Each purple dot is a location surveyed by the LACBC in 2009. The more purple, the more cyclists.

This September, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) will be conducting the 2^nd City of L.A. Bike Count.  In 2009 we counted over 14,000 cyclists at 50 intersections throughout the city.  It’s time to hit the streets and do it again!

Over the last two years, many of the count locations have seen significant improvements from a batch of new sharrows to the freshly painted bike lanes on 7^th Street.  This second round of the Bike Count is vital because beyond pinpointing the busiest intersections, for the first time we will be able to track changes in ridership.  We have the opportunity to collect the hard data to show the positive effects of improved bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and to continue advocating for more projects.

The more volunteers we have, the more data we can collect and the more improvements we can make!  We need your help to get out and count again. We’ll be conducting counts during the week of September 12^th and holding orientations sessions across the city on Saturday, September 10th. The following shifts are available for over 50 locations:

• Tuesday, September 13th: 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM
• Tuesday, September 13th: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
• Saturday, September 17th: 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Click here to sign up or contact Martin Lopez-Iu at martin@la-bike.org.  To donate to the count contact Alexis Lantz at alexis@la-bike.org.  Thank you so much and please spread the word!

Important Links

Sign up: http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/162345634934070077

Map of intersections: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?authuser=0&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=211183797589472028592.0004aa576ba3097db743b

About bike counts: http://la-bike.org/projects/bicycle-pedestrian-counts

2009 Count Report: http://lacbc.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/labikecountreport.pdf

LACBC website: http://la-bike.org/

(Martin Lopez-Iu is the outreach and volunteer coordinator with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.)

Bike Commuter John Vu from his Facebook Page

(Angelika Sjostrom is a senior at California State University Northridge where she studies journalism. A recreational bike rider, doing research for the story has inspired a budding interest in cycling culture. Angelika resides in LA’s historic Angelino Heights.  This is her first contribution to Streetsblog.  Any opinions found within are that of the author. – DN)

In a city with a population of four million, the majority of whom commute via car or bus, Los Angeles resident John Vu does not follow the crowd. An avid bicycle rider, he travels his 12-mile commute to work on two wheels. “Riding a bike is an important part of getting around the city for me” said Vu.

Vu, 36, is a living, breathing testament to the social, economic, and health benefits of traveling by bike. “I started cycling in 2006 and haven’t looked back since,” Vu said. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Vu learned to drive a car as a teenager and never entertained the idea of using a bike as his main mode of transportation. That is, until two of his friends convinced him to try it out. “It was definitely an evolutionary process,” Vu said, who started riding for fun and eventually began using his bike to commute to work.

Now, Vu rides his bike to work five days a week (weather permitting) and even uses Twitter to keep statistics of his ride. For example, one Tweet read: “Rush hour Beverly Blvd. to Santa Monica Blvd. ride to work. Least contentious commute ever. Door to desk in 52 minutes.”

“Riding my bike, in most circumstances, is the most practical way for me to get around the city,” Vu said. “Cycling is an amalgam of transportation, healthy activity, and social interaction, which is why I’ve come to love it so much.”
Los Angeles is not typically thought of as the most accommodating city for bicyclists, and indeed, it has a long way to go. Progress is on the horizon, however.

Christopher Kidd, the Assistant Coordinator for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s Bicycle Program, is hopeful for the future. “Fortunately for the bicycle community, we have unwavering support from Mayor Villaraigosa and everyone in the mayor’s office,” Kidd said.

Kidd, 29, has personal and professional connections with the bicycle community. An urban planning graduate student at the University of Southern California, Kidd has worked at LADOT for the past year. While the majority of his work is administrative, he is most proud of the work he does for LADOT’s Bike Program blog.

Kidd stressed the impact social media has had on the bicycle movement, especially in terms of generating a dialogue between city officials and the community. “The blog has had an enormous impact on distributing information to Angelinos as a whole,” Kidd said. He continued, “LADOT finally had the realization that they weren’t part of this very progressive conversation and so the blog was born.”

Over the past five years, the bicycle community has become a commanding presence in Los Angeles’ City Planning Office. Bicycle advocacy groups have been rallying together for years, pleading for the safe infrastructure bicyclists want and deserve.

The most recent victory the bicycle community is celebrating is the “Give Me 3” legislation making it on the State Legislature agenda. Formally known as S.B. 910, the bill requires a three-foot passing distance with a maximum speed differential of fifteen miles per hour between motorists and cyclists—a safety measure not yet written in the California Vehicle Code.

The bill, drafted by Long Beach Senator Alan Lowenthal, began with a bicycle advocacy campaign last summer that was endorsed by Mayor Villaraigosa, LADOT, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC), the Los Angeles Police Department, and grassroots group Midnight Ridazz.“This bill will legally reaffirm a bicyclist’s rights to the road. If passed at the state level, it will also offer a great opportunity to add bicycle safety education to the Department of Motor Vehicle’s agenda,” Kidd said. “We want bicycle safety awareness on both ends of the spectrum; there needs to be an understood respect between drivers and riders.”

Kidd also cited the LAPD as an important presence in rallying support for the bill, as well as supporting the bicycle community in general. “Sergeant David Krumer, who heads up LAPD’s Bicycle Patrol Unit, has been an indispensable voice in the transportation conversation,” Kidd said.

The LAPD Bicycle Task Force, formed specifically under Chief of Police Charlie Beck’s command, works closely with LADOT and LACBC to further the relationship between the police department and the community.

Bobby Gadda, the Bike Valet Coordinater at the LACBC and President of the Board of Directors for CicLAvia, echoed Kidd’s praise of the LAPD.

“Sgt. Krumer has really championed the importance of a dialogue between the community, the city, and all the departments involved in bike infrastructure,” Gadda said. “The LAPD is finally starting to get the message out about bicycling being a legitimate form of transportation on par with buses and the Metro Rail.”

A scene from last year's CicLAvia...

CicLAvia, which had its first official event in 2010, is Gadda’s pride and joy. “I went to Bogotá, Colombia a few years ago and was blown away by their Ciclovía event. After that trip, I moved down to Los Angeles from Portland, ditched my car, and have been involved in bicycle advocacy ever since,” Gadda said.

Los Angeles’ version of the event shuts down seven-and-a-half miles of the city’s streets, from the Bicycle District on Melrose and Heliotrope, through Macarthur Park, Downtown Los Angeles, and finally ends in Hollenbeck Park. Gadda worked closely with LACBC, LADOT, and LAPD to organize the event.

“Three years ago, a committee was started to discuss different routes and how to get the city involved, and it really didn’t take long to get the attention of the Mayor’s office,” Gadda said. The event, which took place this year on April 10, was by and large a huge success.

The goal of CicLAvia is to provide a safe, welcoming environment on the city streets for bicyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, walkers, runners—basically, as Gadda put it, “anything without a motor.”

