Streetsblog Los Angeles

The city of Santa Monica is hosting a grand opening opening of what is being called the Santa Monica Bike Campus this Sunday as part of April 22nd Earth Day activities. This bike campus facility is on a linear strip of what was no longer actively used roadway connecting to parking lots just east of the beach bike path at Ocean Park Boulevard. The pavement is now painted with various markings for teaching bike education classes. There are simulated lanes, sharrows, crosswalks and bike lanes for teaching lane positioning, as well as some designs for bike handling tests that are part of the League of American Bicycling’s “Smart Cycling” course material.

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In years past the campus idea had been met with indifference, but with the passage of Santa Monica’s Bike Action Plan, a dedicated bike education space is finally a reality.

The facility is meant to provide a dedicated space for local LCI (League Certified Instructors), and area schools to teach bike safety principles in a safe space before working up to lessons involving live traffic. Setting aside such a space in Santa Monica was a longtime vision of Ron Durgin the general manager of the Santa Monica Bike Center and an LCI instructor himself. Durgin has taught bike safety classes for the City of West Hollywood and teaches classes in Santa Monica along with other instructors recently certified in the area.

The local LACBC chapter, Santa Monica Spoke, has also been advocating for the SMPD to provide a bike education diversion program (such as the one in Portland, OR and more locally in Huntington Beach) for bicyclists cited for moving violations. In such programs a traffic safety class is offered as a cheaper alternative to more stringent fees, and connects those committing violations with actual traffic instruction instead of just a brief moment in court. If such a diversion program is developed, this bike campus would likely become the facility to host such classes. Read more…

When students first approached Nancy Chou about creating a bike program at Nightengale Middle School, the school had a bike cage for one or two cyclists that was opened and closed once a day by school administrators. Today they have both the above pictured "Bike Zone" and an active advocacy scene. Photo: Josef Bray Ali/Flying Pigeon

Dream It.  Design It. Do It.

The 3 D’s are the ethos of the D3 Lab of Nightingale Middle School in Cypress Park in Northeast Los Angeles.  The program is designed to help students learn to create change in their community.  Recently, the students waded into the world of bike advocacy in a campaign to create safe passages to their school along just less than a mile of road around their school.  Advocacy for school students is usually confined to Bike to School Days and bringing in bike rodeos, but the D3′ers in Nightingale want to take their advocacy on the street.

Specifically two streets that surround Nightingale: Cypress Avenue – from Pepper Avenue to Arroyo Seco Avenue (0.48 miles – immediately alongside NMS) and Avenue 28 – from Pepper Avenue to Figueroa Street (0.48 miles – one block from NMS).  The good news, both streets appear in the city’s Bike Plan and the five year bike implementation plan.  The bad news, there’s no plan to finish the streets in the near-term and the kids at Nightingale won’t be there forever.

After students expressed interest in a bike program, Nancy Chou, who heads the D3 Lab program at Nightingale reached out to the local bicycle co-op, the Bike Oven and local bike shop the Flying Pigeon Bike Shop to come talk to students about bike safety and advocacy.   Bike Oven founder and Flying Pigeon owner Josef Bray-Ali responded, and he brought CicLAvia consultant (and Streetsblog Board Member) Joe Linton to a student workshop on bicycling.

“I was really surprised to see all the interest in this.  There were a lot of kids at the bike rally and they’re interested in bicycling and making things better for their friends, for their school,” Bray-Ali said of the meeting. Read more…

Schick posing with friends before the "L.A. Marathon crash race." Photo: Used with permission from Schick's Facebook

(Friends of Susana’s have set up a ChipIn account to collect funds to help with medical bills.  You can donate, here.)

From the people that brought you “Andres Tena backed into a hummer and was propelled over his handlebars” and “a woman who plowed into a group of thirty cyclists committed no crime” comes another soon to be classic, “(Susanna Schick) fell down on her bicycle.”

Despite widespread media reports that Susanna Schick was attacked by the driver of a white Lexus on Friday night and that the LAPD didn’t even file a report until three days later; the LAPD is fighting back against perceptions that they bungled the case by attacking the victim implying both that she was the agressor in the incident and that she is an incompetent cyclist.  As we’ve seen before, they also accidentally admitted they don’t really understand traffic safety laws.

The crux of the LAPD’s argument is that there was no contact between the white Lexus that Schick claims hit her on Friday night, therefor there was no crime.  Lt. Paul Vernon tells Blog Downtown, “There is no crime here.  She fell off her bike.”  LAPD spokeswoman Wendy Reyes was even more vague, telling NBC 4, “They obviously determined it wasn’t a hit-and-run. She might have fallen off the bike on her own.”

