Originally posted on 2/3 at JeremyGrant.com

Originally posted on 2/8 at Soap Box LA

Last week, the LA Bike Working Group began to release parts of "L.A.'s Best Bike Plan" in the form of the Backbone Bikeway Network maps and started a new conversation about the state of bike planning in Los Angeles.  The maps, first published on three members of the steering committee's blogs, moved to LAist and then on to the mainstream media.

It's nearly impossible not to compare the maps of the Backbone Bikeway Network (Backbone) to those of the Draft Bike Plan offered by various city departments and put together by Alta Planning.  It's also impossible not to notice a key difference in philosophy.  While the Draft Bike Plan is all about providing safe alternatives to biking on main thoroughfares, the Backbone is all about making it safer for cyclists to ride on these same major thoroughfares that LADOT is trying to take cyclists off of.

In the post announcing the Backbone at Westside Bikeside, Dr. Alex Thompson explains:

The Backbone Bikeway Network will get you from Downtown to West LA, Crenshaw to Valley Village, and LAX to Hollywood.  The Backbone doesn’t have neighborhood level detail, because that’s not what a citywide system is for – this system gets you 5 and 10 and 20 miles across town.  It goes on major streets – arterials – unlike the proposed Bike Plan, and it gets you within striking distance of major destinations like Dodger Stadium and City Hall.

There's a lot to discuss about the Backbone: what is it, the philosophy behind it, the process that created it, and where we go from here.  We'll discuss all of that after the jump.

What is the Bikeways Backbone Network:

Simply put, the Backbone is just a statement that these are the major routes cyclists can take to efficiently get from one place to another.  If the city recognized this Network as the glue that holds all of the local improvements together, and made certain to treat this network as the most important part of its bikeways system; then everything else would fall into place.  Does the Backbone require that all of these routes get bike lanes, Sharrows, separated bike paths, or other bicycle improvements?  No.  It's simply a statement that this is where cyclists belong, and the city should prioritize their street cleaning, road maintenance, enforcement and planning efforts to make these roads safer for everyone.

Enci Box explains:

We're claiming our right and freedom to be free and safe on our roads...When your ride off the Backbone or on bike trails, you're segregated.  There's nowhere you can be both safe and visible.  If you're a woman, you can be attacked by a single person, but even if you're a man you can be attacked by a group of people.  And nobody sees you.  If you're on the Backbone, you can be visible.  And, you become part of the community as you pass through.

Not everyone needs to feel that they have to ride these streets, but they should feel that they can.

Enci makes an excellent point.  Too many people don't bike in Los Angeles, or other places, because they are intimidated by the amount of cars on the roads near their houses and the large streets that get from one place to another.  In other words, the little streets don't connect anywhere and the big streets are scary.  We saw yesterday that this can have a dangerous effect for our children.  I can personally testify to this, as the first trip I took on a bike in this city, from Hel-Mel to the Fairfax District had me biking on a road with no shoulder at places, broken lights, and terrible road conditions.  I can't imagine anyone biking for the first time repeating the adventure if their first trip involved any part of Beverly Boulevard.  Yet, both Oakwood to the north and 1st Street to the south cut off at various places forcing cyclists on to the horribly maintained Beverly Boulevard.

Talking with Jeremy Grant, he explained how one of the reasons he became involved with advocacy was because he thought it ridiculous that he could drive from his home to his office in fourteen miles, but it would take eighteen miles to do it by bike.  In short, a lot of us see the same problems with the way the city treats its main thoroughfares, the same ones that Metro runs it express service on, that make them unbikeable for many.

But there's also been a lot of discussion about what the Backbone is that misses the point.  Last Monday, Alex Thompson explained how the Backbone is not about limiting planning options, but expanding what communities will be able to do while providing the overall vision of connectivity between the cities.

We left out the neighborhood network because we wanted a clear, communicable vision of what city connectivity could be, and should be.  However, we’ve got a secret tool box of innovative approaches we hope to deploy in neighborhoods.  I’ll give you some clues – they involve neighborhood level democracy, cut through traffic, and mini-humans.

