The first Give Me 3 poster on 1st and Main in Los Angeles, 2010. Photo: LADOT Bike Blog

“The community of people who care about the safety of bicyclists continues to be the backbone of support for this bill,” said Jim Brown, spokesperson for the CBC. “Nearly 1,800 people have contacted their state senators to urge a yes vote this Thursday. This is a very large response by any measure, especially for bike-related legislation. It shows how strongly people care about making our roads safer.”

If passed, SB 1464 would require drivers to give cyclists a three foot passing berth when passing them. A nearly identical proposal, SB 910, was vetoed by Governor Brown in October due to pushback from AAA and the CA Highway Patrol (CHP), despite making its way through both houses of the legislature. As reported in Streetsblog  last month, the CBC worked with AAA and the CHP to revise the language they objected to and propose a new bill.

SB 1464 differs from last year’s bill by allowing drivers to cross a solid double yellow centerline (when safe) if necessary to give a bicyclist at least three feet of space. If three feet aren’t available, the bill requires drivers to pass by slowing down to 15 MPH and giving bicyclists as much space as possible.

The CBC launched the “Give Me 3” campaign to support the bill last year using imagery from Los Angeles’ bike safety campaign in 2010. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Streetsblog that the passage of a safe passing law in Sacramento is “a top legislative priority” for him.

If the Senate passes SB 1464 on Thursday, it would then head to the State Assembly for approval by the appropriate committees and the full assembly. After that, it’s back to the Governor Brown’s desk, where he could sign it into law or veto it again.

TransForm and the CBC partnered to provide an easy form which supporters can use to write their legislators. By clicking on this link and entering your zip code on TransForm’s website, you can generate an email addressed to your senator. You can also modify the email with a more personal message, which is especially powerful if you know someone who was injured in a crash. If you would prefer to use email or regular mail, click here for instructions from the CBC.

Sample letter. Click here to generate your own.

Metro's Stacy Yamato and life-size road signs from Safe Moves help educate students on how to move safely through busy streets. photo courtesy of Dave Sotero.

Last Friday, Safe Moves, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating children on traffic safety, held a Bike-to-School-Day event at New Designs Charter School (at 23rd St. and Figueroa Ave.) to close out Metro’s Bike Week.

Students arriving as early as 7:00 A.M. were met by representatives of Safe Moves and Metro, former 2000 Olympic Team Cyclist Antonio Cruz, and life-size traffic signs. The speakers talked to the middle-schoolers about alternative forms of transportation, safety around the new Expo Line, and the health and environmental benefits of getting on a bike.

While I was pleased to know that students were learning about bikes and bike safety throughout the day — even getting a safety course in their P.E. classes — I’ll admit I was most thrilled about the thing that probably excited them the least: the life-size traffic signs.

How much more fun would it be to navigate L.A.’s streets if some of its busiest and least friendly intersections were monitored by traffic signs that you could high-five?

• Tuesday, Wednesday – The Flying Pigeon Bike Shop is moving from its current location to a storefront right next to Antigua Cultural Coffee House in Cypress Park.  If you have some free time today or tomorrow, they could use the help for their bike move.  For more details, check out the Flying Pigeon blog.
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – Meetings continue for the I-710 Corridor Project, the same one we’ve jokingly referred to as the “Big Dig” because of the popular plan to dig a tunnel under South Pasadena and other communities.   For more information on this week’s meetings, we have a nice graphic in our calendar section, or better yet click on that nice advertisement to the right.
• Wednesday – Most of our coverage of Malibu over the years has been a somewhat tongue-and-cheek review of their efforts to keep cyclists off the PCH or at least have them “behave better.”  However, the city seems to be making a good faith effort to create safe corridors for cyclists in the Bu.  Good for them.  Get the details of the latest efforts at tomorrow’s meeting.
• Thursday – Metro Board Meeting. Westside Subway. WESTSIDE SUBWAY.  WESTSIDESUBWAYWESTSIDESUBWAYWESTSIDESUBWAY!!!!  and other stuff.  Read the agenda, here.
• Thursday - SurveyLA, the Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, is looking for suggestions for historic places in the City of Los Angeles. SurveyLA is the first-ever comprehensive program to identify and record the City’s historic resources. This workshop will focus on the communities of Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Highland Park, Lincoln Heights and Mt. Washington.  Get more details, here.
• Friday – In May 2010, Critical Mass protested the massive oil spill in the gulf outside a BP station in Hollywood.  The nervous manager called the LAPD, and a somewhat ugly confrontation took place, some of it caught on film.  This led to the LAPD/LACM alliance over the last two years which saw the police “escort” the ride through the city.  A lot has changed in two years.  What hasn’t is that Critical Mass meets at Wilshire/Western at 7:00 P.M.
• Saturday – City Lites sponsors it’s 9th Annual Inner City Sports Festival and Health Fair.  Sahra will have more details on the event later in the week.  But if you want more details on the 23 mile bike tour which starts in Jesse Owens Park or the 5k fun walk/run click here.  The event is free and open to the public.
• Sunday – Bikerowave offers a free class entitled “How to Fix Your Derailleur.”  Name doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination.  Get more details, here.

