Streetsblog Los Angeles

This article is cross-posted from the blog of former Streetsblog SF editor Bryan Goebel, who’s aiming to launch a new website ”devoted to sustained coverage of biking, walking and transit issues in Sacramento, both at the Capitol and locally.” You can also follow Bryan on Twitter.

A proposal in Governor Jerry Brown’s budget that would change how the administration doles out federal and state money for biking and walking improvements could imperil critical street safety programs such as Safe Routes to School at a time when California is facing a growing health crisis and trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo: Myleen Hollero

“It does not reflect a serious sense of purpose by this Governor’s Office or the transportation bureaucracy to really make bicycling and walking a central part of California’s transportation system,” said Dave Snyder of the California Bicycle Coalition.

The move by the administration is a response to the federal transportation bill passed by Congress last year. MAP-21 ended some dedicated funding for biking and walking programs.

States are also receiving less money under Transportation Alternatives, the federal program previously known as Transportation Enhancements, which historically granted the bulk of bicycle and pedestrian funding to state transportation agencies and metropolitan planning organizations.

The League of American Bicyclists is encouraging state transportation agencies to make up for the cuts by seeking funding for street safety projects from other eligible pots of federal money.

California is receiving $80 million in TA funds, $13 million less than last year. In its current form, Brown’s budget, which has been widely praised for being balanced, would not kick in any other money to make up for the loss.

Under the administration’s proposal, the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which oversees Caltrans, would combine five funding programs, including Safe Routes and the Bicycle Transportation Account, into what’s being called the “Active Transportation Program.”

The combined total in the account would be $134 million, compared to $147 million last year.

Read more…

The difference between a roundabout and a traffic circle? One misplaced stop sign.

When is a roundabout not a roundabout?

Evidently, when it’s located roundabout the beach in Santa Monica.

It’s not that the city by the sea hasn’t made great strides in recent years, particularly in justifying its designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community. The new Green Street on Ocean Park Blvd. shows Santa Monica’s commitment to re-imagining streets to accommodate all road users, as well as the environment.

On the other hand, some of the legacy streets could stand to see some improvement. Like tiny Bay Street between Neilson Way and the beach, for instance.

One of the problems for those of us who ride our bikes to the beach from points further inland is how to access the popular Santa Monica and Venice sections of the beachfront Marvin Braude bike path (pdf) that runs along the coast from Pacific Palisades to Palos Verdes.

The bluffs that protect the city from the sea also limit direct access to the coast, as does the dangerously high-speed traffic that careens along PCH all day and night throughout the week.

For some, the answer is the walkway that runs under the coast highway at West Channel Drive, allowing riders to walk their bikes down a flight of stairs and underneath the speeding traffic. Assuming they don’t mind traversing a dark and secluded walkway, completely hidden from public view.

While Gary Kavanagh is on a short hiatus, Ted Rogers and Juan Matute will cover the Santa Monica beat for Streetsblog. This column is supported by Bike Center and the Library Alehouse

Read more…

39.5 miles of bicycle lanes on congested streets and the My Figueroa Project are headed towards environmental clearance following release of a DEIR and a new law signed by Governor Brown. Map via: The 2010 Bicycle Plan - First Year of the First Five-Year Implementation Strategy and the Figueroa Streetscape Project

When Governor Jerry Brown signed A.B. 2245 into law, a law allowing certain bicycle projects to opt-out of the CEQA process, the news was somewhat buried. On the same day, the Governor vetoed the “Give Me 3″ safety legislation that created a legal buffer between cyclists and passing automobiles earning the scorn of cyclists everywhere.

While the veto of Give Me 3 is still a sore subject, cyclists can take solace that the City of Los Angeles is taking advantage of A.B. 2245 to speed up bicycle, and even some pedestrian, projects in Los Angeles.

When the Department of City Planning unveiled the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the next five years of bicycle plan implementation and the My Figueroa! project, one small paragraph in Section II shows how the game has changed.