The Backbone doesn’t lack vision, but it demands political will.

The Philosophy:

Listening to the members of the Bike Working Group Steering Committee, there are two major points to their philosophy as it relates to the Backbone.  The first is that bikes belong on streets as much and are just like the other user groups.  The second is that their plan, entirely based of community input and shared with politicians, the LAPD and the Bureau of Street Services, is a much more inclusive plan than that offered by the Draft Bike Plan.  As Peteu explains,

We have a backbone.  We're not afraid to ask for the sky and aren't afraid of the car lobby.

A couple of weeks back, Council Transportation Committee Chair thundered at City Hall that "The Culture of the Car is going to end now!" However, this plan is more about equality of users than a car-culture war.  If bikes are as important as every other user group, than the Backbone Network has to make sense for every user group.  Stephen Box explains:

The Backbone offers a solution to our transportation crisis that is good for everybody.  It's not just about cyclists.  If you clean the major streets, repair the potholes on major streets, and focus your enforcement on these major streets, the system will be more efficient.  Everybody wins.

Of course a large part of the philospohy is also that the LADOT has failed, and is failing, to make the streets efficient and safe.  Jeremy Grant compares the Backbone to the first part of a triage plan that is the feasibility of cycling in the city.  Enci Box states:

Everything they're doing gets you almost "there" or close to "there."  This is a plan that gets you there.

To a person, they all noted that the Draft Bike Plan doesn't connect places, instead it comes close to connecting places; while the Backbone can take cyclists from one end of the city to another.  While that vision works for the cityas a whole, it would then be up to empowered communities to create the ability to move about safely within that community.  By contrast, the Draft Bike plan, with it's hundreds of miles of colored lines, is telling people where they can and cannot do bike planning.

The Process:

To a person, all five members of the steering committee to which I spoke brought up that this plan was created based on the input from over a half dozen meeting and hundreds of cyclists.  The routes that were selected for the Backbone were suggested by people at last fall's meetings sponsored by the Bike Working Group and voted on by the people at the meeting.  The steering group may have selected the meeting locations and agendas, but the content of the Backbone was created by the people that attended.

Peteu excitedly describes the effort:

This is a grassroots effort, and it shows what people are capable of doing on our own.

Stephen Box argues that the Draft Bike Plan can never be as complete as the Backbone because the work of the volunteers and meeting attendees has actually branched out to more places than the city's Bikeways Department at DOT and Planning Department did for the Bike Plan.  Box points to meetings with the Bureau of Street Services, various high level members of the LAPD, including Commander David Doan and Deputy Commissioner Earl Paysinger.  The group has also met with some of the surrounding cities, and has pledged to continue to do so, so that everyone can get on board with the premise that bikes belong on these major streets.

Where do We Go, From Here:

The hope is that the city will embrace the Backbone as the key to best moving people from place to place; cyclists, transit users and drivers.  The process wouldn't need involved the City Council, or any major political lifting; just a memorandum to city departments and the LAPD to prioritize the streets on the Backbone for cleaning, maintenance, improvements and enforcement.  Stephen Box points out that major streets in the city aren't cleaned, and don't seem to be receiving their share of funds for repaving.  This seems backwards to how funds should be spent if the goal is to move people as efficiently as possible on the major streets.

In a more literal sense, the Bike Working Group will next be meeting on Saturday, March 6th.  The final location hasn't been set yet, but we'll announce it here once it's finalized.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at last night's Bike Plan meeting for the Westside was that the format had completely changed from the 2008 meetings.  In 2008 the format consisted of a public presentation and "Q+A" session which last time devolved into a contentious debate over the state of cycling and the ability of the city to deliver on its promise of better cycling in the city.  Last night there were three sets of posterboards manned by staff from Alta Planning or the city and tables with maps for people to draw comments.  All city and Alta staff took comments on large paper note pad.