“They” is a pair of LAPD officers who witnessed the entire incident.  According the officers, Schick was bicycling down Spring Street in the green buffered bike lane when a car pulled out of a garage, swung wide and swerved into the bike lane.  The car did not hit Schick.  At a light, Schick rolled up to the car, and pounded on the side view mirror causing the car occupants to roll up their windows.  When the light turned green, the car sped ahead and eventually turned right.  Then Schick just fell over.  The officers then called the paramedics and after Schick was safely in the hospital they returned the bicycle to her residence.

While anything is possible, the idea that Schick just fell off her bike is about as far-fetched as her being forced off her bike by lightning bolt or fear of green paint.  Schick, who goes by Pinkyracer on the Internet and racing forums, has been traveling by two wheels pretty much her entire life.  Her personal website is devoted to two wheeled travel, be it on bike, motor bike or scooter and she’s even a motor bike racer.  The odds that she just happened to fall off her bike and it just coincidently happened after an altercation with a car is statistically insignificant.

Even in the LAPD’s weird version of events, one which is designed to cast the victim as the aggressor to the poor drivers who were rolling up their windows, there are laws broken.  A car that “pulls out of a garage, swings wide and swerves into a bike lane” has a driver that has just broken a traffic law.  California Vehicle Code 21209 clearly states that no motorized vehicles can enter a bike lane unless they are within 200 feet of an intersection where they are going to make a turn.   Read more…

Just Cruisin' with the Real Rydaz down Vermont Ave. in South L.A.

Although a few state parks will close on July 1, Shuntain Thomas, the Real Rydaz, and We Are Responsible People (WARP) want you to know that the streets of South Los Angeles will be open for riding.

Beginning at 10 A.M. on Sunday, July 1, at Exposition Park, Thomas, the Rydaz and WARP will lead a tour through 10 miles of South L.A. to raise awareness about the problem of childhood obesity. The ride will also provide a chance to “introduce the community to the streets” as a recreational space, said Thomas, one of the Rydaz and an organizer of the event. The tour will end at a street festival at 86th St. and Vermont Ave. with live entertainment, fun activities for kids, a bicycle give-away, health outreach services, and a car show.

While Thomas — himself a survivor of both a heart attack and a stroke — believes the health message is important, there is another purpose to the event.

“It is a way to show the city that we need bike lanes here.” Read more…

Photo: Joe Anthony/Bike Commute News

Over the weekend, Bike Commute News’ Joe Anthony snapped this picture of brand new bike detectors for intersections on 4th Street between Mid-Town and Downtown Los Angeles. 4th Street has long been an important corridor for cyclists seeking to access Downtown Los Angeles from points west, but local opposition has stalled some of the more progressive treatments LADOT planned for the road. While negotiations between activists, LADOT and neighborhood groups continue, some features continue to be brought to the “4th Street Bike Boulevard.”

The censors have been in the street for a several months, it was the markings that are new, showing bicycles where they should position their bike if they want to trip the signal and get a green light.

Photo: Jonathan Weiss

A new series of D.I.Y. signage is popping up around the Westside.  The new “except bikes” signs remind road users that the street side parking restrictions don’t apply to sidewalk parking for cyclists.  It’s not just a thumb in the eyes to drivers, but a reminder that if you choose to leave the car at home, the Westside’s notorious “parking problems” all of a sudden don’t seem so pressing.

So far we’ve spotted signs at the North West corner Venice & Glendon, on Hughes just south of Exposition, and Palms just north of Venice.  We’re trying to see how widespread this signage program is, so if you see more “except bikes” signs, let us know in the comments section.

LAPD and Downtown BID Bike Patrol go for a ride. All Pics: Carlos Morales All captions: Damien Newton

On Thursday, March 1, 2012, the LAPD Central Traffic Division deployed eight motorcycle officers to Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) in what was called a “Bike Lane Sting.”  The LAPD’s mission was to educate and issue traffic citations to motorist, cyclist and pedestrians whose actions infringed on the rules of the road.   The focus was on bike lanes violations.  The task force deployed along both the green striped bike lane on Spring Street and soon to be striped Main Street.

I road my bike to DTLA to report on the bike sting.  Within minutes of my arrival, I come across the sting in action.  This post will report on four incidents that I thought were worth noting.