Rob Flate, 31, of Silver Lake, was one of the many enthusiastic CicLAvia participants. “It was really interesting seeing the normally busy LA streets with no cars on them. I grew up here and have never seen anything like that. It was like a scene out of Vanilla Sky,” said Flate.

Flate continued singing praises of the event, saying, “It’s really nice to see people brought together over a common interest, especially one as beneficial and simple as riding a bike. At CicLAvia, you had this huge range of people across the spectrum of ethnicities and ages, all in one place and sharing a common reality.”

In Los Angeles, where the city’s streets are constantly filled with dense traffic, CicLAvia was widely received by Angelino’s as a positive statement that emphasized the change urban transportation is experiencing.

Gadda’s work with LACBC extends far beyond CicLAvia, however. He heads up LACBC’s Bike Wrangler program which reclaims abandoned bicycles throughout the county, fixes them, and redistributes the bikes to low-income communities.

Bobby Gadda, from his Facebook Page

The program is funded by the RENEW grant, part of Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s program to reduce obesity and promote healthy activity throughout the county. The RENEW grant consists of money from President Obama’s
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package introduced in 2009. The RENEW grant extends its reach far into the bicycle community. Marissa Christiansen, who is the South Bay Initiative Director for LACBC, has oversight for
RENEW- funded projects in Long Beach and surrounding municipalities.

“The grant perfectly supports the advocacy goals of LACBC in that RENEW’s goal is improving community health and, in the case of programs like the Bike Wrangler, the South Bay Bicycle Master Plan, and Safe Routes to School, the goals will be achieved through promoting active transportation,” Christiansen said.

Christiansen, who began her work with the South Bay Bicycle Coalition (SBCC) and teamed up with LACBC, is positive about the future of bicycle infrastructure and urban planning despite the obstacles facing the bicycle community.
“In general, our cities have long been designed around the automobile, so convincing the stewards of our cities that they should start doing things differently is always a challenge,” Christiansen said.

On March 8, Christiansen and other advocacy representatives went to Capitol Hill for the National Bike Summit where they lobbied for a prioritization of federal funding for bicycle infrastructure on a national level.

While the summit was a positive conversation between advocacy groups and politicians, Christiansen said that some offices did indeed warn them that, in considering the national economic climate, many programs are at risk of being on the chopping block. “This has proven to be a very real concern,” Christiansen said. “As we’ve seen in just the past couple of weeks, unspent Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancement funding is at risk of being inaccessible as a result of the current recession.”

Fortunately, however, Christiansen thinks that since bicycle infrastructure has become a prevalent feature in renovating urban planning throughout the state, California still have much progress to look forward to.

Christiansen emphasized her positivity, saying, “With all the momentum building about bikeability, convincing cities that they should be more proactive in creating an equitable transportation system has become a different conversation than it would be if we were pushing them to forge uncharted waters.”

In 2010, the Los Angeles City Council adopted the Los Angeles Bike Plan that calls for the implementation of over 1,600 miles of bicycle infrastructure over a 30-year period.

Kidd, who has been following developments in the plan for LADOT’s blog, said it is essentially “a backbone network for bicyclists so that at any given time, you would be no less than one mile away from some kind of bikeway.”

The LA Bike Plan, which is city-wide and funded in part by L.A. County’s Measure R, includes a wide range of projects over the 30-year span. Jennifer Klausner, executive director of LACBC, said that the new plan, which calls for the implementation of 40 miles of bikeways each year, will quadruple what is currently being added.

Each month, a committee called the Bike Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meets to discuss challenges facing the LA Bike Plan and how to solve those issues. The largest source of contention between the BPIT, LADOT, and City Planning is conducting Environmental Impact Reports (EIR) for proposed road conversions.

“The city is very careful about ridding itself of liability, and conducting EIR’s on proposed projects is one way they cover themselves,” Kidd said. The EIR’s are a nuisance to both the BPIT and the bicycle community because it will delay projects by at least a year as well as expend funds on conducting the reviews.

However, Kidd emphasized, “As frustrating as the delay EIR’s cause is to bicycle advocates, it’s a necessary step in improving the city’s infrastructure.”

The hard work that is being championed by the LACBC, the LADOT Bike Program, the LAPD, and countless others involved in enhancing the city’s infrastructure is not overlooked by cycling Angelino’s.

John Vu, whose shift from commuting via car to commuting via bicycle in 2006 changed his life for the better, is optimistic about the work the city is doing to improve the streets.

“I think what helps is that, over the past five or so years, there has been this huge cultural shift where bicycling is finally on the commuter’s radar,” Vu said. “Cycling is no longer a male- dominated, uppity sport. With the internet, cycling has gotten a significant boost and people are finally seeing that it’s a fun, social thing to do, and it also gets you from point A to point B for free.”

The fact that the bicycle community has been generating a louder voice backed by city agencies and, perhaps most importantly, Mayor Villaraigosa, is a testament to the shift urban planning is taking to incorporate bicycling in city infrastructure.

“Our goal is to make it so that there is no such thing as a bicycle community,” Kidd said. “By that I mean, there is no such thing as a community of people with driver’s licenses. There is no need for drivers to rally together and plea for rights from the city. That is the goal of LACBC, LADOT Bike Program, and all the other advocacy programs out there: to make bicycling ubiquitous in Los Angeles.”

Get more details on the River Ride at the official website.

This year’s Grand Marshall for the ride is former Pan-Am Waterski Champion and actor Austin Nichols.  Nichols recorded three videos with REI Southern California to promote this year’s ride, which is a bonus for me because it allows me to show off my knowledge of One Tree Hill, which was renewed the same day the second of the REI Series was released.  Bike Karma?  You betcha.

The first of Austin’s videos is all about the parking issues that the ride will face this year.  I must admit to being guilty of driving to a bike ride for past River Rides, but I also recognize that for riders doing anything short of a century, asking them to climb the hills around Griffith Park before the race may be asking a lot.

Oddly, the desperation that Nichols feels, reminds me exactly of how Julian felt at the middle of Season 6 when Nichols’ character debuted.  You see, Payton was in love with Lucas, but Julian had been Payton’s boyfriend in between seasons four and five.  When he shows up in Tree Hill, it’s to try and win back Payton’s heart. Eventually, he agrees to produce the movie based on Lucas’ book with the guy from Dawson’s Creek directing.

The second video proves that without a doubt, Austin Nichols is a gigantic ham.  The athlete and actor is racing down the River Trail, yielding to pedestrians, and making jokes about eating in a Bike Kitchen or Bikerowave (a Bike Oven would take too long.)

It reminded me of the acting in the episode where Lucas is dreaming he owns a nightclub during prohibition.  There’s trouble with his Dad, who shot his uncle but is trying to make amends…oh, lets just say there are shenanigans.