"They're learning," joked Stephen Box, who helped organize protests about the public outreach and content of the plan in 2008 and the Bike Working Group meetings this year.  But LADOT Bike Coordinator Michelle Mowery said the new format would allow for people who aren't usually heard to make their case:

It's been really great, because too often we don't hear from shy people...We're getting tons more comments than last time (in the winter of 2008) and it's been great for me.  People are sent to me with specific issues on their commutes, on their streets, and I can help fix many of those problems.

Jordan Turner, the point of contact for the plan, agreed with Mowery that the format was the right one and that comments continue to pour in, both good and bad.

We're hearing from a range of people, a range of comments from everything from people that like the plan to people that want us to start over.

When asked what has been a theme running through the comments from all the meetings thus far, Turner answered

People are focused on implementation.  They want to see stuff on the ground.  Most people seem happy that we're doing this, that we're thinking and planning, but what they really want is to see something happen.

Image: Land of Angle

Some of this stuff has been in a plan for thirteen years.  There's no time parameters anywhere.  When will this get done?

That's not to say that there weren't those in attendance who support the plan, or at least parts of it.  Biking In L.A.'s Ted Rogers noted that it's "a good start" while two LACBC Board Members gave the plan a qualified thumbs up.

Kent Strumpell, who also serves on the Bike Advisory Committee and on the Bike Plan Citizen Advisory Committee, after notied that the Bike Plan is just that, a plan, and not an enforcement document.  However, he pointed out that the matrix in Appendix B gives certain jobs and action items to specific departments creating accountability within the city.  He also noted that the plan creates policies that will empower local bike activists to get the most that they can from the developers and the city from project mitigation funds.

Giving a less enthusiastic pat on the back was Dr. Michael Cahn who managed to call the plan a "monument of seriousness and a monument of failure because it embraces incremental-ism."  Cahn did seem overall supportive of the plan opening with, "It's wonderful to sit down with a five hundred page pdf put together by smart people that takes bicycling a little seriously."

It was somewhat surprising to hear positive comments from two Bike Coalition Board Members, even if Cahn's was somewhat tongue in cheek, given the criticism the plan received in the LACBC's official comments.  But that was the way things went last night as the anger on the Internet and at previous forums wasn't outwardly demonstrated.  The most contentious thing I heard was a member of the city staff complaining to me about the labikeplan.com website and thanking me for "exposing it."  Oddly, the Bike Working Group also enjoyed the article.

I should note that in my survey of the room, there were more people that didn't like the plan than that did, however, most of them had comments on how the plan could be improved or parts protected instead of a demand that the plan be scrapped.  One time a cyclist approached Stephen Box asking how we could keep the City Council and Mayor from killing the plan.  I didn't get all of Box's response, but it was basically that we want the City to reject this plan and replace it with something that is more organic, progressive and aggressive.

Spending nearly all of the two hours circling the room, ease dropping and reading the easels, there were three comments that were repeated over and over again.  The first two seem right out of the Bike Working Group playbook, and the third was about the hot debate over whether bicycles belong on our trails.

The first two items were asking that the Cyclists Bill of Rights be included in the plan in its entirety and that the plan definitively state that all streets are for bicycles.

In December of last year, the City Council near-unanimously endorsed the Cyclists Bill of Rights and earlier the LADOT and City Planning had been directed by then Council Transportation Committee Chair Wendy Greuel to include the document in the Bike Plan.  While the phrases from the Bill of Rights aren't included word-for-word within the plan, staff maintains that the "spirit" of the document is included.  That wasn't good enough for many of the cyclists in attendance as "Cyclists Bill of Rights" had more checks marked next to it than any other suggestion.  We'll have to wait and see whether or not it's good enough for current Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl, who introduced the Bill of Rights to the Council.

Calling for all streets to be declared "bikeable streets" also shouldn't be controversial.  After all, it is the law.  However, there still seems to be confusion from the motoring public on this point, just read the debate on this recent Mandeville Canyon comments thread, and you can see the concern.  A clear declaration from the city that cyclists belong on the road could, and should, be the cornerstone of any bike plan in any city.