Did we miss something?  What about events next week?  Email all your events suggestions to damien at streetsblog dot org.

Administration priorities for the conference bill came down from headquarters. Photo: Wikipedia

Everyone from the petrochemical industry to environmental and equity groups [PDF] to state DOT officials [PDF] are penning their missives to committee members, asking for everything from expedited project delivery to fix-it-first to automatic approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

U.S. DOT got in on the letter-writing campaign last week too, expressing the Obama administration’s priorities for the bill [PDF].

The letter, signed by Secretary Ray LaHood, started off reiterating the promise to veto any bill mandating automatic approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. The administration opposes the GOP’s bid for coal ash deregulation but doesn’t threaten a veto over that issue. It also opposes some of the streamlining proposals made by the House, saying they “would radically change the application of environmental laws” and would undermine the National Environmental Policy Act.

The administration says it “strongly supports local decision-making and boosting the capacity of agencies that perform statewide, metropolitan, and rural transportation planning” — staying agnostic in the battle between state and city power. It supports the Senate’s Buy America language, which the House has instructed its conferees to accept. New Starts, high-speed rail, and TIGER all get a shout-out too.

U.S. DOT supports transit operations funding in times of high unemployment and in the wake of a disaster, and it reminds conferees that the administration’s 2013 budget included $3.2 billion for for transit maintenance. It mentions CMAQ only to oppose a House change to the program that never passed but does not weigh in on the changes to CMAQ in the Senate bill.

The Bullitt Foundation's "Living Building," which it calls the "greenest commercial building in the world" was nearly hamstrung by environmental regulations. Photo: The Bullitt Foundation

The problem, Adam Bejan Parast at Seattle Transit Blog writes, is that we are stuck with environmental regulations from a bygone era:

I have thought for a while that each generation of environmentalists is shaped in response to the differing environmental challenges of their time. While older generations of environmentalists were shaped by the back-to-the-land movement, one that believed in an essentially rural solution to environmental problems, young environmentalists are exactly the opposite, believing that dense cities are the primary solution to the problems we face.

Call it Vashion Island environmentalism vs Capitol Hill environmentalism. I find these underlying beliefs to be a helpful organizing structure when talking about density, tree preservation, parking requirements or other issues facing infill development.

Parast links to a post by Dan Bertolet, who argues we are entering a “fourth wave of planning,” influenced by climate change, energy concerns, food systems and sustainable regional development. How long will it take for our environmental regulations to catch up?

Elsewhere on the Network today: The League of American Bicyclists unveils its project aimed at memorializing every cyclist killed on American streets. Steven Can Plan compares traffic injury rates in the Netherlands to Chicago. And Brown Girl in the Lane discusses obstacles to women in the cycling movement, and how she developed a sisterhood of supporters.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Ron, Calvin, John, Fred, and Val fueling up for the train ride home from Long Beach. photo: sahra

“You are friends with them?”

It sounded more like a statement of surprise than an actual question.

The Japanese tourist couldn’t seem to reconcile that tiny, road-biking me might be hanging out with some burly, tough-looking guys on tricked-out cruisers late on a Friday night in a Long Beach gas-station parking lot.