In September 2012, Governor Brown signed in to law Assembly Bill (AB) 2245, which allows re-striping of  urban roadways to proceed under a Statutory Exemption as long as a traffic and safety analysis is prepared  and hearings are held in affected areas…The city will not be certifying the EIR or preparing a Final EIR. Rather, Notices of Exemption will be filed pursuant to 1) California Public Resources Code (PRC) Section 21080.20.5 (c)(2) – for the bicycle lanes and 2) CEQA Guidelines, Article 19, Sections 15301, 15304, and 15311 for the streetscape improvements proposed as part of the My Figueroa Project.

In plain English, the city is opting out of the lengthy EIR process for the rest of the certification and using the public outreach, traffic and safety studies to meet the requirements of A.B. 2245. This will save the city money and months of planning and allow many projects to move forward on an accelerated timeline. At this point, neither LADOT or City Planning were able to release a timeline on when each of these projects or the sensational My Figueroa! project will move forward. Read more…

A week or so back, I was riding eastbound on San Vicente Blvd in Santa Monica, a block or two above Ocean Ave.

It’s my usual route home after biking to the beach; drivers seem familiar with the bike lanes there, and, for the most part, seem to respect and stay out of them.

On 6th near Wilshire; photo courtesy of Cynthia Rose and Santa Monica Spoke

Except for delivery drivers, that is.

The lane ahead was blocked by a UPS truck. So I checked the traffic behind me, signaled my lane change, and rode around it before returning to the bike lane — just as a driver was pulling out from his parking spot in front of the truck, his view of me completely blocked by the large truck just behind him.

Fortunately, he saw me in time and jammed on his brakes. There was nothing I could have done to avoid a collision; hitting my own brakes would have left me directly in his path, while swerving to the left would have put me in front of traffic coming up rapidly from behind.

Unfortunately, it’s not an unusual problem.

While Gary Kavanagh is on a short hiatus, Ted Rogers and Juan Matute will cover the Santa Monica beat for Streetsblog. This column is supported by Bike Center and the Library Alehouse

Read more…

Bikes, skateboards, skates and cigarettes are banned from Santa Monica's popular Third Street Promenade.

Just because Santa Monica is officially bike friendly doesn’t mean everyone there is. Even the ones you’d think would get it.

For all its progress in recent years, there are still significant issues biking — and parking your bike — in L.A.’s city by the beach.

As Gary Kavanagh has pointed out, bicyclists are officially banned from riding on the sidewalk anywhere in Santa Monica. Yet other than a few new signs on 2nd Street apparently installed on a trial basis recently, and signs prohibiting bikes on the popular Third Street Promenade, there’s nothing to tell an uninformed rider coming in from another city that they can’t ride on the city’s sidewalks.

For instance, someone pedaling in from Venice, where riding on the sidewalk is legal, may not even know when he or she has crossed into Santa Monica, where it isn’t.

It’s a situation reminiscent of the infamous speed traps from the first part of the last century, where drivers might find themselves entering a small town with no city limits signs, and violating a speed limit that wasn’t even posted. And in some cases, may have been made up on the spot.

Despite the ban on bikes, Santa Monica offers secure bike racks on Promenade, almost always in use.

Santa Monica’s prohibition on sidewalk riding may be legitimate, and sort of available online, but without posting the law where two-wheeled out-of-town visitors are likely to see it, it seems to rest just this side of entrapment.

Hopefully, the signage installed on 2nd will prove successful, and be deployed throughout the city so bike riders can make an informed decision whether to observe the law, rather than unintentionally run afoul of a regulation they may not be aware of.

Although to be fair, Santa Monica isn’t the only area city that fails to inform riders they can’t ride on the sidewalk; West Hollywood is the only one I know that consistently offers signage indicating where sidewalk riding is banned.

Then there’s the question of where to park your bike when you get to your destination.

In that area, Santa Monica has made great strides in recent years, from the new bike corrals on Main Street to a proliferation of bike racks along the Promenade, where you’re welcome to park your bike as long as you don’t ride it.