The last issue that was raised over and over again was the inclusion of Chapter 3 of the draft plan entitled "Off-Road Bicycle Policies" which basically means policies regarding bike riding in city parks.  For many in the bike community, this is an issue of equity, public space and just the right to belong.  Others wonder why a recreational use is even being discussed in a transportation planning document. 

Lynn Brown, the National Trail Coordinator for Equestrian Trails Inc., explained that it's not a desire to keep cyclists from using public space, but a safety concern that is pushing her coalition, which includes the Sierra club and runners groups, to get chapter 3 removed.

We support multi-use trails when they are safe, but our trails are already extremely crowded with hikers, runners, equestrians, mommy-stroller groups...every group imaginable.  However, we're all moving on legs, moving at around five miles per hour.  When you add a wheeled extreme sport,  you create a catastrophically unsafe element.

Cyclists supporting mountain biking countered that the plan doesn't say that bikes should be allowed on trails, even if the trails in surrounding areas, for example in Orange County and San Diego, do allow bikes as well as the groups Brown mentions.

Of course, whether or not the Final Bike Plan incorporates all or none of these suggestions may not be known for awhile.  After the comment period ends in November, the city has vowed to continue excepting comments into the new year.  Then these comments will be compiled into a Final Plan.  Then the plan will go through another round of public comment before moving on to the City Planning Commission.  From there, it's on to the City Council Transportation and Planning Committees before finally going to the City Council at an undisclosed date in the future.  In the meantime, Box vowed that the Bike Working Group will continue to meet and work on an alternate plan.  Their next meeting is this weekend, while the next Bike Plan meeting is next week in Northeast L.A.  See our calendar section on the right for more details.

Which one is which? Images: labikeplan.org and labikeplan.com

The other day, I noticed that some of the stories reviewing the Draft Bike Plan on Streetsblog were receiving incoming links from what I thought was the city's Bike Plan Website.  Given the strong critiques of the plan and the city, I was surprised that the City Planning would link to the pieces written by Stephen Box and Joe Linton.

In short, they weren't.

The Bike Working Group, the folks working on the alternate Bike Plan, holding their own workshops and having their own public outreach built their own website that is so similar in layout and design to the city's official site that I thought I was looking at the real deal for a couple minutes.  Apparently I wasn't alone, I've gotten emails from Neighborhood Councils and even the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition that have linked to the Bike Working Group's site at labikeplan.com and not the city's site at labikeplan.org.

At the unofficial site, each tab takes you to a different link that goes to a different story criticizing the plan.  If that isn't enough to tip you off that you're at the "unofficial" site, the images at the top include a picture of Ron Peterson in the hospital after the Mandeville Canyon crash and a cyclist being led away in handcuffs by the LAPD.

The other difference is the Bike Working Group lists both their meetings and the city's meetings; while the official website, at labikeplan.org only lists the upcoming public meetings sponsored by the city.  Incidentally, the next unofficial meeting is this weekend.  For more information visit, you guessed it, labikeplan.com.  For information on the city's outreach meetings, feel free to visit whichever site you prefer.

(update: The LA Bike Working Group event to review the Bike Plan has had to change time and venue.  The new location and time is Saturday, 2pm, at the Hollywood Adventist Church, 1711 N. Van Ness Ave., Hollywood, CA 90028.  We’ll be in the Fellowship Hall on the NW side of the parking lot.)

The Bike Writers Collective is calling up the LA Bike Working Group to take on LA's Draft Bike Plan, reviewing it, discussing it, and then working together to make it a powerful visionary document that supports the rights of cyclists on the streets of Los Angeles. All LA cyclists are invited to join in as the spirit of Government 2.0 takes over the Los Angeles City College Faculty Lounge at 1pm this Saturday, October 17, 2009.