“Yep,” I nodded.

“Oh.”

He processed this for a minute.

Then, he pointed to Calvin’s cruiser and said, “I never see bikes like these in Japan.”

“CALVIN!” I shouted, pulling the tourist over with me. “He says he’s never seen a bike like yours before.”

After taking a few photos and offering a polite bow of the head, the tourist was gone and the parking lot was ours again. We packed up our goodies and headed across the street to the Metro stop to catch a train back to L.A. It had been a long night and some of us were ready to sit for a bit.

Ron lets an over-confident youngster take a test ride on his bike. photo: sahra

The Friday Night Ride began outside Hope Central Watts around 7:00 that evening when I met up with Ron, Calvin, John, Fred, and Val (who had come all the way up from San Diego to ride with us). The kids that had come by to take advantage of the church’s Friday night dinner for the community were thrilled to see the East Side Riders‘ cruisers parked outside.

One over-confident youngster hopped on Ron’s bike, swearing he was big enough to ride it despite being barely able to reach the handlebars.

Watching him wobble his way down the sidewalk, I debated chasing after him. Going straight ahead seemed straightforward enough, but I wasn’t sure that he would be able to turn the heavy bike around and remain upright at the same time.

Egged on by his friends and not wanting to take a spill in front of the men he clearly admired, the youngster held on, made a shaky U-turn, and wobbled his way back to us, triumphant.

So triumphant was he, in fact, that he was soon challenging anyone who would listen to a foot race.

Youth outside the Hope Central Watts challenge John Jones III of the East Side Riders to a footrace before we strike out for Long Beach. photo: sahra

It was after 8:00 P.M. when the six of us finally rolled out, headed for Long Beach.

“We’re not Critical Mass,” I eyed up our crew and joked with John Jones III, head of the East Side Riders. “It’s more like Critical Minimum.”

But small is often beautiful.

The ride was peaceful. Drivers gave us ample space, honking their support and waving at times, and even the police were nice. Several patrol cars rolled up alongside us in Long Beach warning us to be safe and to watch out for drunk drivers.

We laughed about the kind reception a bit, wondering if it was due to there being a girl rider in the mix, but the gestures were welcome all the same.

The advantages of a small riding group are many. It is easy to keep the group together and there is a lot of space for conversation as you ride.

Best of all, at least for me, was watching grown men on tough cruisers turn into kids. As we reached the first downhill, I heard a shout and turned to see Ron go flying by with his feet up on the handlebars, his over-sized shirt billowing out behind him like a parachute.

“Don’t pedal!” John warned Ron, laughing and pushing off in pursuit. “Don’t pedal!”

Suddenly, all the men were racing to see whose bike could get them the fastest and farthest down the hill.

The fun ended when they had to start up the incline the other side.

We waited at the top for Calvin, an older gentleman on a gorgeous but heavy bike who was hampered by having only a single gear. He hadn’t been on a 12-mile ride in a long time and the hill took its toll on him.

“First thing I’m changing this out for some gears,” he puffed at the top, resolute. “Tomorrow!”

Portland rules in Bicycling Magazine's 2012 bike-friendly city rankings. Photo: Cycloculture

Today, Pacific coast sustainability standard bearer Portland topped Midwestern standout Minneapolis in Bicycling Magazine’s bike-friendly city rankings, bi-annual source of bragging rights or shame, depending on your locale.

The top-two results were a reversal of the 2010 rankings. Bicycling Magazine did not explain what boosted Portland but did mention the city’s stature as the only large city to receive the League of American Bicyclists’ “Platinum-Level” Bike Friendly City Award, as well as its tendency to be the earliest of early adopters when it comes to innovations like bike boxes (Portland had the nation’s first).

Meanwhile, Minneapolis recently snagged national bragging rights with its Bike Score — the new bikeability scoring system that the creators of Walk Score unveiled last week.

Overall, big cities enjoy a growing prominence in Bicycling’s top ten, reflecting a trend in bike-friendly political leadership in America’s major metropolises.

