then the top two vote getters will be voted on in a “money counts” contest at Saturday’s fundraiser. When people contribute, they will put their donation into a jar in front of one of the two finalists. Finalist that raises the most cash wins.

The six images are available below. Pick your favorite and we’ll let you know Monday morning who took each of the pictures and who wins the Streetsblog prize bag.

Just a reminder, the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane is in danger. Film L.A., which succesfully lobbied against the Main Street Bike Lane receiving the green paint treatment, received assurances from the L.A. Mayor’s Office that the green paint on Spring Street would be allowed to fade. The Mayor’s Office, under pressure from Hollywood’s representatives to the City Council Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, has stopped LADOT from repainting the lane despite support for the lane from bike advocates  the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and Downtown L.A.’s City Councilman, Jose Huizar.

Despite video proof that Film L.A.’s major concerns are, to be polite, a complete fabrication, the lane remains unpainted. Read more…

Last Friday, Downtown and Eastside City Councilman Jose Huizar upped the ante in the debate over by introducing a motion demanding that LADOT repaint the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. The motion, introduced by Bill Rosendahl and Ed Reyes on his behalf because of Huizar’s physical absence on Friday,

The lane was painted in November of 2011, but objections from Film L.A. have clouded the lane’s future. Despite the support of the local Neighborhood Council, local City Council Member and studies showing the paint has attracted riders and made the street more safe, Film L.A. seems to be able to keep the lane from being repainted by basically lieing about how hard it is to remove green paint in post production. (see video above)

But Huizar’s concern is getting the lane painted, and if there is a way to mollify the film industry, than LADOT and the City should do that as well.

“I support the green bike lanes in Downtown Los Angeles,” Huizar told Streetsblog. “They help keep bicyclists and motorists safe, promote multi-modal transportation Downtown and are widely used. I understand the film industry’s concerns and am open to discuss ways to improve the lanes, but I do not support removing them entirely. They serve a distinct purpose and we should continue to make them available to a growing Downtown community.”

We haven’t found the motion on the city’s website, but Huizar’s office provided Streetsblog with a copy. It can be found after the jump.

Read more…

One of the unchallenged truths of the debate over the fate of the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane is a claim from Film L.A. that it is really, really, super-duper, hard to edit out the green paint in post-production. For that reason, the green paint had to go.We decided to challenge that claim, and asked a reader familiar with film editing how hard it really would be.

The answer is in the above video. It took the editor all of about twenty seconds to remove the green.

Surely Film L.A. doesn’t have so much clout that it can hold up the simple repainting of an already fading and chipped green buffered bike lane on Spring Street over the wishes of the Mayor’s Office, LADOT, local City Council Member Jose Huizar and the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. So what’s the delay?

City hall staff are blaming Council Members LaBonge and Garcetti for the delay (or cancellation) of the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. Is the claim fair, or are they spreading the blame? Image: CD13

Opposing the repainting, the film, television and commercial industry advocacy group, Film L.A., has stated that the lanes create problems for filming because the green paint is very difficult to get rid of in post production. Also, they argue that other major cities don’t have green bike lanes, a claim that is demonstrably false.

Behind the scenes, the two City Council Members that represent the geographic area of Hollywood have both pushed to delay, or cancel the repainting. Council Member Eric Garcetti’s office confirmed their interest in delaying the project, but later conceded that it should be the decision of the Mayor’s Office and  Huizar. Council Member Tom LaBonge was more aggressive in defending his position that the green in the bike lane should be allowed to fade away.

Meanwhile, the Mayor’s Office is looking for some cover. A former transportation deputy promised to let the lane fade away to Film L.A., and the industry is loudly making noise that Antonio Villaraigosa’s team is publicly breaking a promise. While representatives of the bike community and Downtown Neighborhood Council are loudly supporting the lane, the opposition from Garcetti and LaBonge are making the Mayor’s life harder, especially since much of the current staff might be looking for a job with Garcetti in the next couple of months.

“What we have to do is be consistent,” Labonge stated in a phone interview with Streetsblog. “There’s an important evolution of bike lanes, and we need to have consistent markings. I don’t know who’s idea it was to paint it green, but that’s not going to be duplicated (elsewhere in the city).”

LaBonge seemed unfamiliar with the growing trend of green painted bike lanes in other major cities around the world, but to his credit did propose an alternative. While he didn’t use the specific term, LaBonge advanced the idea of a regular buffered bike lane on Spring Street with colored bike boxes at the intersection.

“I think we can achieve the (safety) goal by doing what they do in other cities. At each intersection there’s a “poster size” green to show where the bike lane is,” he continued. ” It must be uniform, recognizable and respected…Whether you’re in the San Fernando Valley, or Downtown or Boyle Heights. People have to know what it’s (the street markings) for.”

Meanwhile, when asked whether or not current front-runner to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wanted to let the bike lane fade, a spokesperson for Garcetti’s city council office gave a somewhat terse response.

“That’s inaccurate,” responded spokesperson Diego De La Garza. “We asked the Mayor’s office to convene a meeting with constituents on both sides prior to taking action.” Read more…

Following the surprisingly strong response to yesterday’s sarcastic short on the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane, Streetsblog is proud to announce a new photo contest to our endangered bike lane project. For those that missed it, at the insistence of L.A. Film and other film industry groups the city seems poised to let the green paint on the Spring Street Buffered Bike Lane fade away. In response, Streetsblog published this helpful map to help confused film crews find places to film that don’t have green lanes.

Sadly, sarcasm isn’t enough to turn the tide of the debate. So today we’re proud to announce our own photo contest for the best pictures, captions included, of the green lane in action. The first two submissions are already in. Can you do better? Send a link to damien@streetsblog.org or just post a link in the comments section. We’re not going to reveal who took which pictures until after voting is completed. The winner gets a Streetsblog prize back, including t-shirts and other schwag.

The Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane stopping film crews from working in Los Angeles....errrrr....

I live on Spring and took this photo two weekends ago. As the green paint wears off, so does the respect for the bike lane itself--all it takes is one or two people to start driving on it in a traffic jam, and suddenly no more bike lane.

(This is part 1 of a 3 part series on the battle over the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. More to come tomorrow and Friday. – DN)

Last night, city staff confirmed to me what has long been rumored. The Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane, is indeed an endangered species. Rather than admit to cyclists that they’re caving to the mildly incoherent demands of the film, television and comercial industry, which just can’t seem to find anyplace in the world  that has green bike lanes or any other place in Downtown Los Angeles to shoot film, the city is just going to not repaint the lane.

My heroes. Just a quick note to the city’s political leadership, be they about to leave or enter office: putting in new infrastructure to a chorus of cheers is just half the fight. Keeping the infrastructure, especially after it has been wildly successful, is the other half. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

While the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition is encouraging the city to keep the lane and blasting the rigidness of the industry (you can join them, here). Streetsblog believes the best of The Industry and that this is just a little misunderstanding. After all, filming in Los Angeles is actually way up this year, even as that bike lane remains green. So to help out anyone who really wants to shoot in Downtown Los Angeles but can’t figure out what to do with Spring Street, we prepared this map.

Dear location scout, the above Google Map is a rough screenshot of Downtown Los Angeles, using the 110 on the west and the L.A. River  (and just off the image) on the east as boundaries. The blue area marks where there is a green buffered bike lane. Literally any other street does not. If you are on a street with a green lane and you cannot find one without it, literally go to any other street in the Downtown. If you still need help, call someone, literally anyone in the world, and ask them how to walk one block to the east or west. Read more…