In what has to be a double victory for the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, reports are coming in that Sharrows are appearing on 4th Street in the Mid-Wilshire and Koreatown areas. The LACBC hasn’t just been the leader in pushing for Sharrows on the street, but also in turning 4th Street, a popular bike route, into something resembling the Bike Boulevards of Portland and Berkeley.
Announcing the find on twitter, @danceralamode joked that finding a Sharrow is like a celebrity siting. I’m sure there will be a lot more on the Sharrows arrival as the day and weeks go on. But in the meantime, if you spot a Sharrow while riding in the city, and you’re not on Fountain, 4th Street, NELA or Westwood, drop us a line and send us a picture so we can help spread the word.
City Council President Eric Garcetti and the B.S.S. Crew that painted the Sharrows. Photo via LADOT Bike Blog
(An early version of this post listed the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition as in partnership with the government groups. That relationship has been clarified below. - DN)
It was just after-noon on Friday when the first tweet came in. After literally years of discussion, planning and studying, the city was finally painting Sharrows, officially known as Shared-Lane Markings, on the streets of L.A. The Sharrows appear on a half-mile of Fountain Street in East Hollywood. Eventually, the Sharrows will extend for a full mile between Western Boulevard and Vermont. This marked a major victory for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, who has pushed for Sharrows to be on the street for at least half a decade. While the Coalition celebrated last week, they've made clear that last week's paintings were the start, not the end result, of the Shared Markings on L.A.'s streets.
Billed as the city's first Sharrows, even though some appear on private streets in Westwood and D.I.Y. Sharrows appear in Northeast L.A. by the Gold Line, this "pilot program" is finally coming to fruition after years of advocacy by the LACBC with an assist from Council President Garcetti's office. While it might be a simple task to get Sharrows on the streets in some cities, in L.A. it took five years and the work of three government bodies, the LADOT, Bureau of Street Services and Southern California Association of Governments. In addition, a chunk of funding for the project came from the Bohnet Foundation, with additional funds provided by the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. It's a good thing Metro wasn't involved too, or it might have taken another couple of months before we saw any paint. Just a reminder, it took four weeks for Long Beach to move their award-winning green Sharrowed lanes from Charles Gandy's head to the street.
You can see above what a Sharrow looks like. If you're new to the discussion and wondering how that is supposed to make a street safer; a Sharrow serves two purposes. First, it tells cyclists where to ride to avoid the door zone. Second, it alerts and reminds drivers where cyclists can and should be riding with the support of the law. I would add that third, it reminds the police that cyclists aren't supposed to ride in the gutter, but that's just the cynic in me after too many "ride to the right" commercials. As we'll see later, the placement of the Sharrows is creating a real concern that "L.A.'s first official Sharrows" aren't going to accomplish any of these goals.
The first to report on the new paint was the LADOT Bike Blog who made sure not to undersell the event. The blog opened by declaring, "Friday June 11th marks a new beginning: LADOT is proud to unveil the first official Sharrows within the City of Los Angeles." Jeesh, don't you guys read The Source? A touch of objectivity in style goes a long way in selling your message. The Bike Blog was pretty breathless in its reporting of the installation, and goes into great detail on the process of actually painting the Sharrows, as shown above. While the Bike Blog talks about the markings appearing between Vermont and Western on Fountain, so far the Sharrows only appear in one direction (Eastbound) and only go for half the strip.
Following the Bike Blog, an excited celebratory post appeared on the LACBC Blog, and LAist followed with some pictures and mild praise. While reading the post at the LACBC Blog, I flashed back to an interview I conducted with Smolarski and LACBC Planning Director Dorothy Le. The interview, conducted in May of 2009 touched on the topic of Sharrows and why it was taking so long for the paint to get on the ground. Smolarski basically said she would be thrilled if Sharrows were painted before the New Year. After all that work, it must have been double exciting to see the city finally making good on their years-old promise, after untold hours of advocacy, to paint these road markings.
On the Eco-Village Blog, Joe Linton wrote a piece as detailed as the LADOT Bike Blog's except his outlined the tortured history of the project. If I had to describe his post in one sentence it would be, "It's nice to see Sharrows on the street but it's taken forever." Linton paid special attention to the infamous comment made at a City Council Transportation Committee hearing by Senior Bike Coordinator Michelle Mowery that the department was concerned about cyclists slipping on paint and suing the city. I would have focused on Mike Uyeno's concern that the Sharrows would lead to slower car traffic, but to each their own. I guess it's a good thing he chose the "slippery when wet" comment, as Ted Rogers snarked on it several times at Biking in L.A.'s announcement of the Sharrws.