The last video has Nichols clowning around down at Long Beach, having completed half of the century route for the ride.  He hugs the cannon, hails the Queen Mary, and looks as though he might not be too thrilled at the idea of riding all the way back to Griffith Park on a bike.

Ok, I’m out of One Tree Hill references.  Remember, the ride starts bright and early on Sunday, the day after The Day After Tomorrow.

Photo: Ray Fuentes

A Missing Story

As urban transportation bicycling becomes more popular, planners and advocates often use “bike friendly cities” like Portland, Amsterdam and Copenhagen as examples for facilities as well as political strategies and tactics.  Although these are wonderful cities with dazzling bike networks and impressive ridership numbers, a narrative is emerging that bicycle advocacy needs to follow their methods. On the contrary, the bicycle movement in Los Angeles is not rooted in mimcry of Europe or the “whitest city in America”. It owes much of its progress to the participation of immigrants of color who can share uncountable stories of everyday bicycling in their countries of origin.

The stories often sound like this one (told to author Allison Mannos as a family story):

In the 1950’s, my mother grew up in a rural area of Toisan, in southern China. When she was two, she contracted polio in her leg. At that time, polio vaccines weren’t available in her area and other developing places. Without medicine, doctors said her leg would require amputation. Her grandfather, in an attempt to provide whatever he could, hopped on his bicycle and pedaled down unpaved dirt roads to numerous villages nearby, looking for the prescribed milk and herbal remedies, which were scarce.  He eventually found enough milk and herbs, and he ferried them back to my mother with his bicycle, which helped to save her leg.

Although it’s tempting to focus on the role of bicycle as savior, the moral of the story is actually the ubiquity of bicycling—the foregone conclusion of it. These journeys for milk and medicine were simply one of many daily trips made for commuting, errands, and everyday life. This unconscious, mainstream, and frequent use of the bicycle to accomplish daily tasks without a dedicated bicycling infrastructure is common to developing places around the world.

Although not all Los Angeles’ bicyclists are immigrants from these places, work within the bicycling community reveals that the success of Los Angeles bicycling is based on the established behavioral patterns of these people.  They are immigrants, or children of immigrants, from rural and urban parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa; their motivation to ride does not necessarily stem from an environmental or political stance. For them, bicycling is a cultural norm of inexpensive transportation that provides means for survival.

Moving Forward, Margin to Center

Infamous for car culture and congestion, Los Angeles has dramatically developed a large and visible bicycling community in the last ten years. It boasts hundreds of monthly rides, over half a dozen bicycle repair community spaces, an outspoken advocacy community, and a recent ambitious update to its bicycle master plan. While some planners and advocates attribute these changes to Los Angeles adopting ideas from bike-friendlier cities, the characterization overlooks the fact that a substantial number of people already rode in relative invisibility—invisibility based on their race, immigration, or low-income status. Many of these riders live and/or work in neglected parts of Los Angeles including portions of Westlake/MacArthur Park, Downtown, South LA, Pacoima/Van Nuys, and East LA.

Brenda, a City of Lights volunteer distributing a Spanish resource guide during Bike to Work Day. Photo: Allison Mannos

Reframing the discussion to reorient around this segment of bicyclists is paramount for planners and advocates to ground bicycling progress within social justice. The scope of change dramatically spans theoretical and practical. At a conceptual level, current planning methodologies are flawed. Within advocacy, efforts to get new, more affluent, and choice riders (read: converting drivers), to commute by bicycle are misplaced.

Problems in Planning Practice

An example of problematic planning practice can be found in the use of “Best Practice” reports, often used to guide infrastructure, program and policy recommendations. While the identification of a “best” is convenient, closer examination reveals that most of the examples are from European and American cities, perpetuating institutionalized Eurocentricity and American exceptionalism. In fact, numerous lessons can be learned from other places with high non-motorized mode use as well. A study by Michael Replogle revealed that “non-motorized vehicle trips account for 25-80 percent of trips in many Asian cities, more than anywhere else in the world.” Recently, the Institute for Transportation Development Policy awarded Guangzhou, China the 2011 Sustainable Transport Award for its Bus Rapid Transit accompanied with its bike parking and bike share programs. Though Guangzhou’s land use and density are arguably more similar to Los Angeles than Portland or Amsterdam or Copenhagen, Chinese solutions rarely make it into Best Practice documents.

Evidence of a successful solution from cities not usually identified as exemplary can be witnessed in the wildly successful practice of temporary car-free street closures for the benefits of bicyclists and pedestrians.  Since these have become extremely popular in American cities, it is only Los Angeles’ incarnation that cites the practice’s origin from Bogotá, Colombia by dubbing it “CicLAvia”.

Advocacy Blinders and Invisibility

In terms of advocacy, outreach efforts should expand ideas of target communities, not only to fill the ranks with as many bicycling voices as possible, but also to create a comprehensively transformative movement. Frequently, for example, discussions of the inequity in bicycling between men and women tend to focus on educated, middle-class white women (especially mothers), and usually do not examine the barriers to bicycling for, say, women of color.  This narrow approach in advocacy and planning often misses solutions to engage and serve the existing, dedicated population of low-income cyclists of color; in fact, it instead ignores them or takes their lifestyles for granted.

What has made it possible for some bicyclists to remain invisible? These communities of color and/or immigrant communities, though more culturally accustomed to bicycling, may struggle with establishing a political voice, especially within bicycling advocacy. Language, but also cultural representation is an obvious culprit. The Long Beach Blue Line Bike/Ped Access Plan comprehensively conducted multilingual outreach in English, Spanish, and Khmer, to accommodate neighborhoods in the scope area. But, for a vastly scattered bicycling community in a multi-centric city, does multilingual outreach alone ensure diverse participation?

Legal/voting status may also inhibit some immigrants from participating in the planning process making it less likely that elected officials are concerned about their needs. A larger gap is that the planning and advocacy communities need to directly educate and engage these communities to be able to prioritize and advocate for bike infrastructure in their neighborhoods. Lastly, these communities need to be explictly sought out and courted for their input and knowledge.

Solutions Moving Forward

Recent updates in the Los Angeles Bicycle Plan contained provisions that prioritize the needs of these long-overlooked neighborhoods and riders. New policies weight bicycle infrastructure priority heavily in low-income areas, which means they will receive facilities sooner.  This goal was originally not on the radar for the City or outspoken advocates. The shift was largely based on input from members of the LACBC City of Lights program, which targets low-income Latino immigrants with bilingual saftey, repair, and outreach programming.

Through focus on these cyclists and neighborhoods, which were historically neglected, the City can support healthy, sustainable lifestyles and reduce the high vehicle-collision rates in the most heavily-trafficked, industrial areas. This contrasts with the previous strategy of prioritizing improvements for streets in affluent areas, trying to persuade residents who prefer driving to give bicycling a try. Moving forward, City of Lights will work in conjunction with key community organizations and social service providers, to coordinate massive bilingual outreach along the low-income corridors to be created by the updated bike plan.