The Draft Bike Plan was released on September 24th and the comment period is scheduled to close on November 6th, a window of 42 days for public participation. This is the first of many objectionable elements to the Draft Bike Plan and the City's idea of civic engagement. The LA Bicycle Advisory Committee voted unanimously to "demand" that the comment period be extended until Jan 8, 2010. The Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils also voted unanimously to support the fight for an extension of the comment period. Now it's up to the cycling community to prepare those comments.

Riding a bike in Los Angeles has always been a demonstration of self-sufficiency and independence. At first it simply meant carrying a spare tube, some tools and a pump. Somewhere along the way it grew to include carrying a pocket guide to the law, some key phone numbers and some bail money. Then the Department of DIY took things into their own hands and now the cycling community finds themselves confronted with the fact that if they want a decent Bike Plan, they're going to have to make it themselves.

Cyclists can take a look at the complaints and the criticism of the Draft Bike Plan, from LAStreetsBlog and again on LAStreetsblog to CityWatchLA to WestsideBikeSide to BikeGirl. But the most important thing they can do is to take a look at the Draft Bike Plan, (editor's note: If you want to compare the "original" maps from earlier this summer with the current ones that were quietly downgraded, you can find the original maps here.) download it to their laptop and then to ride over to the LA Bike Working Group and to dig in. We'll start as a group then we'll break into smaller groups and we'll work through the plan and create a vision for Los Angeles, by cyclists for cyclists.

Portland is currently going through the same Bike Plan update process as Los Angeles and they have 11 Working Groups, 1 Steering Committee and 1 Technical Advisory Committee, all working together to ensure that the Bike Plan is a robust document that represents the desires of the cycling community. Somehow the City of LA got consultants from Portland but not the spirit of community nor the commitment to an open and engaging process. Now is LA's chance to change that and to create a Bike Plan that truly supports cyclists and their rights on the streets of Los Angeles.

LA Bike Working Group, 1 pm on Saturday the 17th of October, 2009. LACC Faculty Lounge, right in the center of the campus which is right in the center of LA. To plan your visit via public transportation, go to metro.net. The Red Line drops you off right by the College at Santa Monica & Vermont.

Last Friday, the city released the first piece of its Bike Master Plan when it posted the draft area maps that will make up the framework of the engineering portion of the Plan.  "Word on the street" is that the City's Planning Department , the body that is in charge of the BMP despite the widely held belief that it's the LADOT Bikeways Division, didn't want to release the plan piecemeal.

If the reaction from advocates and bloggers is any indication of the general feelings towards the plan, then the instinct to withhold wasn't a bad one.

Complaints over the maps released last week range from the content of the plan to the outreach efforts by Planning to even that the Maps were released as low resolution pdf.'s and not a more user friendly technology.  Los Angeles Bike Coalition founder Joe Linton in the comments section from Friday's story provided what was the most positive comment on the maps and it wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

If anyone was expecting bike paradise tomorrow... then I'd suggest tempering your expectations. How about rolling up your sleeves, and composing a comment letter to the City Planning Department with suggestions of what you want in the plan. Best to ask for what you'd like to see - please don't just say that the draft plan sucks and is embarrassing... without saying your opinion of what a good plan would be.

That being said, most of the rest of the comments I received said that the draft plan sucks.  Eric Knutzen, of the Bike Writers Collective and Homegrown Evolution sums up a lot of the complaints:

First off I feel left out of the process, not having been allowed to see the plan while it was in progress and before it went to LADOT (presumably to be gutted of anything that would impede motor vehicles). 

As for what has been delivered, it all hinges on if anything substantive is done with the streets categorized as "bicycle friendly streets". Curious that "sharrow" is not mentioned in the description of this category and neither is "traffic calming", two critical components of a bicycle boulevard which, I'm guessing, is the phrase that was used in earlier drafts of this plan (at least that's the terminology from the outreach meetings). Perhaps this will be cleared up when we see the whole thing.