But of course the most important issue is how the Sharrows actually effect how people ride on Fountain and the other five streets that will see them installed in the coming weeks. The early reports are mixed. Some people seem happy that the LADOT and city are doing something. I've even seen some tweets referring to a ride along Fountain as "empowering." However, reports from Stephen Box, who measured the Sharrow placement and found it wanting, should raise some eyebrows.
When I first heard of the signs that popped up all over Los Angeles two nights ago urging drivers to pass cyclists with care, my first thoughts were that L.A.’s D.I.Y. culture has reached a tipping point. Not only have advocates learned that the LADOT and other city departments are unwilling to sacrifice car capacity to cyclist or pedestrian safety, but now they’ve learned that because of the city’s fiscal woes, the city is unable to do anything about other people taking matters into their own hands.
In 2008, a group of cycling activists painted bike lanes across Fletcher Bridge to the cheers of cyclists and the frowns of LADOT. The lane was removed within days. Last fall, the (presumably) another group of cyclists painted a series of Sharrows in Northeast Los Angeles. LADOT vowed they would be off the street sometime last month, three months after they first appeared. Yet, those Sharrows still remain.
Now we see cyclists, perhaps exhausted by LADOT’s constant stalling on creating a Sharrows program despite both funding and the support of the local neighborhood council being in place for over a year; putting up their own "Sharrow Signs." Signs have been spotted on Santa Monica Boulevard, Park Avenue and the "4th Street Bike Boulevard."
If you’ve seen more of these signs, please let us know in the comments section. Also, even though I’m pretending I don’t know who is putting up these signs, I can tell you he/she/they read Streetsblog so leave your comments for them below too.
The Sharrows Pilot Project has been an ongoing campaign for LACBC, nearly five years running now, as we jumped hurdle after hurdle working to clear the pilot through the LADOT. Last year City Council President Eric Garcetti championed the issue and the idea began to take off. Now in 2010 we will finally see Los Angeles city streets catch up to other surrounding cities and start implementing sharrows to help create safer and more bike- friendly streets.
Yesterday, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed, a contractual agreement between the funders of the pilot project-SCAG (Southern California Association of Government) and the David Bohnett Foundation-and LACBC and LADOT, the two groups doing the work for the pilot. The MOU outlines the scopes of work, the budgets and a timeline to which all parties are held accountable. LADOT was given a notice to proceed to commence work on the pilot beginning yesterday, Monday, March 1st.
Due to LADOT's perception that Los Angeles is a city unlike any other city currently using sharrows, one of the pilot's main purpose is to study which streets in LA are best suited for implementation. As with any other pilot, there is preliminary data that needs to be gathered before the paint hits the ground. But we are happy to announce that we will be seeing sharrows on LA city streets in mid June!
Though we can't publicize the locations of the sharrows until they have been finalized by the end of March, we can expect 5-10 locations. LACBC will be conducting bike counts and on-street surveys of bicyclists before and after sharrows are implemented. We will also be developing and distributing educational fliers and posters to analyze the impact of how "supplemental educational components" affect bicyclists' understanding of sharrows and their correct usage of the roadway.
With all the work to be done, we will be looking for volunteers to help out in ways similar to the great assistance we got with the first ever bike count earlier last year. Please contact Aurisha@la-bike.org if you are interested in being a part of the sharrows pilot project.
Yesterday, I finally had the time to take my wounded Flying Pigeon Bucket Bike back to its nest to get repaired and retrofitted for baby carrying. As you might expect, Josef "ubrayj02" Bray-Ali was fantastic, the bike is great, and baby has already had his first fun, and safe, bike ride. You can view a couple of pictures of us here. But, this is not our story.
Because my bucket bike needed some repairs, I took a less-than-capacity trip on the Gold Line to the Heritage Square station before biking up 37th Avenue to Figueroa Street and then it's just a half a block to the Flying Pigeon Bike Shop. On 37th, I was treated to riding on the only street inside of city limits with Sharrows. True, they're not official, but when you're on the street, they're just as good.
Whoever put these down knew what they were doing. The Sharrows place cyclists outside the door zone, are on a street with street parking, and are on a street with a fair amount of traffic. It's nothing like the traffic on Figueroa, but with the transit station right there, it also sees slightly more than your everyday residential street. It's amazing to me as an activist that these paint markings have been to D.I.Y. project that roared. Councilmen Garcetti and LaBonge have talked about them during City Council hearings. The LADOT has responded to their placement and bike activists have pleaded with the city to not remove them. Given how the "D.I.Y. Bike Lanes" on Fletcher Bridge are still visible even after Streets Services "removed" them, it will be interesting to see how the city deals with these street markings. It will be equally interesting to see if they just "reappear" after they're taken out.