These are the types of strategies that need to be adopted by the broader advocacy and planning community in order to build bicycle infrastructure that serves current and future bike commuters most effectively. More importantly, focusing on bicycling in neglected, low-income, and immigrant communities of color will help us build the broader movement many of us desire: one that combines the concerns of advocates for low-income families, immigrant rights, social justice, and bicycling to harness the ability of bicycling to transcend ethnicity, class, gender, immigration status, or other hierarchies.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) debuted a new video promoting the 7th Street Bike Lanes that should be coming to Downtown Los Angeles this fall.  This Streetfilm quality video is an easily watchable story of three very different cyclists with each of them explaining in their own words, and own language, how bike lanes on 7th Street will make their lives better.

This video also shows a very public display of support from the Bus Riders Union towards the LACBC.  Speaking in Korean, Sunyoung Yang, one of the lead organizer’s for the civil rights group, make the case for bike lanes to improver her commute.  The BRU and LACBC have been showing up at each other’s press conferences recently, and it appears both groups are interested in pushing a true multi-modal agenda.

I could go on about this video, but its 2:15 seconds long.  Take a couple of minutes and watch it for yourself.

Whether it’s a Saturday morning or a Thursday afternoon in any one of the South Bay’s picturesque beach towns, you will find the charming scenery complimented by a smattering of spandex-clad cycling enthusiasts or flip-flop donning beach cruisers. The enthusiast/recreational bike culture here is alive and well. The South Bay still has a long way to go to earn the “Bike Friendly” title though. Almost entirely devoted to the enthusiasts and casual cruisers, the South Bay’s bike culture lacks any prominent representation of bike commuters or those using their bikes for daily transportation needs.

After a recent survey, the South Bay Bicycle Coalition (SBBC) and bike planning consultants Alta Planning + Design determined that the lack of active transportation in the area is largely due to a fear of a street system that is almost entirely devoted to the car. Most of the South Bay’s streets are not only lacking any form of bike facility, but are used as high-volume, fast-moving thoroughfares by a vehicular population that is so far removed from any freeway that city streets become opportunities for high speeds and a “get me there now” mentality.

Still, I am convinced that the cycling scene bolstered by a population of sun-worshippers who live here [in part] for that very reason coupled with the proximity of major employment is the exact equation needed for a successful shift in the South Bay’s transportation culture…and I’m not the only one. In an effort to make this vision a reality, SBBC and Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) partnered together more than a year ago to win a grant (funded by RENEW through the Department of Public Health) that will fund the planning phase of the South Bay Bicycle Master Plan. This seven-city sub-regional plan will specifically focus on making the South Bay’s streets safer for all cyclists, with a specific focus on making it safer and more convenient for active transportation; for commuting, daily errands or even getting to school.

All seven partnering cities have been largely supportive by offering some staff time, a council member delegate for the advisory committee, and in the case of Redondo Beach, office space for yours truly; but now comes the hard part. We’ve seen this before, an advocacy-municipal partnership that seems cumbayah enough until someone asks for real change…which is exactly what the draft plan will do. The draft (which will be released in June) proposes approximately 250 miles of bikeways, along with the progressive signage and policy designed to catalyze the South Bay in becoming an alternative transportation epicenter. In the fall, the final draft of the South Bay Bicycle Master Plan will be presented to each of the seven city councils for adoption.

While our primary platform is increased safety for all cyclists there remains a local police force or two out there that would have the community believe that increased bike infrastructure will somehow aide “these cyclists” in breaking the rules of the road, despite the trends and research that supports the exact opposite.  So, as we continue to arm ourselves with the facts that assert increased bike infrastructure and cycling populations actually result in safer road conditions for all users, we look towards a more equitable transportation system in the South Bay and know we have our work cut out for us. That said; consider this your call to action.  If you live, work or ride in the South Bay, or know someone who does, give us a shout at www.SouthBayBicycleCoalition.org and when the time comes, help us show the South Bay cities how important bikeability really is.

Thanks to…

Video by Alex Schmidt via Spot.us

Last week, GOOD Magazine examined the role that the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s City of Lights program has taken in giving voice to the overlooked and under-represented bicyclists in Los Angeles County.  A program that started by handing out lights to immigrant cyclists and has become a national model for bicycle advocacy by focusing their efforts on safety to those who are most underserved by government.

The above film, by Spot.us reporter and producer Alex Schmidt, is intended as a companion piece to the article in GOOD.  While cyclists around the country can learn a lot from City of Lights Coordinator Allison Mannos and the Bus Riders Union’s Sunyoung Yang, I was most intrigued by some of the voices I’m hearing for the first time such as City of Lights volunteer Arlen Jones or bike commuter Gil Maldonado.

The video does a great job explaining what City of Lights is really fighting for.  They’re not dedicating their lives to improving conditions and resources for immigrant cyclists because they think cycling is great and fun.  They’re doing it because making it attractive and safe to bicycle gives a new freedom to a population that is by-and-large car-free by necessity.

Taken in concert, the story and article do a great job outlining the twin challenges faced by City of Lights.  How does one get the city to address the needs of “invisible cyclists” and how do you reach out to a community that’s getting ignored. 

In the video, Daniel Rivera is asked if there were conditions that would make him consider biking.  Riveria finds cycling in L.A. too dangerous, so instead he borrows a car or bus fare to get around town.  He answers (translated by Scmidt to English):

Of course.  If there were bike lanes like there are in Santa Monica, then I would.  Otherwise it’s too dangerous.

From the article, Mannos was asked why so many bikes near the City of Lights Day Labor Center are chained to fences and not the new bike racks.  Her answer illustrates the second problem perfectly.  Just putting in new amenities is not enough, when a community isn’t looking for them.

Allison Mannos isn’t surprised. Immigrants, she says, are not accustomed to amenities that cater to them as cyclists. “They’re not used to someone giving them a light and saying, ‘What you’re doing is awesome, keep riding,” she says. “So it just takes a lot more education.”

Clearly, there’s a lot of work left to be done by the City, by City of Lights and by the rest of us.  You can read more about City of Lights at their blog, Ciudad de Luces.

Venice Neighborhood Council Board Meeting

When: Tuesday, January 18, 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM

Where: Westminster Elementary School Auditorium

1010 Abbot Kinney Boulevard – Venice, CA, 90291

Venice NC info and agenda: www.grvnc.org

Read more about it on the LACBC blog!

