See you then!

His talks tomorrow are at noon and 6:oo P.M. in the Santos Manuel Student Union. Directions to the campus can be found on the campus website.

Photo: Steve Payne

Browne Molyneux is a freelance journalist, conceptual artist and a friendly gadfly in the LA based blogosphere. She runs an information space called The Public Library. She formerly wrote a transportation column for LA City Beat: Tracks and is a contributor to LA Eastside. She does not own a motorized vehicle, but she does have a bike and a TAP card.

RANDALL (BusTard) FLEMING has spent two decades working in most every facet of publishing. A former magazine publisher (Angry Thoreauan, 1987-2001), he has also contributed to a great many books, periodicals and newspapers in Los Angeles and New York: New York Post, Brooklyn Spectator, Discover Hollywood!, Ben Is Dead, Flipside, Los Feliz Ledger, Sabotage in The American Workplace (Pressure Drop Press), Notes From the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture (Verso), and several of the Unreinforced Masonry Studio books about Los Angeles.

Waiting for the bus.

Today's writer, Angela Serratore, is a freelance writer focusing on urban historic preservation and related issues.  After four years in Western Massachusetts and one in the District of Columbia, she returned to her ancestral homeland of Sherman Oaks to apply to graduate school and pester her elected officials about pedestrian-unsafe intersections. Her favorite Los Angeles transit resource is the DASH, and willingly admits that she does not know how to ride a bicycle.

Diane Meyer is a photographer who teaches at Loyola Marymount University. A few years ago she took the leap and became car-free. Over the past year, Meyer has photographed a diverse group of 100 car-free Los Angeles residents. Some of them are familiar to Streetsblog's readers in green transportation activist circles. These include Greensters Stephen and Enci Box, Green L.A. Girl Siel, BikeRoWave's Alex Thompson, various Eco-Village residents including founder Lois Arkin, Bicycle Kitchen's Joshua Moody, the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition's Allison Mannos, and others (even me.)

After the jump, view a sampling of Meyer's photos and excerpts from her own words about the exhibit. Mark your calendar to check out the rest of Meyer's work later this month.

Dr. Alex Thompson

"For the first 20 minutes after selling my Volkswagen Jetta to Car Max, I was wracked with fear…and curiosity. Exactly how would I navigate the city and do everything I need to do – in Los Angeles, of all places! – without an automobile? My initial assumption that I could rely on the car-sharing company Flex Car proved incorrect. The day after I ditched my car, Flex Car announced that it would merge with Zipcar, and would thereon only provide service to USC and UCLA. That day also marked the arrival of a January storm and eight straight days of rain. Hence, my belief that I would be able to get anywhere, at any time, by bike seemed similarly misguided."

Joshua Moody

"What started as a temporary lifestyle adjustment, originally planned for a few months at most, has freed me from any desire to own a car ever again. The experience has also truly opened my eyes to the joys of living in this city. While saving money, transcending traffic, and reducing my environmental impact were easily anticipated benefits, many unexpected benefits came from de-car-ing. I found that my life, and what I could accomplish in a day, changed surprisingly little."

Linda Hill and daughter

Pedro Arellano, Carlos Cruz, and Juan Platas

Raymond Sean Gunn

"I met people from a wide range of backgrounds, socio-economic levels, occupations, and heard an amazing range of reasons for not driving. I met single moms, teachers, writers, consultants, comediennes, actors, urban planners, computer programmers, analysts, bakery workers, students, and unemployed. I met people whose physical disabilities kept them off the road, and people who did not drive because of firm ideologies about the detrimental effects of car culture. Others had been in accidents, their cars had blown up, they were afraid to drive, they lost their licenses after receiving a third DUI, they preferred bicycles, or they were simply tired of spending so much on a car."

Kristina Wong

Of the half dozen guest writers LA Streetsblog will be featuring in the next couple of weeks, perhaps none is as accomplished as Dan Koeppel.  In addition to his various freelance works, including the amazing piece in Bicycling Magazine earlier this year on L.A.'s "D.I.Y Bike Culture;" Koeppel has also written the Banana Book about what he terms, "the world's most endangered and dangerous fruit."

Koeppel previously appeared on Streetsblog just after the release of Los Angeles' maps for its new Bike Plan noting that the "D.I.Y. Bike Lane" on the Fletcher Bridge that LADOT complained about in his article actually appears on the city's maps for future bike expansion.  There's a level of irony there.

Of course, Koeppel is also responsible for the "Big Parade," a two-day public walk that took place in Los Angeles in July, 2009. It covered 40 miles and more than 100 public stairways, beginning downtown, starting at the historic Angel's Flight stairway, passing dozens of landmarks, and ending at the Hollywood Sign.

If you want to keep following Koeppel's adventures and writings, you can follow his writing at his personal blog.

Stock photo. Not Damien's baby!

Until we get the content flowing again, you might want to pretend you live in San Francisco or use this opportunity to catch up on federal transportation policy. Likewise, the Streetsblog Network is generating more than enough good stories to keep you busy.