Knutzen is referring to one of the five street categories that are used in the maps.  Three of the designations, "bicycle path," "bicycle lane" and "bicycle route" are ones that are pretty common, both in L.A. and around the country.  The other two, "bicycle friendly streets" and "proposed but currently unfeasible" are unique to Los Angeles.  Knutzen is wondering whether the treatments for the "bicycle friendly streets" are going to be anything worth celebrating or a pat on the back.

Ron Milam, another founding member of the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, looks at the network of "bicycle friendly streets" as a step in the right direction, with a caveat.

I’m happy to see a proposed network “Bicycle Friendly Streets” – this is something Los Angeles really needs.   In response to the “Proposed But Currently Infeasible” category of streets, I can’t help but think of the many other cities that are actively removing travel lanes and/or on-street parking to prioritize bicycling infrastructure – why can’t we do the same for at least some of these proposed streets in LA? 

Alex Thompson, of the Bike Writer's Collective and Westside BikeSIDE wrote comments that were more critical.

There ain't dick on that map that's new west of the 405.  Give me a break.  All that waiting and nonsense.  The longest change west of the 405 is the addition of the Expo line path, the path in the development down in Playa Vista, and signage along Palms.  The Expo line is the county, so that's not a commitment by the city.  The Playa Vista path is paid for and required of the developer, and is a path to nowhere.  Palms is a fucking mountain range.  This plan has LADOT written all over it .

Also in the Streetsblog comment section was a comment from the Bike Writer's Collective's and Bike Oven's Josef Bray-Ali who found the lack of a plan for East L.A. distressing.

This map sucks. North East LA doesn't even register except for the ridiculous LA River bike path. Where is Riverside Drive? Where is the Class 1 or Class 2 that belongs on San Fernando Rd? Figueroa is bypassed for ... Griffin?! Why is N. Figueroa a car-only highway, when the 110 is located a few hundred yards away? We have too many car-only facilities in NELA! Wake up!

The only direction you'll be able to get downtown is via "Bike Route" (hah!) coming from South LA. Not a single at-grade, Class 2 or Class 1 bike facility into downtown. Really?!

Lastly, Roadblock, who's name has been in the news a lot recently found the plan hopeful although was annoyed at the presentation's poor usability:

Itried to pull it into adobe illustrator to seperate out the wishful thinking parts but its lo res flattened artwork... no dice.  Thus wishing for them to put this into google maps and allow for turning off and on proposed routes versus infeas-able routes etc... perhaps someone at the LACBC could translate this to google?

Thus far there is no formal comment from the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, CICLE, or the Bike Advisory Committee, although I expect we'll here from some of these groups at tomorrow's meeting of the full LABAC.  In the meantime, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section or email the city at jordann.turner@lacity.org.  We'll have more on the maps and the bike plan in the coming days and weeks.

Of course, I'd rather have the City of Los Angeles produce a Bike Master Plan than plan a week of bike events, but what can you do?

In addition to the series of events that mark Bike Week, Metro wants bike commuters, either regulars or those just trying it out for for one day, to register on their website to let them know and qualify for prizes such as free trips and bikes.  For a full list of events, summaries and my Bike Week schedule and opinions read on after the jump:

While I have listed summaries of the events below, for full event listings check out the websites for Metro's Bike to Work Week and Bike Week Pasadena.

Monday:

Bike Week kicks off with a press event at Olvera Station at 8:30 A.M. featuring characters from the Simpsons and elected officials.  This has always seemed like a silly way to start Bike Week in Los Angeles, a little too whimsical for a city that has the cycling history that Los Angeles does.  That evening in Pasadena, CICLE will be screening the documentary "Contested Streets," which covers the early days of the street revolution in New York City.   The event begins at 6:00 P.M. with Contested Streets beginning at 7:00.  If you get there five minutes before 7:00 you'll get to see a fantastic and scintillating intro to the film by yours truly.