While tiny Boulder, Colorado took the bronze, Washington, DC came in an impressive fourth place, boosted by its enviable bike-sharing system.

“There is no clearer evidence of the urban-cycling revolution sweeping the United States than in the nation’s capital,” wrote Bicycling’s Ian Dille, “where ridership jumped 80 percent from 2007 to 2010.”

Also surging ahead was Chicago, taking fifth place. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan for 100 miles of protected bike lanes was cited as a big factor, along with the popular Bike-the-Drive open streets event.

New York City, which will be launching the nation’s largest bike-share system this summer, ratcheted up one spot to seventh place, on the strength of the bike infrastructure built on the watch of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. San Francisco dropped a few places to eighth. And Seattle rounded out the top ten.

Smaller trailblazers Madison, Wisconsin and Eugene, Oregon slotted into sixth and ninth place, respectively.

Bicycling Magazine’s rankings are based on data from the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking and Walking along with input from local advocates. Fifty cities are ranked this year, from De Moines, Iowa to Miami, Florida. To qualify, each city “must possess both a robust cycling infrastructure and a vibrant bike culture,” according to the magazine.

New plans and developments, such as the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Plan pictured above, are great for the environment, but what impact does it have on the community it's placed in? Image via City Planning

Note: The authors are active advocates in the urban sustainability movement, focusing on non-motorized transportation in low-income urban areas. As mixed race women of color, we believe that we are in a unique position to bridge the advocacy communities trying to better conditions for the urban poor and for the environment. In this series, we draw on our experiences in the bicycle and environmental movements to shed light on the unfortunate divides we have noticed between urban sustainability communities and low-income communities of color.

When environmental advocates talk about urban sustainability, we often focus on how people use space and how we can encourage design that has a lesser impact on the environment.  How do people get around, are there single or mixed use developments, how can we minimize commutes between work, the grocery store, and home? Rarely do we mention class differences in who lives in the same neighborhoods or, crucially, the issue of segregation and how discrimination has shaped where Americans live and with whom they associate.

Surely we’re aware of the legacies of 1950’s white flight and urban redevelopment, where cars enabled Americans to flee the supposed contamination of newly integrating city centers. We know about the subsequent trend where city agencies labeled those neighborhoods left behind as “blighted slums” ripe for redevelopment. And yet we remain silent about the parallel between these twentieth century traumas and our current interest in promoting urban sustainability in these same areas through large scale economic redevelopment. Because race and class inequalities have been left out of the conversation, eco-friendly developments that aim to increase property values and, consequently, reduce affordable housing stock, get promoted as the key to urban sustainability.

Sustaining the ethnic and cultural diversity of our shared spaces should be an explicit priority of the environmental movement, and this means confronting the trend toward making “eco-friendly” neighborhoods primarily exclusive enclaves of wealth. We have seen this in countless neighborhoods in Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, where bike lanes often get striped in “up and coming” neighborhoods only after more affluent residents move in.

In some neighborhoods, diverse communities inhabit the same shared spaces, exposing people to different ways of life and creating an exciting atmosphere. Central Los Angeles has many such neighborhoods. Yet we often talk about these neighborhoods in terms that could erase the diversity that makes them so valuable. Their “green” features (like density and proximity to transit and commerce), have become marketable amenities, but as housing costs rise in neighborhoods like Koreatown, East Hollywood, Pico Union, and Boyle Heights, will the diverse communities who live in these spaces survive or disappear?

The point is not to criticize the flourishing of environmentally conscious lifestyles in LA, but to recognize that sustainable practices such as bicycling can take more than one form. We reject the idea that only built environments that fit a “new urbanist” cookie cutter model can be sustainable and livable. In practice, though, the “livable places” created by developers for affluent residents are seen as more worthy of public investment than those utilized by immigrants and people of color. In a paradigm where long-standing neighborhoods exist as playgrounds for the imaginations of urban designers rather than as places created by the people who live in them, bike lanes and other green improvements often have less to do with actual people on bikes or transit and more to do with their value as green infrastructure.