Yesterday, the City Council Transportation Committee met to discuss, once again, what the heck is taking so long to bring a Sharrows program to Los Angeles. For over two years, the program has been a top priority for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and funding has been in place for a pilot program for over six months. Conversely, the above painted-lane Sharrows program in Long Beach took four months to move from Mobility Coordinator Charles Gandy's head to the street.
Of course, as we're often reminded, this isn't Long Beach.
Explaining the delay, LADOT Senior Bike Coordinator Michelle Mowery stated that just because funding was in place, it didn't mean that the project would automatically move forward. Because some of the money is to be allocated to LADOT, some to the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and some to LACBC, there are a variety of bureaucratic issues that need to be worked out. But we'll definately be Sharrows on some L.A. streets sometime. She wouldn't say when, but definately sometime. Maybe even this year.
Despite her somewhat dour presentation, Mowery tried to sound an optimistic tone. The wait would be worth it, that Sharrows would make the streets more safe. When discussing a report by Alta Planning on the impact of Sharrows in Los Angeles, she said:
"...studies show that Sharrows do two things. It moves cyclists out of the door zone. It also, and this addresses Councilman LaBonge's point, has cyclists moving in the right direction."
Mowery was referencing a related story from Councilman Tom LaBonge where he complained about cyclists riding the wrong way in the street. Despite an LACBC cycling counts report that showed that only six percent of cyclists travel in the wrong direction; this story ended up being a focal point of the meeting for much of the rest of the afternoon.
Before the public had its chance to speak, Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl tried to pin down the LADOT on a timeline and required that the department return next month days with an update.
"My problem is with the black hole of history (for this project) in the past. I want an update in thirty days. I'm impatient with this issue."
Next, the public had a chance to speak. LACBC's Aurisha Smolarski testified that she had been in touch with the Bonet Foundation and SCAG, two of the major funders of the project, and that they are getting impatient as well. However, there is a plan to begin the outreach associated with the program next month that would have the Sharrows on the ground in May. This is hardly a lightning fast timeline. Last May, Smolarski told me her dream was to have the Sharrows on the ground by Christmas of 2009, but when dealing with a buerocracy as large as LADOT, just getting them on the ground would be a victory of sorts.
Hermosa Beach and N.E.L.A. aren’t the only parts of Los Angeles County to recently see Sharrows installed on their streets. Don’t worry Glendale residents, these Sharrows were put down by the city so they won’t be removed within two months.
Colin Bogart, the Safe and Healthy Streets Coordinator for the LACBC in Glendale, explains the placement:
The Sharrows are being painted up and down Grandview between Glenoaks
Blvd. (where bike lanes were painted a year ago) and Brand Park. What you are
looking at is the intersection of Grandview and Kenneth Road. Kenneth is a very
popular street for cyclists in the area. So is Grandview. Both streets are
proposed Class III routes in Glendale’s bike plan. Kenneth is already a
Class III route in Burbank, not too far northwest from this intersection. It’s
my hope and desire that this is just the first of many Class III “be-Sharrowed”
streets in Glendale.
A ride to celebrate the "be-Sharrowing" of Glendale is in the works. Streetsblog will post details when it is scheduled. Meanwhile, in the City of Los Angeles, cyclists are awaiting with something less than baited breath the announcement from LADOT later this afternoon that we still don’t have a timeline to place Sharrows on our city streets.
Last Friday, the city's D.I.Y. Department was hard at work in East Los Angeles installing Sharrows on several city streets. There was an unofficial count of sixteen painted Sharrows on the street. Oddly, they seem to be centered in the area surrounding the Bike Oven in NELA's bike district.
This is hardly the first time L.A.'s D.I.Y. bike culture has struck. The bike lanes on Fletcher Bridge that appeared briefly in the summer of 2008 earned some amateur street artists a star turn in Bicycling Magazine. More recently, they "announced" a park opening in Mid-Wilshire during this year's Park(ing) Day.
While these street markings usually get taken up within a couple of days of being put down, the purpose isn't to calm the streets but to throw down the gauntlet to LADOT. While the city is being ringed with smaller cities, from Santa Monica, to Long Beach, to Pasadena, to Hermosa Beach, that are literally ringing the city with progressive road design; the City of Angels progressive efforts are either being unintentionally mired, or intentionally buried, in studies and paperwork.