When we last checked in on the Bike Plan, Joe Linton reported that a broad coalition of cyclists took over a City Planning Commission Hearing and managed to delay the plan’s passage until a host of issues were addressed.  Following the meeting, City Planning met with the organizers of the protests at the Commission, Los Angeles County Bike Coalition’s Alexis Lantz and Aurisha Smolarski, Bikeside’s Alex Thompson, and Linton to hammer out the details that were holding up the plan.  The result is that yesterday the plan was released, and for the first time in three year’s, Birk’s long-forgotten promise became reality.  Finally, everyone appears happy.

Looking at this plan, Linton sounds happy, but not overjoyed, “While it’s not perfect, it’s good enough to be a tool for the next phase of improvements to LA streets.”

Granted, the plan is still a long read, and the devil could still emerge from the details.  Streetsblog will have in-depth coverage of the plan next week, and the Bike Coalition promises an in-depth review on Monday.  But for now, let’s take a moment to enjoy not just the progress, but getting to watch everyone celebrate.

The most obvious winner is Bike Working Group, that labored so hard to create the Backbone Bikeway Network (BBN).  The newest draft of the plan is full of references to the BBN, as well as the Neighborhood Network, and the Green Network.  Via email, Thompson writes, “The bike plan has turned around three times now, but this last one was a pirouette.  It’s a great document – this is what can happen when experts of all sorts get together and work it out.”  A full copy of Thompson’s statement can be found at the end of the article.

All of a sudden, it seems like a lifetime ago, not just the summer of 2009, when Thompson was battling LADOT’s Michelle Mowery on KPCC about whether or not the BBN was a worthwhile model for bike planning.

Meanwhile, the LACBC was being a little more cautious until they can read through all those details, but was still feeling good.  In an email to members, they listed their eight concerns they outlined before last month’s planning meeting.  They did note that they expect all of these to be addressed when they finish the plan:

1. A more comprehensive Eduction/Outreach Program affiliated with facility implementation
2. Inclusion of the Backbone Bikeway Network
3. Availability of Repaving schedule and coordination with implementation
4. Removal of EIR requirement and language throughout the Plan
5. Increased accountability and evaluation
6. 10 ft lane requirement rather than 11 ft
7. More committed language for Bicycle Friendly streets
8. A Low-Income Equity based weighing system for prioritizing implementation

Thompson:

The bike plan has turned around three times now, but this last one was a pirouette.  It’s a great document – this is what can happen when experts of all sorts get together and work it out.  Claire Bowin and Heidi Sickler both did an excellent job after the November 4th Planning hearing.  Heidi got all the right people in the right rooms and made sure that all the right issues were addressed, rightly.  Claire, as architect of the plan, found some really smart ways to balance interests and make the pie bigger for everyone.  Somehow she’s got this huge document in her brain and she’s great at seeing how to modify it to get things done.

We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the dogged insistence on excellence by Stephen Box and Joe Linton over 3 long years.  From Alexis to Aurisha to Box to Joe to Josef to Roadblock and Enci Box, this plan is product of every cyclist who made time to be at the hearings and pushed hard for real change.  There’s so many times that we could have all given up on the plan and just settled for something second rate – we almost did at the end there.  Somehow, we didn’t.  And now we’ve finally got an ambitious plan that other cities can be envious of.  Will envy.  This community has a lot of moxy, a lot of guts, a lot of sand, and of course, as we knew all along,

At yesterday's City of Lights press event.

This is our second in our new e-interview series.  The first was with Melissa Hebert of LAX Car Share.  If there’s an advocate or personality that you think we should interview, please drop me a line at damien@streetsblog.org

Alexis Lantz was recently named the “Planning and Policy Director” of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition taking over for Dorothy Le.  Lantz is no stranger to cycling issues in Los Angeles, having worked on a full bike count study as part of her graduate work in the UCLA Planning Department.

Now that she’s taken a more high-profile position with the LACBC, I thought it would be a good time to talk with her and see what her plans, and the Bike Coalition’s plans are, going forward.

Name – Alexis Lantz

Online Name: I usually post with my name

Residence – Silver Lake

Advocacy Background – to tell you the truth I’m pretty new to (bike) advocacy. I did a lot of AIDS advocacy when I was in high school (I grew up outside of Washington, DC) I lobbied my congressional representatives on providing more funding for AIDS education, volunteered with AIDS Walk etc…

I went to college at American University in Washington, DC with the motivation of becoming a lobbyist but after one semester of political science classes I decided to switch gears and got into graphic design, performance art, and public relations. It wasn’t until I landed in LA that I became passionate about transportation issues.

I grew up primarily in cities with good public transit systems, a large chunk of my youth was spent in Germany and I was able to ride my bike to school etc – moving to LA opened my eyes to urban planning and transportation issues primarily because LA seemed to have done everything wrong when it came to city planning. Almost every other place I have lived (other than my stint in the suburbs of Virginia) was designed at human scale – LA is built at car scale.

I love living in LA and see making LA more bike/ped (and transit) friendly as one of the most important things this city can do to make itself into a more vibrant, equitable, and sustainable world-class city.

Streetsblog : Your title is “Planning and Policy Director” with the Bike Coalition.  Could you talk about some of the planning work you’re involved with?

In regards to the planning work I do we have two grant projects funded through the LA County Department of Public Health (DPH); the Culver City Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative and the Boyle Heights Living Streets Initiative. In Culver City, we are waiting for the bike plan to get through Planning Commission and then City Council, but in the meantime I have been working with the city and DPH to develop an outreach program to work with large employers in Culver City. I work with employers to provide information and incentives to encourage more employee commute trips to be by bicycle. I will also be conducting Bicycle Friendly Business workshops for smaller businesses in Culver City and hopefully this is something LACBC will be able to expand upon.

In Boyle Heights I am working with Green LA to identify three streets that we can pilot the Living Streets concept – visit livingstreetsla.org for more info on the project and about Living Streets. I’ll be organizing some community bike rides (stay tuned for info about our upcoming Dia de los Muertos ride!), walks, audits, and bike/ped counts. Creating Living Streets supportive policy is also a large aspect of this project.

Streetsblog : And the Policy?

In regards to the policy work I do, my primary goal is to achieve LACBC’s mission of building a better, bike-able Los Angeles County. I see this being accomplished through working with and putting pressure on Metro and SCAG to do more to encourage the 88 cities in the county to plan and provide for cyclists and pedestrians. I have been learning a lot in the past few months about how little has actually ever been done. Of the 88 cities in the county, just over 20 actually have some form of bike, pedestrian, or trail plan, and many of those plans have not updated since the 70s. Even fewer cities are applying for funds to implement their plans. Last year only nine cities applied to the Metro Call for Projects with bike/ped projects. State policies such as SB 375 place a new pressure on smaller cities and the region to provide for non-motorized transportation. Because of this legislations there is great need for bike/ped planning, setting regional bike/ped mode share goals, and actually measuring bike/ped use through yearly counts in the 88 cities in the county and throughout the region.