A multi-faith blessing of bikes at last year's Blessing of the Bicycles. Photo: Miss Patricia/Flickr

Tuesday:

One of the highlights of Bike Week every year is "the Blessing of the Bicycles" at Good Samaritan Hospital.  The event begins at 8:00 A.M. and features free food, a social atmosphere and, yes, a mass blessings of bicycles.  Last year I skipped the Blessing but I'm told it draws well over fifty cyclists.  This year organizers hope to bring over 150 cyclists to the event.

That evening in Pasadena, CICLE promotes how you can lose 3,000 pounds in a day by getting rid of your car.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday things start to really get moving.  At 8:00 A.M., Bike to Work Week kicks into gear with a tour of the Downtown presumably to help new riders get over any fear they have of biking in a more urban setting.

Meanwhile in Pasadena, it's Ladies' Night.

Last year's Bike Not-to Work Day Presented the Cyclists Bill of Rights at City Hall

Thursday...

...is Bike to Work Day in L.A. County.  Working with groups from around the county who will set up bike stations and "pit stops," Metro hopes to put its most bike friendly foot forward.  They are also offering free transit rides for riders with bikes excepting certain rush hour trains where bikes are still banned.  For a complete list of the bike stations, go here.

Thursday is also "Bike Not to Work Day," the now-annual advocacy ride sponsored by the Bike Writers Collective.  This year's ride, "Expo Exposure" will ride the bike route that cyclists should have gotten from the completed Expo Bike Path instead of the completely segregated bike trail that might not even be built.  At the end of the ride, cyclists will end up at the LANI conference at USC for some lunch and their afternoon program.  For more on this year's ride, click here.

Friday

Is Walk or Bike to School Day in Los Angeles County.  A series of schools around L.A. County will undertake programs to encourage non-motorized transportation as a way to get to school.  Some details are still pending, but between now and next Friday I'll get more details and maybe join one of the school rides.

Meanwhile, back in Pasadena the city is promoting cycling to young people by a special event at the Rose Bowl loop in the evening.  Last summer I had the pleasure of biking through Car-Free Rose Bowl in September, and the loop is a great place to get some excercise and expose people to cycling on roads.

Saturday

While Bike Week is closed in the weekend, there is still one more day of city-sponsored bike activities in Pasadena.  In this instance I'll let CICLE speak for itself in explaining the East-West Bike Train and other closing activities:

All Aboard the East-West Express Bike Train. Hop on board at a bike station near you. Join us for a progressive, relaxed and scenic bicycle journey across Pasadena. Disembark at our fun-filled final destination--the Pedal Party at a surprise indoor venue at One Colorado. It's the last day of our Bike Week Journey and it's time to celebrate! Mingle with friends over a cold New Belgium Brewing Co. ale or an Izze Soda. Fill your bellies with scrumptious treats, courtesy of One World Vegetarian Cuisine, check out the latest goods from local bike artisans and get a chance to win fabulous raffle prizes. What a way to end an incredible week. This is a fund-raising party for C.I.C.L.E. So come out and show us that you love us. Exhibitors include C.I.C.L.E., Red Riding Hood Productions, Sheila Moon, Swrve, Team C.I.C.L.E., Totally Tubular Designs, Townsend Cycles, Yanco Pads.

The East-West Express Ride meets at Memorial Park at 3:30 PM and features multiple pick-up points along the route. Departs Memorial Park at 4:00 PM sharp. Other stops include: Victory Park 4:35 PM, McDonald Park 5:00 PM, La Pintoresca Park 5:15 PM, Armada Overlook 5:45 PM, final destination--One Colorado. >> See the East-West Express bike train map with all stops and times.

The Closing Pedal Party takes place at a surprise indoor venue in the One Colorado courtyard between 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM. The One Colorado is bounded by Fair Oaks, Colorado Blvd., DeLacey and Union St. in Old Pasadena. This is a fund-raising party for C.I.C.L.E. Free bike valet.

Looking for "the support of educated law enforcement" in LA.

Leading the charge is a post from SoapboxLA on the Cyclists' Bill of Rights recently voted on in that city, where a booming cycling community is challenging LA's car-centric mindset on a daily basis. Soapbox highlights the third item on the Bill, which addresses the need for police to understand and uphold cyclists' civil rights:

"Cyclists have the right to the full support of educated law enforcement."