While Gary Kavanagh is on a short hiatus, Ted Rogers and Juan Matute will cover the Santa Monica beat for Streetsblog. This column is supported by Bike Center and the Library Alehouse

Read more…

We keep getting safer here in Long Beach—and as a rather stereotypical boy whose palate leans towards danger and risk (or what my fair counterparts rightfully call stupidity), this makes me happy. And it was of no shock to me that the first ever all-female class of League Cycling Instructors (LCI) accredited by the League of American Bicyclist graduated nine women this past month from Long Beach: Jessica Alexander, Krista Leaders, Bernadette McKeever, Elizabeth Williams, Maria Sipin, Henriette Alamillo, Renee Jones, Machiko Yasuda and Nayely Limon

Melissa Balmer Photo: Frank Peters/Women on Bikes So. Cal

One need not preach of the importance of women in bicycling. As with any other endeavor on the planet, the inclusion of women is essential if one wishes said endeavor to continue in success. And with regards to bicycling, one simply has to look at the work of Leah Missbach Day to comprehend the impact of women.

Melissa Balmer understood this in more ways than one when in November 2011 she created the Women on Bikes SoCal program to celebrate the “Joy, Beauty and Benefits of Bicycling for Women. Inspired by Andrea White-Kjoss’s first Women on Bikes bike safety training/bike scholarship program for at risk women in Long Beach while Andrea was CEO of Bikestation (the nation’s first public bike parking facilities launched fifteen years ago from Long Beach) Balmer very much wants Women on Bikes SoCal to be able to replicate this type of program in the future, but decided the first step was to create more top trained female bicycle safety trainers.

Balmer did her homework. She knew the League’s LCI program was the most prestigious in the country and found out that there were only three women in total for South L.A., East L.A., the South Bay and Long Beach who held the LCI accreditation – and none of these women appeared to be teaching. The program is expensive to take so she realized it needed to be offered as a scholarship in order to attract the most talented and dedicated participants.  Elizabeth Williams, a graduate of the recent Long Beach LCI class who participated as a bike safety instructor for Andrea’s program, was one of the first people Balmer thought of when she began putting the scholarship idea together.

“We are the so-called ‘indicator’ species,” Balmer explains. “When we feel safe to ride, then we’re ok with our families riding too. And when men see women riding—let’s be honest, they’re like, ‘Gee, if she can ride a bike out, I can too!’”

Balmer——while driven by the previous program, saw a larger focus: while hoping that her own organization could one day provide such essentials to all groups at-risk, there was a larger need for professionally driven women instructors. There is a two-way street between drivers and bicyclists, where each side fosters uneducated and unpredictable maneuvers and behaviors that only exacerbate the tension between the two.

“The rate of bicycle riding in Long Beach is booming,” Balmer continued, “but many of these new riders simply don’t know how to ride their bikes safely.

Graduate Jessica Alexander concurs noting, “Long Beach has done a great job of increasing the biking infrastructure, encouraging more people to get out and enjoy getting around on their bicycles. However, there needs to be more information getting out to bicyclists on how to use this new infrastructure and ride on the streets correctly. Just because they are on a bicycle does not mean they should get a free pass to ride wherever and however they want.

Graduate Krista Leaders explains more directly with regards to Bixby Knolls when she says, “There is very little bike infrastructure outside of a bike lane [on Bixby Road] and a bunch of bike racks in the business district. In order for this area to become a biking community, we have to become educated on how to navigate the streets safely and perfect our bike handling skills—without bike infrastructure.”

Leaders and Balmer’s point is not unfounded: not only are bicyclists up in numbers, but so are accidents and a lack of knowledge about the rules of the road.

And even further, as a testament beyond the city-driven measures geared towards safety, Women on Bikes SoCal’s larger, macro-goal was just as simple: to create no or low cost—not to mention time efficient—classes geared towards safety that evaded the high-cost of the League’s LCI training while also coinciding with the city’s larger safety program. Read more…

The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s East L.A. Bike Ambassador Program is proving to be one of its most active local programs. While the group is meeting again tonight to discuss strategy for working with the city to improve bicycle access and safety in East and Northeast Los Angeles.

Photo: LACBC via Change.Org

It’s been a cause celeb for many bike advocates to expand the My Figueroa! (aka South Figueroa Corridor Project) to Figueroa Street in Northeast Los Angeles. Now that desire has taken the form of an online petition at Change.Org asking LADOT and City Planning for Bike Lanes on North Figueroa Street between Colorado and San Fernando Boulevards.