Additionally, many of the policies that I think will help our region become more bike/ped friendly actually need to be addressed at the state level. So I am actively working with California Bicycle Coalition, one of the big issues coming out of LA is getting a 3’ Passing Law passed. I am also working the California Bicycle Coalition and other bicycle organizations from around the state to organize a State of California Bike Summit for next fall. This is still in the early stages of planning but my hope is to bring advocates from around the state together to collaborate on a legislative platform that we can collectively provide a massive groundswell of support for.

Streetsblog : I’ve noticed that a lot of groups are springing up around the County that are affiliated with the LACBC.  Could you describe the relationship?

Another way I am hoping to achieve LACBC’s mission is through the development of local bicycle advocacy chapters. Some have been naturally springing up such as Santa Monica Spoke, Long Beach Cyclists, West San Gabriel Valley, and the South Bay Bicycle Coalition. And some LACBC has been helping to form by putting motivated LACBC and community members in touch with each other. There is now the Culver City Bicycle Coalition, Better Bike BH, and a few other groups forming in cities such as Glendale and West Hollywood. LACBC is essentially becoming an incubator and fiscal sponsor, just like we were for CicLAvia, for many of these organizations. We are also offering our experience, knowledge, and staff time to help these groups be the voice for cyclists in their respective cities. We realize that we do not have currently have the capacity to advocate for cyclists in all 88 cities in the county, so we need to empower and work with cyclists that live in each of the 88 cities.

Streetsblog : What’s new with the LACBC?

Over the next few months I will be working on developing a strategic policy plan for LACBC with the help of the rest of the staff, our local chapters, and regional partners. Included in the plan will be the passing of a Complete Streets Policy in the City of LA. Integral to passing a Complete Streets Policy is figuring out how and what needs to be changed to make the policy implementable.  In the City of LA this likely means we will have to update the Transportation Element of the General Plan. Right now there is no way to really implement complete streets since our street standards do not even allow for the consideration of cyclists, transit, or even pedestrians. As any loyal Streetsblog reader knows our Transportation Element only measures vehicle Level of Service and that places a lot of limitations on what can be done with our roads… or at least that’s what they like to tell us.

Streetblog : LACBC has done their own bicycle and pedestrian counts in recent years.  What happens to that data?

Well, as you know we published a report summarizing the results of LA Bike Count and Glendale Counts. In LA we provided the data to LADOT Bikeways department for them to be able to use and we saw reference to the report in the draft bike plan. The data we collected in the LA Bike Count established a baseline and we are planning on getting folks back out to the same intersections in September of 2011 to conduct the counts again and see how cycling measures up to the baseline after two years. We hope that cycling will have increased across the board, but we are particularly interested in seeing if cycling has increased where there has been some improvement in the infrastructure.

Streetsblog : Changing gears, how is the Sharrows project going?  Do you think we’re going to see it expanded?

She really likes Sharrows.

I think there is no question that sharrows will be expanded to bike routes around the city, what seems to be the take away from the project, at least in my opinion, is that each street needs some individual attention when placing the sharrows. It goes back to LADOT’s favorite line about how LA streets are different. In this case, because of our horrible street standards that require new developments to widen the street, that statement sort of rings true. We have streets that fluctuate in width not just block by block by often within one block that can cause Sharrows placement to point you into the back of a parked car even though it was set further than minimum requirement of 11′ from the curb.

We are about to conduct the second round of counts and surveys this weekend & next week. It will be interesting to see what the results are regarding people’s perspectives about safety and where they are riding in the road post sharrows installation. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the study and what LADOT’s approach to installation will be post pilot project.

Streetsblog : My last question is always the same.  “If you had a magic wand and could change any one thing about transportation in the region, what would it be?”

Argh! Only one thing… there are so many things I want to change – but I guess I’ll go with education – if I could change one thing it would be that every Angeleno and Southern California understood how to share the road, why bicycle and pedestrian investments are important for them and the region, and that taking away road space from cars will provide them with better neighborhoods, safer routes to school, and a better quality of life.  That kinda of sounds like three things… but basically I just wish we were all on the same page in regards to bicycle and pedestrian accommodation and investment.

How long does it take to install a bicycle rack?  Once you have a place selected, all the tools, and funding to install it, installing a bicycle rack takes about 5 minutes.  Of course, getting all of those things can take well over a year.

Earlier toady, the LACBC’S Award Winning City of Lights program, the office of Councilman Ed Reyes and the LADOT celebrated the installation of four bicycle racks at the CARECEN Day Laborer Center in the Pico-Union District of Los Angeles.  City of Lights began working to empower immigrant communities to advocate for bicycling infrastructure and help them learn how to ride safely just over a year and a half ago.  One of their projects was to bring better bicycling infrastructure to the community and today’s installation of safe bike parking at CARECEN was the first victory in the quest for better infrastructure for the day laborer community.

Before the location for these racks was selected, City of Lights worked with the immigrant community in Pico-Union to walk the streets and select the places most in need of bicycle parking.  They presented their findings to the LADOT who checked the recommended areas to make sure they met city criteria.  LADOT Assistant Bicycle Coordinator Chris Kidd estimated that dozens of more racks would be going in the area surrounding CARECEN.  LADOT is  ratcheting up its bike parking program and has the goal of installing 100 new racks around the city every month.

Reyes addressed the importance of bike parking to the day laborer community during the press event.  You can watch Reyes deliver his bi-lingual statement by clicking here.

This is one of those events that speaks to how this city is changing its culture…It might seem rather simple and insignificant, but for folks like day laborers, folks who are working, this is very important.  Now they have the means to secure their bicycles, their only means of transportation.

Before the event I took a brief tour of the CARECEN center and counter ten bicycles scattered in the area around the center.  Most of them were hastily chained to parking meters, the center itself or even trash cans.

City of Lights has also created Spanish language educational workshops and materials,  and worked with the Bicycle Kitchen to open a bike repair space.  To learn more about City of Lights, visit their website at http://www.la-bike.org/cityoflights\

It's a sign of how far cycling has come in City Hall in a short time.  Could you have pictured a Mayoral press conference where LADOT General Manager Rita Robinson and LAPD Leadership are literally standing in Roadblock's shadow just a couple of months ago?  Photo: LADOT Bike Blog

At least eleven states have laws requiring drivers to leave three feet between their vehicle and cyclists while passing. If the Mayor of Los Angeles has anything to say about it, California will join those states before the year ends.

At a Tuesday press conference, Villaraigosa, flanked by leaders of the LADOT, LAPD, Los Angeles Councy Bicycle Coalition, and Midnight Ridazz, stated his support and promised his advocacy for a state law requiring drivers to give those three feet. The purpose of the press conference was to announce the winner of a slogan contest for posters designed by Geoff McFetridge that will be going up on bus shelters throughout the city. The "Give me 3" slogan was created by Danny Gamboa and beat out over 200 other entries.  You can see the fruits of McFetridge and Gamboa's efforts above.