In all fairness to the sensitivities of our law enforcement partners, we ain't there yet! And until we get there, we should be working together to make it happen…

Sure we're partners when we're at City Hall or in a Committee meeting or when there's a press conference, but late at night, when the street is dark, that's when our Civil Rights get tested and that's when cyclists call for the support of educated law enforcement…

Los Angeles is the second largest city in the country. We should be a Great City, setting the standard for Civil Rights, but instead, LA looks for the minimum and argues for mediocrity.

Los Angeles Magazine takes a long hard look at our burgeoning and growing bike scene.  Writer  Matthew Segal rides the rides and talks to the people who make up the menagerie that is biking in Los Angeles.

The main piece, Spokespeople, talks to many people that any regular Streetsblog reader should be familar.  Segal rides CRANK MOB, Critical Mass and a bunch of the other social rides that make up the scene.  Segal notes the growing popularity of these rides, and the corresponding growth in bike commuting and other daylight activities.

Spokespeople also goes into the politics of bike riding and spends over half the article talking about Stephen Box, Alex Thompson and the difference between the tactics that people in the movement employ.  If you're a rider who wants to get as much into the people and personalities of the movement, Spokespeople is a must-read.

The other articles focus on the different organizations that round out the movement:

• Road Rules is sort of a hybrid article between the Cyclists Bill of Rights and the rules and laws by which we should apply.
  
• Repairs looks at the bike co-ops, for any of you that missed the video.
• Want to Ride breaks down the largest and best known of LA's group rides.
• Cycling the Links gives a list of some of the best places to get news on bikes and bike culture.
  

First the Wall Street Journal, now LA Magazine.  Is this a sign that the Bike Movement is finally going mainstream?  Once the press is on board, it's only a matter of time before the pols follow.

Stephen Box Discusses Cyclists Rights at the "Festival of Rights"

It's been an eventful 24 hours for those cyclists engaged in the battle for better recognition of cyclists rights.  Last night was the "Festival of Rights," the third annual protest of the ban on bicycles during the Griffith Park Festival of Lights except on special nights in November.  Today, the Los Angeles City Council gave a partial endorsement of the Cyclists Bill of Rights but will wait for reports from various City Departments before giving a final nod.

The purpose of the yearly yearly civil disobedience at the Festival of Lights is to show that despite the objections from city agencies, cyclists and drivers can share the road and legally the city has no right to bar cyclists from the festival.  Ride organizer Stephen Box wrote to me that most of the cyclists actually followed a police car through their festival on the way home with no issues.

This afternoon, the full City Council took up the Cyclists Bill of Rights, as written by the Bike Writer's Collective and as introduced by Councilman Bill Rosendahl.  Rosendahl read the Bill of Rights into the record, and after a brief Q and A with LADOT Bike Coordinator Michelle Mowery, the Council appeared ready to vote on the adopting the Cyclists Bill of Rights as a guideline for city agencies pending the outcome of the reports of city departments.

However, Councilman Tom LaBonge had some changes he wanted to see.  First, he found the "Third Amendment" which states, "Cyclists have the right to the full support of educated law enforcement."  While he didn't have a problem with the basic idea, he was worried that the language was inflammatory to the local police by implying that they were uneducated.  Mowery spoke to the large amount of laws that fit in the Motor Vehicle Code and that it's nigh impossible to know the entire code.  However, she stated that LADOT is working to continually educate the LAPD about the rights of cyclists.

LaBonge was also worried that children would get the wrong idea about cycling because the document fails to cover the responsibilities of cyclists as well as their rights.  He'll have a chance to edit the document before final passage.  The final document, after being examined by the LAPD, LADOT, Bureau of Street Services, and City Planning, will go through the Transportation Committee, which LaBonge vice-chairs, and Parks Committee, which LaBonge chairs, before heading back to the Council for a final vote.

Photo by Enci