Streetsblog Los Angeles

CICLE’s Dan Dabek is our host at the opening of the Valley Bikery.

The Valley Bikery celebrated a major milestone this Saturday, when it opened the doors of its first “store front” co-op space at 14416 Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys.  The Bikery will be open every Tuesday from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 to 5:00 P.M. every Saturday.

To mark the occasion, Bikery staff held a free bike maintenance clinic for nearly a dozen cyclists.  Later in the afternoon, Cyclists Inciting Change through Live Exchange (CICLE) led a nine mile bike ride from the Bikery to Lake Balboa with a stop at the Encino Velodrome.  A brief photo essay on the day’s festivities can be found after the jump.

Streetsblog would like to congratulate the volunteers of the Bikery on opening their first store front space.  The Bikery joins the Bicycle Kitchen, Bike Oven, Bikerowave and City of Light’s Bici Digna in operating a co-op out of a centralized space. Read more…

In addition to the great "urban expeditions" rides, CICLE also published guides to help people ride.

The good news is that this means that a new position has opened for a new leader to step up. C.I.C.L.E. is hiring a new managing director to, take the lead in programming rides and other events, update the C.I.C.L.E. website, and basically handle the day-to-day maintenance of the non-profit. I have a copy of the job listing available here for anyone's that's interested in applying. Their hoping to have the new managing director on-board by the middle of next month.

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A bike corral on York Blvd.  Rendering by Matt Schodorf

Due to Los Angeles City Council leadership and community advocacy, bike corrals may soon be coming to Los Angeles. The April 14th meeting of the city's  Transportation Committee is scheduled to hear a council motion on implementation of a pilot corral in Northeast Los Angeles. Here's the backstory on how that came to pass.

Matt Schodorf is a bicyclist and a small businesses owner. He and his wife own Cafe de Leche - a coffee shop at the corner of Avenue 50 and York Boulevard in Highland Park. York Boulevard, a former streetcar right-of-way, features old-school Main Street type buildings - very walkable with very little car parking. Schodorf noticed that many Cafe de Leche customers (and staff) arrive by bike and by foot. He got the city (LADOT) to install three of their standard inverted-U bike parking racks. Those racks fill up, with both bikes and dog leashes, so Schodorf kept thinking about how to increase the supply of local bicycle parking.

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Photo of Ciclists in NELA via C.I.C.L.E.

Yesterday, C.I.C.L.E. announced that they are ready to take the next steps in advocacy when they announced their "North East L.A. Campaign."  Generally, C.I.C.L.E. has focused their advocacy efforts on helping people get, and stay, on their bikes by providing classes, workshops and social rides.  However, the group hasn't spent a lot of energy on traditional advocacy concerning engineering and enforcement issues.

At least in N.E.L.A., that is going to change.  While C.I.C.L.E. hasn't announced the goals or platform for the campaign, that is going to wait until after meetings with members and other cyclists in the community, the potential campaigns the Ciclists list are all engineering treatments.  Many of those treatments would be "first ever" for the City of Los Angeles if they were to come to pass:

- Bike Boulevard: implement a bicycle boulevard in NELA.

- Bike Parking: implement innovative bike parking in NELA, possibly bike corrals (proposed in this council motion.)

- Colorado: implement bike lanes on Colorado (east of Figueroa approved in 1996 bike plan,  interest in additional stretches from TERA  and others)

- Eagle Rock: extend the Eagle Rock Blvd bike lanes (in the draft 2009 bike plan)

- Figueroa: implement bike lanes on Figueroa (north of Ave 60 approved in 1996 bike plan)

- Fletcher: implement bike lanes on Fletcher Drive (approved in 1996 bike plan)

- Sharrows: implement sharrows in NELA, in appropriate places, possibly including the Eagle Rock Blvd bike lane gaps for right turns at York and Avenue 36.

- York: implement bike lanes on York Boulevard (approved in the 1996 bike plan)

If you have any ideas for C.I.C.L.E., feel free to leave them in the comments section.  However, if you want to commit to helping with the project, you should leave a note for C.I.C.L.E. at their blog.

Families that Mass together, stay together. Shot of May 2008 Passadena Critical Mass

Sometimes when there’s breaking news, such as dissolving light rail contracts, verdicts from trials, public hearings on major transit or bicycle plans, it’s easy to lose sight that sometimes Livable Streets activism can be as simple as encouraging your children, or parents, to use their bikes, take transit or think of ways to move around without cars.

Cyclists Inciting Change through Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) has been preaching this sort of personal advocacy for years.  Now they’re asking the question, "how can we encourage more families to ride together."  Earlier this week they announced the beginning of their "Families And Bikes" (F.A.B.) program that seeks to answer that question and put theory to reality.  The first step is to gather information and ideas from their supporters.  You can help by taking their survey or posting a comment on the article announcing the program.