Momentum for a "3 Feet Passing Law" for California has been growing in Los Angeles since the start of the year. Council Member Bill Rosendahl floated the idea that the City could create its own passing law while he pushed for an "anti-harassment ordinance" for cyclists. While the City Attorney has opined that the city can't pass such a law on its own, Rosendahl renewed his call for a "3 Feet Passing Law" at last week's Bike Summit.  For Villaraigosa's part, he has vowed to push forward with this proposed legislation no matter what.  “We’ll keep at it until it becomes part of the California Vehicle Code,” he promised at the press conference.

The other "3 Feet" slogan.

We have spoken to state patrol officials in several of the 11 states that have passed the three-feet law. Those officials emphasize that the law is used more as an education tool to provide safe practices than as an enforcement tool to punish law breakers. It gives officers, government officials, and civic groups the opportunity to inform drivers what a safe minimum distance is by use of a common measure (3 feet or one yard) that can be easily remembered.

Of course, even if the police aren't measuring the passing distance between cars and bikes when no collision occurs, the law could give cyclists a new legal leg to stand on when forced off their bikes by passing cars even when there's no actual collision.

While cyclists are waiting for a legislator to emerge to champion a "3 Feet Passing Law" in Sacramento; Los Angeles is moving forward with a public information campaign to educate drivers in how to safely share the road with cyclists.  Posters are going up soon and the Mayor is also recording Public Service Announcements, in English and Spanish, for radio, Internet and television.  While the posters are guaranteed placement due to an agreement with the company who owns the shelters, other placements are unpredictable.  Oftentimes, the first time I see an LADOT P.S.A. is when it's announced that they have won another Emmy.

However, activists have high hopes for the campaign and for the future of cycling advocacy under the city's newly minted bike-activist Mayor.  Jennifer Klausner, Executive Director of the LACBC said, "This Bike Awareness and Safety poster symbolizes the start of a commitment to creating safer streets for cyclists. It is just the first of many more initiatives we hope to see come to fruition to ensure that cyclists are safe and feel welcome on our city streets." 

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.

Over 500 slogans have been submitted to the Bike Safety Slogan
Contest being organized by the un-likely (some would say un-holy)
coalition of the LAPD, the LACBC, MidnightRidazz.com, and the LADOT.
These groups have been working with the City of Los Angeles to procure
ad spaces in bus shelters and Public Amenity Kiosks (PAK.) The goal
being to raise awareness among road users about issues such as rights,
rules, safety, and road courtesy in relation to bicycles. The final
slogan will be designed and illustrated by the world renowned artist Geoff McFetridge.

A
top ten list of slogans has been procured from the entries and now the
coalition is looking for more input from the public before the final
slogan is chosen for production.

You are invited to comment, pick apart, improve upon and otherwise
discuss the slogan. The goal is to get a broad consensus and an
effective campaign. You may comment here, on Facebook or on MidnightRidazz.com

Drum roll…. the slogans please:

1. Share the lane. We’re in it together.
2. Don’t be pass aggressive
3. Caution: Your Neighbor Ahead
4. Our lives are in your hands. Pass at a safe distance.
5. 2 wheels 4 wheels 1 road 4 everyone
6. ¡WE EXIST!
7. GIVE ME THREE
8. Look twice. Drive nice.
9. Big Or Small / The Road’s For All
10. These lanes belong to both you and me!
    
    

Join us Sunday June 6, 2010 for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition's Tenth River Ride!

Anyone who has done any sort of cycling in L.A. County has probably been on the Los Angeles River Path at some point or another. Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) staff, members and supporters have been long time supporters of the revitalization of the Los Angeles River and the River Path. What many of you might not know is that the Los Angeles River Ride is produced by us, the LACBC. Now in its 10^th year, the River Ride and the LACBC have a lot to celebrate.

The Annual Los Angeles River Ride is a unique event, because it was dreamed up, organized by, and is the very life blood for LACBC, whose mission is to create and improve the bicycling environment and quality of life in Los Angeles County.  The ride begins at The Autry National Center in Griffith Park and continues to Long Beach where they turn around to head back to the Autry.

Advocacy efforts for the LA River revitalization and the River Ride have been linked from the beginning.

LACBC has done significant work, along with many organizations, to improve the areas encompassing the Los Angeles River and River Path. We have helped advocate for and win a complete removal of all graffiti on 30 miles of the River Channel, improved directional signage, advocated for a re-striping of the path.  Finally, the most hard fought victory was the repaving of 3 miles of rough flood channel on the easement from Fletcher to Figueroa. All of these improvements have been done in conjunction with the River Ride.

In 2006, participants were each given postcards to sign. Those cards were addressed to the Mayor and they urged him to complete the River Bike Path, and most urgently, to pave the segment between Fletcher and Figueroa.

In 2007, the ride very nearly had to be cancelled due to a massive fire in Griffith Park just three weeks before the ride, but instead of cancellation, the event doubled its participation numbers.

In 2008, the County supervisors took notice of the event.  Through their support, the LACBC gave bikes to foster children at the ride and free event tickets to all the kids. As the ride is still a big hit with the locals, LACBC has carried on the tradition of the bike giveaway and this year, the City of Glendale Community Services and Parks and Recreation is sponsoring the Kids Ride and Bike Giveaway for the LACBC.

For 2010, at ten years old, we want the River Ride to be the best yet!

The River Ride is for everyone! There's a ride for everyone or all ages and fitness levels. For the hardcore cyclists, we have the 70 and 100 miles (century) rides. The course is relatively flat so cyclists who have never attempted a century will find the ride appealing. Along with the 70 and 100 mile ride, there is a 50 mile (half century) a 36 mile, 15 mile Family Ride and a Kids Ride Loop. Kids 12 and under can participate in the Family and/or Kids Ride free of charge!

Sign up and join us for the LA River Ride! Sign up Before May 15th! http://la-bike.org

The announcement of the contest and partnership revealed a familiar division in the bicycling advocacy community.  On one hand, you have those that believe partnership is one way to build relationships of trust and do some good in the meantime.  Then there's the group that believes that going along with the government (LAPD, LADOT, whoever) on small projects relieves the pressure for the major policy changes that the city desperately needs.  It's an interesting debate, and one that flares up every now and again.  Prediction: we'll see it again in the lead-up to "Bike to Work" Week in mid-May.

People seemed especially surprised to see the Midnight Ridazz's skull appear on the contest announcement.  Roadblock, who holds the copyright on the term "Midnight Ridazz," spoke with me about why the Ridazz name is attached to this project:

We saw this as a win-win.  On one hand, Midnight Ridazz produces a lot of good feelings for riders, especially people taking the group rides.  But it does have a bad name in some circles, a sour reputation.  So, OK.  Here's Midnight Ridazz doing something good and continuing the tradition of supporting the LAPD.