Here's wishing luck to Damien and family. Hopefully we'll have him back soon.

Tuesday and Saturday - The Los Angeles County Bike Coalition begins its bike counts within city limits for the City of Los Angeles.  If the copious amount of e-mail I've gotten is any indication, and it is, they are still looking for volunteers.  If you have any free time, email yhendlin@ucla.org.  And for more information, click here.

Thursday - At 9:30 A.M. in the Metro Boardroom Downtown it's a Metro Board Meeting?  This week, will the Board finally make a decision on whether or not to renew their exclusive rail car contract with Ansaldo Breda?  Will they vote on the 2008, 2009, 2010 Long Range Transportation Plan?  I doubt it.  But at least they'll hold a hearing on the fare structure for their Silver Streak Bus Service.

Friday - The Fourth Friday of the month is traditionally the one with Critical Mass celebrations/protests.  Rides will leave from Wilshire/Western and Winward Circle in Venice at 7:00 P.M.  For those a little farther our, Costa Mesa and Orange County have their own rides.

Saturday - C.I.C.L.E. Kicks off their Families and Bikes (F.A.B.) program with the "Endless Summer" ride.  he free community event takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26 at Brookside Park, 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., in Pasadena. Activities will include a leisurely-paced family ride that will tour the Rose Bowl loop, short trail rides for younger children (ages 4-9), a scavenger hunt, games such as Frisbee and soccer, and a raffle.

Image: Farm Lab

Park(ing) Day is one of my favorite days of the year.  For 364 days a year, I end up reading and writing about many of the amazing things that are happening in Portland, Boulder, Austin, Chicago, San Francisco and, of course, New York.  But for one day of the year, the advocacy world has a singular focus on what's going on outside of the halls of government and on the street.  Every major city's advocates take to the streets to reclaim the street in the name of public space and increased parks instead of increased parking.

And in that sense, Los Angeles is second to none.  The creativity and energy of our community is second-to-none and today is our day to shine.  I can't wait to see what so many of you have done.

To quote a friend of mine who is doing his own amazing Park(ing) Day ride with the Greensters, I'll see you on the streets!

In other words, we argued for transportation alternatives because they are the most efficient way to move people now and in the future.  In that argument we ended up arguing for things such as better bike facilities, better street crossings for pedestrians and more funding for transit; but those things were all parts of a mean to an end.  The goal wasn't just safer bike facilities, but a transportation system that is open, multi-modal and sustainable.

A group of transportation reformers have been meeting over the last couple of months to lay the ground work to get such a group here in Los Angeles. I don’t want to reveal names until we are ready to publicly launch our campaigns, but there are a lot of familiar names and some new ones in the mix. You’ll be impressed. I promise.

What, you won’t be impressed with is our ability to name a group. I came into town with the group name SMART or SMARTrans, standing for Socal/Metro Advocates for Responsible Transportation, in my back pocket.  Unfortunately, I have yet to find anyone who likes that name. At our last meeting someone suggested CASH, Coalition of Advocates for Safe and Healthy Streets; but we were enmeshed in the fundraising portion of the meeting when the suggestion came up and I think we were a little punchy.

This is where we need your help. Help us come up with a name, and if we pick your suggestion you win: a lifetime membership in the group, a Streetfilms T-shirt, a “Best of Streetfilms” DVD and membership in the unnamed group for life. Please leave your suggestions in the comments section and we'll get back to you.

That’s right, I’m celebrating “Back to School” week by giving you weekend homework.

Banned in NJ: Many Jersey towns don't allow kids to bike to school. Photo: Voorhees Transportation Center Image Library, Leigh Ann Von Hagen.

This May, a bill surfaced in the U.S. Senate that would triple federal funding for Safe Routes to School programs. Livable Streets Community activists have been on the case this week, mobilizing support for the measure. In many communities, however, local policies also have to change to help kids get to school by walking or biking.

Leigh Ann Von Hagen -- a planner at Rutgers' NJ Safe Routes to School Resource Center -- writes about the uphill battle New Jersey advocates are fighting in school districts where students have actually been banned from biking:

Banning bicycling to school is way too common throughout our state. We are in the planning stages of conducting a statewide survey to find out how often bicycling is banned. We are also developing a model policy for walking and bicycling to school. It is true that teenage driving is significantly more dangerous than students bicycling when you look at crash statistics. Yet, no schools consider banning teenage drivers.

Schools often use liability concerns to get out of taking account of
walking and bicycling to school conditions. A good Safe Routes to School Travel Plan would help with liability issues.

Hagen brought the bike ban to the attention of activists in the Collingswood Streets group, who promptly got going on a campaign to convince the local school board to overturn the ban.

Also this week: Out west, the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition is calling for suggestions on where to conduct LA's first-ever bike and pedestrian count. And in NYC, we're pleased to welcome Harlem & Hamilton Heights Livable Streets and to see the resurgence of Bike Hoboken and the Brooklyn Bridge Cycle Track Advocates.