C.I.C.L.E. lists a lot of great reasons that we should be encouraging families to take bike trips together, be they recreational, to the store, to run errand or to school.  From the announcement:

With epidemic obesity and Type 2 diabetes rates continuing to rise,
promoting city bicycling, as a family activity, can be a great way to
(literally) get entire families moving toward increased levels of
fitness and a greater quality of life. Unfortunately, many parents
living in the Los Angeles area are choosing not to bicycle with their
children on city streets, and many view bicycling as an impractical or
even an unpleasant transportation option for their families.

They go on to point out that this isn’t just an L.A. problem, and provide examples from around the world that show parents skittish about putting children on bikes in urban settings.

The good news is that there are some solutions already out there.  A recent Streetsblog.net article challenged parents to work with schools to make cycling a "cool" and practical way to get to school.  Locally, City Lites hosts a ride every spring that has, literally, thousands of South L.A. children bicycling from park to park.  Also, C.I.C.L.E. board member David Pulsipher, when he’s not working on the Bike Plan with Alta Planning or on the next C.I.C.L.E. event, writes Kids, Bikes, Dads, a great resource for families interested in getting the children on bikes at an early age.

Instead of leaving your suggestions for what else C.I.C.L.E. can be doing, leave those suggestions at their blog; let’s fill the comments section with what riding with your family meant to you as a child or as a parent.  I’ll go first.

Cyclists Inciting Change Through Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) has been a leader in getting adults onto bicycles and out of cars through positive messaging, education, and urban bicycle training.  Their messaging has always been positive, to focus on the fun and benefits of biking rather than, in their words, "making people feel like schmucks for driving."

Their latest effort, The Bicycle Lifestyle Guide continues their tradition of light-hearted messaging with 30 pages of full color, illustrated fun.  The book is filled with tips and guides to encourage people to increase their bike usage by using their bike for local trips to build up a base before trying larger trips.  The advice and information contained within the Guide is probably familiar to regular Streetsblog readers, but the colorful illustrations and dynamic layout make The Bicycle Lifestyle Guide a great tool to encourage friends and family to consider bicycling as a great way to get around.  Those who read The Guide and decide they want to make a change in their life might consider taking some of C.I.C.L.E.'s street courses such as the upcoming Can You Handle It street riding lesson or Learn to Ride a Bike (for adults) class.

The The Bicycle Lifestyle Guide was written and partially illustrated by Shay Sanchez.  Eric Cushing and Al Zesatti also helped with illustrations, photography and layout.  You can get printed copies of The Bicycle Lifestyle Guide here and can get more information about the booklet and C.I.C.L.E. at their website.

Cyclists head to the Bike Expo during Bike Week Pasadena last year.

As we approach Bike to Work Day and the corresponding Bike Week Pasadena, let's take a look at how our neighbor to the east views and treats its cycling community.

When doing research for this week's installment for Bike Friendly Fridays, I found one statement in a press release that shows the difference between how Pasadena views cyclists and its large car-loving neighbors.  From a press release on announcing an update to the city's Bike Master Plan:

The existing master plan, titled “Century of Bikes,” was adopted in 2000. It encourages bicycle riding and proposes improved conditions for those already riding.

Most of the projects in the 2000 plan have been completed, with 60 lane miles identified with signage and stripes. A bike map, bike parking and promotion of bike safety were also integral to the plan.

By comparison, the City of Los Angeles is planning "18 miles of new bike lanes" in the next couple of years.  Also, while Pasadena is aggressively pursuing the creation of a new Bike Master Plan because it wishes to expand on the nearly completed BMP done in 2000, the City of Los Angeles has missed at least three dates where the draft of the BMP for which it held hearings in January of 2008.

The other difference in planning styles is what's being discussed to be part of the new BMP's.  For Los Angeles, we've been told the new plan will hope to fill in the gaps in the network that create dangerous conditions for cyclists when bike lanes suddenly end near a freeway entrance and earned one lane in Westwood the distinction of being named the Dumbest Bike Lane in America.

By comparison, Pasadena is moving forward by examining the road treatments that could make it the top bike-town in LA County.

The update, which will examine the full range of actions that could be taken to qualify for related state and federal funds, is expected to require more innovation as the city of Pasadena considers bicycle boulevards, traffic calming devices and other treatments.

An initial needs analysis will determine the visibility, safety and connectivity of Pasadena’s bicycle network for beginning and experienced cyclists.

Of course to be a friendly town for cyclists, it's not just about designing the best streets, it's also about showing support for cyclists.  Enter Bike Week Pasadena.