One clear example of the divide between green and low-income communities is the fight for affordable AND sustainable housing and development in Chinatown. Chinatown youth and SEACA (Southeast Asian Community Alliance) are currently leading a campaign to advocate for the inclusion of affordable housing within the Cornfield Arroyo Seco specific plan update (known as “CASP”). The plan, first introduced in 2007, was a shining model of sustainability, encouraging transit-oriented development near three Gold Line train stations and adjacent to the LA River,  recommending bike lanes and lowering parking requirements for housing developments. The problem was that many existing low-income Chinese, Vietnamese, and Latino residents who could have truly benefited from their neighborhood becoming more environmentally sound were likely to be displaced. The plan encouraged market rate housing stock and provided no incentives for affordable housing in the area.

We need to recognize and respect how people are making communities work in places we have historically labeled as blighted slums. New urban designs for “livable communities” strongly resemble existing cultural norms in low-income, transit dependent communities. These norms include community porch spaces, diverse groups interacting in public spaces, and the frequent use of transit, walking; basically, living carfree. LA artist and urban planner and LA Streetsblog contributor, James Rojas has long documented the unofficial ways that Latinos in East LA have created sustainable public spaces, such as the Evergreen Cemetery walking track. Is the repackaging of pre-existing realities of many low-income urban areas into eco amenities marketed to middle class, white professionals creating a type of lifestyle politics that perpetuates inequality? Will we create neighborhoods that are separate but eco?

As sociologists Kathleen Newman and Victor Tan Chen noted in their 2007 book The Missing Class, integrated (mixed income, mixed race) neighborhoods are all too often fleeting as lower income families get flushed out by rising property values. In his classic 1990 book StreetWise, sociologist Elijah Anderson chronicled the ironic and unfair results of improving an urban neighborhood, pointing out that making neighborhoods more desirable leads to more gentrification without the original inhabitants being able to benefit from the improvements.

Legal scholar Sheryll Cashin, in her 2004 book The Failures of Integration, wrote about the simultaneous “pull of personal preferences and the push of discrimination” that lead to segregated neighborhoods. Recently, anthropologist Melissa Checker published an article about “environmental gentrification,” the displacement that takes place after environmental justice activists and other community-based movements have improved conditions in a neighborhood and its property values rise. We need to stop framing displacement as a regrettable but inevitable outcome of sustainable development in urban neighborhoods. This is not a coincidence; people are being pushed out.

The two of us started collaborating around these issues in 2008, and we’ve experimented with various projects, such as CicLAvia and City of Lights, that focus on how non-motorized transportation is used by and can uplift the urban poor. Our work has aimed to legitimize low-income people as cyclists with needs and a voice. We started this work because we noticed something missing then (and even now) in planning discourses: how sustainable transportation projects and other forms of progressive urban design relate to historically disempowered communities of color.

It’s important to understand how power fits into transportation. 

Thanks to the civil rights movement and activists like Rosa Parks, how someone travels through a city now is not determined by their race. At the same time, though, socially stigmatized transport modes have faced enormous political opposition. It would be foolish to pretend this has nothing to do with race or class. Biking, using public transit, and even walking have long had a stigma of poverty and disempowerment. In their 1997 book Just Transportation, Robert Bullard and Glenn Johnson argued that transportation benefits tend to be more accessible to affluent people and transportation burdens fall on lower income people. Cars are still the “gold standard,” but as more and more young urban professionals choose to locate in transit-oriented, walkable neighborhoods, carfree transportation options may become less accessible to the displaced poor.

In our experience, the bike advocacy movement rarely discusses the role that class and race privileges play in the placement of cycling amenities in certain neighborhoods and not others. Areas of the city that are home to more affluent cyclists receive more bicycle infrastructure, but environmentally friendly affluent professionals still proclaim that using a bicycle in and of itself proclaims a minority status that has nothing to do with class, race, and/or gender privileges. We have seen widespread use of the term “second class citizen” and other social justice language to describe the negative experience of bicycling on car-dominated streets. But these claims alienate communities of color; they make the bicycling community seem extremely insensitive to the very real legal discrimination that the civil rights and immigrant rights movements have challenged. They allow critics to dismiss bicycling as a solution because some cyclists don’t examine their privilege.