Really, she didn't know what the big green lanes with the bike painted in it was for?

The first incident: A traffic officer pulled over a driver for driving a block and a half in the bike lane.  The motor officer stated, “At first I thought the motorist was going to make a right turn at the intersection and had merged into the bike lane 200′ prior to the intersection.  There was no cyclist in the lane, I was going to let her go.  But when she proceeded through the intersection and continued to drive in the bike lane, I pulled her over to let her know what she did wrong and issued her a citation.  She said she was not aware of what these green lanes meant.” Read more…

Cyclists touring Watts with the East Side Riders

Join us from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Watts to celebrate the launch of Streetsblog in South L.A.!

Please join us on March 17th for a tour of neighborhoods in Watts and Florence-Firestone with the East Side Riders in celebration of our South L.A. launch and their 3rd anniversary of serving the community.

The day begins at 10 a.m. the WLCAC, located at 109th and Central Ave. in Watts. Prior to the ride, we will be checking bikes and explaining how riders can send photos to use USC’s ParTour, tool to contribute to the creation of a crowd-sourced map of South L.A.

We will ride out at 11 a.m., led by members of the East Side Riders (ESR), and wind our way through several neighborhoods. We hope to give people not familiar with the area a good understanding of a new place while upholding some of the goals of the ESR, which include encouraging the people of the communities we ride through to join together and take back their streets. The ride will be approximately 10 miles or so, and be slow-paced, to accommodate families.

Snacks donated by CLIF Kids.

Upon return to the WLCAC around 1 p.m., riders will be encouraged to participate in a fun bike planning workshop run by James Rojas. There will also be opportunities for kids to have their helmets painted and to decorate their T-shirts (more information about the availability of ride T-shirts will be posted later). Light snacks will be provided.

The East Side Riders, with occasional help from me, have been doing outreach in the community to let kids and their families know about the opportunity to participate in a safe ride. We’re hearing a lot of the same stories I heard when I interviewed some kids on Hooper St.: that kids are not comfortable riding around their neighborhood unless they are “rolling deep” (in sufficient numbers to discourage potential bike jackers). Some have even asked about whether or not we could ensure that they wouldn’t get their fixies jacked while they were riding with us. We sincerely hope to show them and others in the community that the streets can be safe for recreation. We hope that you will join us in sending this message!

Although we will have some snacks available, please be sure to bring water and any other nourishment to supplement that. If you should have a helmet you no longer use or would like to donate a new one to a child from the area, you are more than welcome to do so. We will have 9 helmets kindly provided by the LACBC, but can always use more–many in the area do not have helmets and would love to have one.

New Climbing Bike Lane & Descending Sharrows On Arizona Ave. New Climbing Bike Lane & Descending Sharrows On Arizona Ave. New Climbing Bike Lane & Descending Sharrows On Arizona Ave.

Lately it seems like every week in Santa Monica there is something new happening that makes it easier and more pleasant to get around without a car. New sharrows there, a new bike lane here, bike racks popping up at shops all over town. New pedestrian oriented mixed use developments are going in several at a time along the future Expo Line corridor and revamped Big Blue Bus shelters are waiting in the wings.

Click on the image to learn more about Bike Center

The latest reconfigurations of street space that I’ve spotted include the introduction of two new bike lane types not used in Santa Monica prior to the adoption of the new Bike Action Plan (pdf). The first is a climbing lane, which is a treatment that incorporates a bike lane in one direction, the one with the most elevation gain, and sharrows on the opposite side. This allows a bike rider to have dedicated space when they are at their slowest, and are reintegrated with traffic on the down slope, where they are able to keep a faster pace more comparable to cars on neighborhood streets. On streets that are too narrow to include bike lanes in both directions, climbing lanes are a way to fit in more than just sharrows.  This configuration also slightly constrains the space for driving, which has a traffic calming affect since drivers must exercise more caution in passing each other.

Arizona Ave., which has a standard bike lane in both directions from Ocean Ave. to 26th St., now has a climbing lane and sharrows from 26th St., where Arizona narrows in width and experiences reduced traffic volume, out to Centinela Ave. Centinela defines the border between Santa Monica and the City of Los Angeles. Prior to this upgrade, this stretch of Arizona was marked as a bike route, but the only indication of such was the bike route signs reminding everyone to “share the road”. Hopefully the City of L.A. will connect this route with improved bikeways on Texas Ave. and S. Westgate Ave. to Ohio Ave., an important route option to get across the 405 without using an arterial. Read more…