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Cyclists Inciting Change thru LIVE Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) has been busy under new executive director Liz Elliott having organized more rides and events than before.  However, they’ve saved some of the biggest news for the new year.  Via press release:

Cyclists Inciting Change thru LIVE Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.)
announced that it will begin plans for an innovative new Bicycle
Community Center in North East Los Angeles, thanks to initial funding
from New Belgium Brewing Company.

The Bicycle Community Center will house an extensive bicycle education
program, and provide a comprehensive set of resources that is sure to
get more Los Angelenos riding their bikes for everyday transportation.
Workshops will run the gamut, from teaching people to learn to ride for
the very first time, to demonstrating working solutions that can haul a
week’s worth of groceries home by bike.

The Center will also run the world’s first Social Bike Business program
which will manufacture affordable transportation bicycles and equip
qualifying low-income individuals with a transportation bicycle and the
training to help them meet with their transportation needs. Area
residents will also benefit from job training programs and additional
business opportunities created by the Center.

While funding from the New Belgium Brewing Company has made the Center’s opening possible,  C.I.C.L.E. still needs help to keep the center running.  If you’re interested in lending a hand, either finnancial or by volunteering, contact C.I.C.L.E. at info@cicle.org.

Will Campbell-Claus Delivers Toys at Midnight Then Ridazz in Training Collect Toys in Pasadena

Both C.I.C.L.E. and the Midnight Ridazz held and completed their respective charity toy rides this weekend.  On the Ridazz front, a few stolen bikes couldn’t stamp out the festivities as literally hundreds of toys were delivered to the Alliance for Children’s Rights to be distributed.  On C.I.C.L.E.’s front, bad weather before the ride may have held down attendance, but the fifty riders that rode through Pasadena did so with high cheer.  Hundreds more toys were gathered for Hathaway-Sycamores Family Services.

If you missed the ride this weekend for any reason, and you’re looking to both advance alternative transportation and promote local charity; allow me to suggest Transit People.  Entering its tenth year, Transit People has taken over 23,000 students on different field trips around the city.  The all-volunteer organization doesn’t just take deserving children to great L.A. places such as The Natural History Museum or the Long Beach Aquarium, but by using transit encourages young people to explore a transit oriented lifestyle.  Like every non-profit Transit People is going to need some extra help over the next couple of years.  If this sounds like a group you want to be part of, you can donate online here.

Photo: Ingrid Peterson and Damien Newton

Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) reached a milestone earlier this month when it appointed Liz Elliott as its first executive director.  While C.I.C.L.E. shares the same goal as other bicycle advocacy groups, they seek to bring about change by helping as many people as possible get out of their cars and onto bikes by teaching bike safety, programming Bike Week Pasadena, participating in Park(ing) Day, and by hosting its own wildly successful series of bike rides known as "Urban Expeditions."

Streetsblog conducted an over e-mail interview with Liz last week.

Streetsblog: First off, congratulations on the new gig.  It must be exciting.   I think the first thing people would like to know is what changes, if any, will people notice with CICLE?  Will its focus change at all as a result of your hiring?

Liz Elliott: Thank you, it is indeed exciting. For the last several years C.I.C.L.E. has been a labor of love-powered by a few dedicated volunteers. But as C.I.C.L.E. began to grow and increase its scope, it was clear that we needed a dedicated staff member on board. Well that day is here. Now C.I.C.L.E. is my job! While it's just a part time position, it still is having a tremendous impact on the organization's growth and development.

As a transportation focused bicycle advocacy organization, we've committed ourselves to using Education and Encouragement programming as a primary method to achieve our mission-which is essentially to get more people swapping out their cars for their bikes (at least part of the time). That trajectory won't change much over the next year or so, but do expect to see noticeable growth with our existing programs. Since I've come on board as director, we've already increased our workshop count from one a month to 3-4 per month. And as we continue to build, C.I.C.L.E. will begin to travel and engage more Los Angeles communities too.

One thing that I'd like to note about C.I.C.L.E.'s education program, is that it doesn't just focus upon bicycle safety-our goals are much broader than that. While promoting safe and effective riding style is very important and rests at the core of our curriculum, introducing people to smart solutions that help get them riding is an equally important component. As we continue to expand our education program, expect to see new workshops such as "The Bicyclist Lifestyle Workshop", "Bikes & Transit: Expanding your Mobility", Trailer Building Workshops, and more. These workshops offer much more than safe riding techniques, they teach fun and exciting solutions that inspire more Los Angelenos to start bicycling, and help the existing cyclist to keep at it. Some people think C.I.C.L.E. only works with new cyclists, but the truth is, we work with a lot of current cyclists too.

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