In my personal experience, I found that cooperation on areas of mutual interest is a great way to build a collaboration that can lead to bigger and better things.  However, the NJDOT and NOAA Fisheries, the targets of most of my career as an activist, and LAPD are very different beasts.  But let's look at the LAPD's recent record on reform:

On one hand the LAPD wants to work on this contest and poster campaign and the city attorney is pushing ahead with prosecution in the "Ed Magos v Porsche" crash. On the other we still don't have a copy of the report on last May's "hit and run through" crash downtown involving Andres Tena, a hummer, and Officer Stephen Cho and the department is unwilling to reform its policy when it comes to recording handcuffing incidents when it comes to non-violent confrontations with cyclists.  A mixed record.

Regardless of what one thinks of the politics of this contest and campaign, the reality is it's happening which means there's an opportunity to get some smart and positive messages out to the motoring public about the rights and privileges cyclists enjoy as equal users of our roads.  I'm thinking that the combined creativity of activists, Ridazz and Streetsbloggers ought to come up with something pretty good.

Oftentimes, cyclists find themselves arguing with non-cyclists about many different facets of life riding the streets of Los Angeles.  Cyclists ride the wrong way, spending money on bike lanes are a waste of money, cycling is just something people do to be trendy or exercise; these false arguments get repeated so often that non-cyclists, even ones sympathetic to the cause of safer streets for cycling, found themselves believing it. 

While anyone that's ever taken to the street on two pedaled-powered wheels knows these "facts" to be untrue; the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition did us all a favor by putting lie to these falsehoods in their final report on last year's bike counts completed throughout the county.  The final report will be available by the end of the day at the Bike Coalition's official website.  In the meantime, let's see how they're report puts truth to lies.

Spending money on cycling is a waste of money since nobody bikes.

1 - bike path, 2 - bike lane

Of the twenty five intersections the LACBC counted, the top seven intersections all had either bike lanes or connected to a bike path.  In other words, the numbers tell the story, if you want people to take to the road on their bikes, the best way to make them feel safe is to provide either the protection of a bike path or the paint of a bike lane.  Of course, we've seen how sometimes this feeling of safety can be a false assumption at times, bike paths in urban areas come with their own set of safety hazards; but the numbers speak for themselves.  If the City of Los Angeles, or any city, wants more people to consider cycling for transportation; they need to spend the resources to make cyclists feel safe.

Cyclists are a public safety hazard because almost all of them ride on the wrong side of the street.

This has always been one of my favorite reasons to berate and belittle cyclists that usually comes from our car culture warriors.  You can try to respond with obvious retorts, such as "I don't bike on the wrong side of the road, don't I deserve to be protected?" or "How often do you speed or turn left after the light turned red" and they brush you off.  After all, just because you don't break the law on your bike and they do all the time in their car doesn't mean anything.  Cyclists are scofflaws.  Car drivers aren't.

Now we have statistics to put truth to that lie as well.

Just over three percent of cyclists biked the wrong way on the street.  While anti-cycling advocates might point to the other two sets of statistics as proof of cycling scofflaws; it's not illegal to ride without a helmet or on the sidewalk at any of the places that were surveyed.

People Only Bike for Exercise, Its Not Real Transportation

Not true.  The report shows literally thousands of people biking in the morning and evening rush hours at most intersections.  While there was an uptick in ridership on weekends at many places; that is no reason to discount the many, many people that use cycling as their means to get to work.  For example, over 100 cyclists per hour could be found spread out throughout the study region during the morning rush at 7th and Figueroa, the LA River at the Baum Bridge, Lincoln and Venice, Sepulveda and Ohio, The Orange Line Station at Reseda Boulevard, Santa Monica and Westwood and Amirality Way and Washington Boulevard in Marina del Rey.

The only disappointing statistic is the low percentage of riders that are women.  However, there is a solution.  Statistically speaking, intersections that had a high percentage of female riders also had either a bike lane or a bike path connected to them.  For example, across the city their bike count showed only 18% of riders were women, but at Lincoln Boulevard and Bluff Creek, the number rises to 34%.

While it would be preferable for the city to step up and do some official counts of their own, as one would expect a world class city to do; the good news is the Bike Coalition is planning on doing another set of counts next year. The group vows to do more counts in South L.A. and the Valley to balance this year's work which the map at the top of the post shows a concentration in the Downtown and Westside.

Let's hope their efforts pay off in a better bike plan, which should be released to the public soon.  A "secret" meeting previewing the plan was held last month.

Ramon Martinez, Jose Guzman, Hector Tobar and other Volunteers at City of Lights’ downtown bike repair space.  Photo: City of Lights

This morning, while preparing "Today’s Headlines" I came across a story in the Times about cyclist Jose Guzman, our friend Ramon Martinez and a day in the life of a day laborer on a bike.  I thought the story was a good narrative, and was probably a more relevant story about what happens every day in L.A. than the story about bus riders earlier in the week; but it was missing one thing.

"Where’s the reference to City of Lights?" I asked myself?  To someone who knows the program; they’re aware that much of the story was taking place in the downtown bike repair space, that City of Lights announced earlier this year.  But, I would bet that we’re lucky of 1% of the people reading the Times story could make the connection to the Bike Coalition’s Streetsie award winning program.

So, first thing’s first.  Let’s give credit to writer Hector Tobar for taking the time to paint a picture of the bike-riding day laborer, a subset of bike culture that accounts for a large percent of the people who ride bikes; but a small percent of those who show up to meetings to "be counted" when it’s lobbying time.

But let’s also take a second to remember that the unsung heros of this story are the folks at City of Lights, a mostly volunteer wing of the LACBC who are on the front lines of making this city a better and more inclusive place for all cyclists.  Drawing on some of the energy created by this story, they hoped to do a little fundraising for the bike repair space mentioned in the story.  You can read about what they need and how to help them out at their website.

The approved Sharrows timeline.

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.

About forty cyclists took part in the rally and bike ride to city hall in support of Ed Magos, the cyclist maimed in a hit and run Downtown by a Porsche Cayene last month. After a brief rally, the group headed down to City Hall to take part in the City Council Transportation Committee featuring a "Town Hall" format with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

After the cyclists took off, I had a chance to talk with Katie Magos about how her husband and family are holding up as Ed recovers.  Our brief chat can be seen above.  As soon as YouTube processes the video, we'll also provide a video of LACBC's rally speech to cyclists before they headed downtown and can view our small Flickr set from the rally, here.

As for Streetsblog's coverage of the meeting, I'm live tweeting the meeting at http://twitter.com/lastreetsblog and we'll have full coverage tomorrow.  Or, if you're able, you can view video of the meeting at the City Clerk's website.