Of course, the D.I.Y. team has thrown their gauntlet less than a week before Wednesday's Big Bike Meeting held by the Transportation Committee. It will be interesting to see if this form of confrontational advocacy is being pushed by a small segment of the community, or if cyclists have finally reached the breaking point when it comes to dealing with the city.
Rosendahl poses with the LACBC on "Car Free Friday."
When Streetsblog spoke with Councilman Bill Rosendahl about his priorities as Transportation Committee Chair, he promised a number of sweeping changes and regular "bike themed" committee hearings. Next week he is going to make good on some of his projects when he chairs his first "bike-only" City Council Transportation Hearing. You can read the full agenda here, or just read on as we'll preview each issue that will be discussed.
While Rosendahl's efforts to better protect cyclists within the law is more than laudable, we have to point out that we're at the start of the process to create a new ordinance. At this point, the Council is just directing the City Attorney and LADOT to create an ordinance. How long it will be until we see one is anyone's guess.
If this leads to the creation of a strong law protecting cyclists, Wednesday's meeting could be a major moment in the history of cycling in Los Angeles.
Serving almost as a companion piece to the ordinance protecting cyclists is a return of a discussion with the LAPD concerning our law enforcement's relationship with cyclists. At the last Big Bike Meeting in May, the Committee and cyclists slammed the Department for its poor reporting on an April incident where a hummer crashed into a cyclist and ran off with another bike under its grille. Amazingly, the police report blamed the cyclist for "running into the hummer," even though damage to the bike clearly showed that the bike was side-swiped from behind. Even though it was the second time they appeared in front of the Council, the LAPD failed to bring a copy of the report, and photos provided by cyclists contradicted many of the "facts" from the crash that the LAPD claimed.
The LAPD claimed this hummer had license plates and other untrue "facts" from their report on April's "Hummer v. Bike" crash.
Now, we have confirmation of a "Bike Working Group" sometime next year and a clash between the LAPD and Critical Mass downtown last week to further spice up the public comment. Since the announcement of the working group last week, I've tried to pin down what the LAPD is doing to improve their relationship with cyclists and have found the process somewhat maddening. Lieutenant Andre Dawson, who will head the working group, isn't up to speed on the issues yet and didn't even know what the Bicycle Advisory Committee is. It's small wonder that the LAPD hasn't attended the last several BAC meetings.
Hopefully, the LAPD will come prepared to discuss what they're doing to address their relationship. Is Commander Jeff Greer's internal effort that we briefly discussed earlier this week the most important effort on going? Will Lieutenant Dawson's Working Group be empowered to make real changes or at least clarify how reports should be written and how cyclists should be detained when they do break laws? These are just some questions for which we need an answer. And let's face it, our elected leaders can pass all the ordinances they want. If the support for cycling doesn't exist with beat cops, cyclists won't benefit from safer streets.
Confirming the findings of a San Francisco study, this motorcyclist respects the Sharrowed Lane even without a cyclist present.
One month ahead of the schedule communicated to guest writer Joe Linton, Sharrows have appeared on the main streets of the1.7 square mile city of Hermosa Beach. The Sharrows were a major part of the city's Bikeways Master Plan, but amazingly that didn't stop them from actually putting the Sharrows on the ground.
After his article last month, cyclists in Hermosa Beach kept in touch with Linton and it's really encouraging to read their excitement in the emails he forwarded me. They say things, without prompting from me, such as:
Please make sure all the credit goes to Julian Katz, Hermosa Beach
Commission who has been the father of this effort. Additional props
goes to the Hermosa Beach City Council for having the vision to show
leadership.
In short, they're proud, not scared, of their bike plan and implementation. They don't say things such as:
We have concerns that when wet, the paint would be slippery and would be a hazard to cyclists and drivers.
Speaking of the LADOT's efforts to stall on placing Sharrows on city streets attempts to work with SCAG to create a pilot program for the City of Los Angeles, Linton also reports that the City and SCAG have yet to agree on a contract. Once that contract is signed, it will take a couple of months before anything actually happens on city streets. In the time since the LADOT agreed to push forward with a pilot project, the Cities of Long Beach and Hermosa Beach have designed, explained, funded and implemented programs on their local streets.
@CalBike @BicyclingMag I have to wonder about any list of bike friendly cities that includes L.A. and Thousand Oaks and not Santa Monica. in reply to CalBike17 hrs ago