As of publication, the petition has over 200 signatures, an impressive number but well short of the 500 signatures goal. You can sign the petition by clicking here.

In the petition the LACBC brings up more than just bike friendliness as a reason to invest in bike infrastructure. They focus on how a strong bike network creates a safer environment for all road users, fosters a stronger sense of community and increases the incentive for people to shop locally.

Santa Monica has made substantial improvements, such as this door zone buffered bike lane on Montana Ave

Consider this a public apology to L.A. County’s bike-friendly city by the bay.

No, not that one. The other one.

It’s something I’ve been mulling ever since I met Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists, at the ceremony honoring L.A.’s recognition as a Bike Friendly Community last October.

As we talked, I felt compelled to tell him I’d been one of the loud, angry voices complaining about the bike league’s 2009 designation of Santa Monica as a bronze level BFC.

He responded by asking if I was the one behind the petition calling on the LAB to rescind the award. I wasn’t, I said. But I sure as heck signed it.

And I was wrong.

It wasn’t like we — those of us who signed the petition and opposed the award — didn’t have our reasons.

In those deep, dark days of the last decade, Santa Monica may have been the L.A. area’s most pleasant place to ride. But compared to the virtually non-existent support for cycling in other area cities, that wasn’t saying much.

And Santa Monica certainly had its issues, like a heavy-handed crackdown on the city’s nascent — and now dead — Critical Mass, which included ticketing cyclists for things that weren’t even illegal. Not to mention a reputation for unresponsive city and police officials.

Then there was the relative handful of bike lanes in the city, all of which were in the door zone, and usually blocked with cars or other objects that didn’t belong there.

Previously, the bike lane put riders directly in the path of swinging car doors

Meanwhile, traffic-clogged Lincoln Blvd was inexplicably classified as a Class III bike route in what could only be considered an attempt to thin the herd.

And what should have been the crown jewel of SaMo’s bicycling infrastructure, the city’s section of the beachfront Marvin Braude bikeway, was virtually impassible on weekends.

Evidently, some things never change.

But then a funny thing happened.

As Cynthia Rose of the LACBC affiliate chapter Santa Monica Spoke explained, city officials learned a lot from the application process itself, and in the process, actually grew into the award.

While Gary Kavanagh is on a short hiatus, Ted Rogers and Juan Matute will cover the Santa Monica beat for Streetsblog. This column is supported by Bike Center and the Library Alehouse

Read more…

Click on the image of the "pocket guide" for more on Share Our Streets

Glance to the right of this article and you’ll see ads geared towards bike safety. Sift through the work of this site and you’ll find endless accounts of dooring, commuter frustration, measures to keep one safe, how to “properly” ride a bicycle, riding on sidewalks… The list is as exhaustive as it is important despite its seeming redundancy.

Graphic: City of Long Beach

And Long Beach is taking impressive steps forward in maintaining an aura of safety–particularly as the number of bicycle-related crashes rise with the increasing number of cyclists.

The analysis of these crashes over the past 10 years by Bike Long Beach prove fascinating. According to the numbers, 45% of bike-related crashes are caused by error on behalf of the cyclist, with 35% due to a motorist, and the other 20% undetermined. And the vast majority of these crashes, somewhere around 80%, are due to five main causes:

• Cyclist riding on the wrong side of the road
• Cyclist partaking in unsafe maneuvers
• Cyclist running a stop light or stop sign
• Motorist running a stop light or stop sign
• Motorist making an unaware turn

The first and the last account for about 55% of all bicycle-related crashes. What makes the data more fascinating is the fact that, despite who was at fault, a driver was involved 40% of the time, mostly making a right hand turn.

“From a safety perspective,” said Allan Crawford, Bicycle Coordinator for the city, “bicyclists can at times be our own worst enemy. Almost 50% of all accidents that are caused by the bicyclist are related to either riding the wrong way or failing to yield the right-of-way to a vehicle.”

To help curb these numbers and educate the masses, the “Share The Streets” campaign–a collaborative effort between Bike Long Beach, The City of Long Beach, Long Beach Transit, and Metro–has been launched. One can easily call one of the most comprehensive cycling safety programs initiated by a municipality. Read more…