Adonia snaps a picture of Allison hanging with a team of Jornaleros on an LACBC "City of Lights" event in 2009. Photo:Urban Adonia

In another sense, “bicycle privilege” means having the option to choose a historically stigmatized mode of transportation because it does not pose a threat to one’s social reputation. From our conversations with jornalero cyclists, some of the most marginalized members of our society, it is clear that some enjoy cycling, but many are simply “accidental environmentalists.” We have found that many people who are biking or using transit out of economic necessity would prefer to be driving. It makes sense that many low-income people of color, who have had to fight their whole lives to be acknowledged as equal citizens, are attracted to driving cars.

Are the people that we want to include in the urban sustainability movement going to be displaced because “livable” is not also affordable and because we have defined our movement so narrowly as to not include low-income communities? What will be the future of central LA, a great place to ride a bike or take transit today, as it gets re-evaluated as a desirable place to live by more affluent residents?

How do we support both the rights of working people and promote affordable housing and environmental amenities like bike lanes? We believe that these projects can co-exist in what we are calling “equitable environmentalism.” We refuse to reject or abandon sustainable development or the existing communities it affects. Rather than approaching urban revitalization with a “manifest destiny” vision, we believe that the lived realities and values of existing urban communities should determine how we approach those places. We believe that the future lies in an ecological perspective that respects how sustainable development can include and celebrate diverse communities.

Why Is L.A. Starting to Change? Tireless advocacy, broken elbows and of course CicLAvia.

In the Sunday edition, the New York Times put aside a little space to talk about bicycling in Los Angeles. The article points to a boom in the popularity of bicycling throughout the city and gives the credit where it belongs: the advocates and ride leaders that created today’s bicycle culture.

Writer Adam Nagourney takes time to quote the Mayor and NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, but leaves most of the narrative to the advocates who have been working tirelessly for years including three Streetsbloggers: Myself, Joel Epstein and Joe Linton.

If you haven’t seen the article yet, take a second to check it out. It’s always interesting to get an outsider’s perspective on what’s taking place in L.A.

This is the message and image being used to promote a $6 billion transit-and-roads referendum in greater Atlanta. Photo: Decatur Metro

We’ve written a few times about how transit referendums need a simple, to-the-point message summarizing what voters can expect to receive in return. Here’s how they’re doing it in Atlanta.

In their quest to win voter support for a $6 billion funding package that would be split about evenly between transit and roads, proponents have settled on the phrase ”Let’s Untie Atlanta’s Knot.” Equating the ballot measure to a referendum on Atlanta’s notorious congestion woes seems like a smart idea.

Network blog Decatur Metro decided to evaluate the “untying” claim on its central promise — congestion relief — and found that it passes the sniff test, especially when it comes to transit:

The AJC this morning has summarized the Atlanta Regional Commission’s findings from a 10-year traffic simulation program and shown that the figures overall are either impressive or underwhelming, depending on what area you look at and/or which expert/non-expert you speak with. Atlanta’s infrastructure is a big ol’ expensive mistress, and though $6 billion may sound big compared to, say, our annual salaries, it’s a drop in the bucket for the metro area’s collection of road and rail. Or Mark Zuckerberg for that matter. But some figures seem heartening…

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

On average, the number of metro Atlantans able to reach job centers in under 45 minutes would rise just 6 percent by car, and about 20 percent by bus or train, if the projects are built. The new transit projects expect perhaps 75,000 or more daily boardings.

Regional planners insist that in the world of transportation design, a 6 percent or 20 percent jump in good commutes is a big deal.

This should be a slam dunk for Atlanta. We’ll be following it through voting day in July.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Grid Chicago continues to evaluate Chicago’s transportation “Action Agenda” in a second sit-down question-and-answer session with DOT Commissioner Gabe Klein. Bike Lane Living shares a video documenting Indianapolis’s Bike to Work Day. And Alex Block weighs in on the density debate spurred by Richard Florida’s comments at the Congress for the New Urbanism conference in Palm Springs.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Since there were no bike pit stops in Boyle Heights for Metro Bike to Work Day, I took a break from the neighborhood and checked out the one in East Los Angeles. Staff and students from La Causa Youth Build, a charter school that serves 16 to 24 year olds that are pushed out of traditional schools, stood on the corner of Olympic and Goodrich Boulevards.