LA Streetsblog will resume it's normal publishing schedule today and that means tweeting today's Metro Board Meeting at http://twitter.com/lastreetsblog.  For all those that suggested that I get a way to view the twitter feed on this site, it's coming.  I waited until I got to New York to ask for it so it's behind a couple other projects on the TOPP to do list, but it is coming and we did hear your suggestions.

Starting next week, our twitter feed will start tweeting any content unique to LA Streetsblog and some other good stuff from around the Internet.

The Big Parade will follow a two-day, 40 mile, route that starts in the Downtown, passes through the area south of the 101 Freeway toward Angelino Heights, goes up through Echo Park, crosses into Elysian Park, and heads into Silverlake, then turns south again toward the freeway, back through Silverlake, into the Franklin Hills, up to Los Feliz, until Griffith Park to the observatory, across the park, into the Beachwood Canyon area, up to the old Hollywoodland subdivision, and finally to the Hollywood sign.

Did you catch all that?  If not, you can check out interactive maps for day 1 and day 2 at the Big Parade home site.

So what inspires someone to map out and plan such an event?  According to an email from Koeppel, it's a love of L.A.'s diverse collection of artistic and beautiful staircases.

The background for this is that I have spent the past six months developing the route; you may or may not know that I've spent five years mapping and developing stairway routes in Silverlake and Echo Park, and - along with stairway knowledge from other folks - this is the culmination of all that.

There's a lot more information available at the Big Parade website, more than I can fit here, so if you're interested in joining them, check out what Koeppel and friends are up to.  The Big Parade FAQ is extremely detailed and has an answer to everything from, "are you really planning on camping between the two days?" to "are you twittering the trip?"

Today at noon, Metro staff held a special briefing on a series of proposed rule changes that would make it legal for bikes to be on all Metro trains at all times.  However, this change comes at a steep cost to bike riders, the new rules also dictate that there should be no more than two bikes on any Metro rail car at any time.

Presenting for Metro was Hector Rodriguez, a long-time cyclist who tried to keep the focus of the presentation positive.  However, instead of a celebratory tone about increased bike access, the meeting became a contentious ones with Metro staff stating the case that because a bike takes up three times as much space as a regular rider, that restrictions need to be in place.  However, no such restrictions were proposed for any other users, be they carrying luggage, pushing baby strollers or transporting a Christmas Tree.

As members of the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, Los Angeles Bike Advisory Committee, Caltrans Bike Advisory Committee and others complained that this new policy, while better than existing policy, still treats cyclists as second class citizens.  Staff argued that they've been taking baby steps that are pushing things in the right direction such as the removal of seats on Red and Purple Line trains.

Of course, the benefit of that seat removal is somewhat mitigated if only two bikes are allowed in the car.  While staff insisted that these rules wouldn't be enforced on situations where cars have space for more cyclists, but I think we all know that when people in power have the chance to abuse a rule, someone will step up and do so.

So what should Metro do and what should they have done?  While I think the intentions were good, after all we're not discussing a full ban such as they have on BART trains or anything as severe as that, there's still a lot of room for improvement.  The mantra that "we're trying to do something for you" doesn't ring as true when cyclists aren't involved in the process until the end.  The only way to insure that the people you're trying to do a favor for actually want that favor is to involve them in the process at the start, not the finish.  The proposed rules are on the Programming Committee Agenda next week and will probably move from there to the full Metro Board later this month.

But what can Metro staff do to make the rules better?  For starters, they should treat their "heavy rail" cars different from the "light rail" cars when writing rules.  On Red and Purple Line cars, there is a dedicated open space for people commuting with wheels.  On Blue, Gold and Green Line cars, cyclists are being asked to park their cars in the articulated areas.  If there's no way around placing some restrictions on cyclists there should be flexibility in those restrictions written into the rules based on both type of car and time of day.  Having a restriction on bicycles during the most congested hours is a debatable policy.  Having a hard rule about the number of bikes on trains in off-peak hours is patently ridiculous.

The most popular suggestion in the room was instead of having a series of rules and restrictions, why not just have a "standing area" in every car where people can stand and "hang out" with their bikes, strollers, Christmas Trees or other freight.  That way, Metro can actually increase the carrying capacity for each car and provide adequate space for anyone that has something to carry with them.  However, that solution isn't in the mix yet because it hasn't been adequately studied and funding would need to be identified.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Streetsblog will be taking tomorrow off and returning on Monday.

Have fun with the cookouts and fireworks, rest your eyes and we'll come back next week ready for the Tom LaBonge era as he steps in as Acting Chair for the Transportation Committee. Try not to panic, LaBonge will be acting as chair until the committee assignments are shuffled after the election of the Council President later this month.

Oh, and for those two readers who link to Streetsblog through a Toronto bike blog, a belated Happy Canada Day to you.