Amy Ruvalcaba, La Causa’s AmeriCorps coordinator and who organized La Causa’s Bike to Work Day pit stop, said that when she saw  that there was no pitstop in the East Los Angeles area just two weeks before Bike to Work Day, she started work on bringing one to La Causa.

La Causa has a curriculum with a foundation in social justice and sustainable practices.  The school organized a team of students to help at the pit stop intermittently throughout the day. Juan Gutierrez, 23, is a current student at La Causa Youth Build. Gutierrez manned the kiosk when I visited and was there throughout the morning before his classes in the afternoon.

La Causa’s pit stop wasn’t in a prime location for cyclists, but it did allow for students to visit or man the kiosk between classes. The volunteers had to contend with the noise and presence of big rig trucks coming from a lot of industry from around their offices and neighboring City of Commerce.

Regardless, those passing by, mostly pedestrians and some cyclists, stopped at the kiosk to see what was being offered. 

Clara Garcia, who works at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, was on her way to catch her bus to work when she stopped at La Causa’s kiosk and picked up a healthy recipe book and a Clif Bar. Because bike to work day was announced to her at work, Garcia was the rare person to know about La Causa’s pit stop kiosk.

Humberto Galvan, 49, stopped at the kiosk because a woman told him on a nearby street corner about the pit stop.

La Causa’s kiosk also gave people an opportunity to learn about their school. Maria Diaz, 69, stopped by La Causa’s kiosk and took some information about the school. Diaz said that she had two grandchildren that could benefit from La Causa’s programs.

Tony’s Schwinn Bike Stop donated a bike helmet to La Causa Youth Build that was raffled off later in the day.

Click here to learn more about La Causa Youth Build.

Several developments in the vicinity of the rail line are already proposed, and are floating around in the complicated development agreement process  for projects that deviate from traditional zoning. This deviation is now common because many expect changes in the zoning code soon in compliance with the circulation element, including  the Hines creative office and mixed use residential project on the site of the old Papermate factory on the North side of Olympic Boulevard.

These proposed developments contain new public streets, bike and pedestrian paths cutting through parcels.  All of the new  development agreements go through rigorous scrutiny to work out the details. The city is clearly intent on not repeating the mistakes of fortress like and mostly single use superblock developments such as the the Yahoo Center and Water Gardens.

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The emerging plan outlines a new street hierarchy, with what are being called “traditional complete streets”, “flexible streets”, and “shared streets.”

Advocates are familiar with “traditional complete streets” which include standard sidewalks, street parking, vehicle lanes with bike lanes or sharrows. Flexible streets allocate more sidewalk space to one side for a broader pedestrian environment offering the potential for outdoor seating and other uses. Shared streets are more akin to the recent redesign of Longfellow, where there is no curb separation and calming methods are used to bring vehicle speeds to a level safe for mixing bikes, peds and cars.

Pennsylvania Ave., proposed as a shared street, known by many area workers as “food truck alley”, already functions as a shared street during weekday lunches. This is happening despite the lack of supporting design features, due to low traffic volumes and lots of people on foot with no sidewalks. However the comfort and feel would be greatly enhanced with further traffic calming and places to sit besides stairs, curbs, and dull landscaping berms.

Flexible uses for what is typically on-street parking, like "parklets" are envisioned for the Bergamot Area Plan.

There is still much to be ironed out before the Bergamot Area Plan is ready for implementation, but what can be seen of the plan taking shape so far is far above and beyond what I have seen from other communities that have had Metro rail come through, or are anticipating future rail investments. Everything in Santa Monica’s planning efforts anchors around on the 3 new rail stations in city limits that will be part of the Expo Line, with circulation to and from each station being thought out for every mode of travel.

Santa Monica is demonstrating how a community should synchronize with rail investments to both maximize potential ridership and return on investment in economic activity and property values. There are some in the community who will find fault with the new developments coming in with Expo, but leveraging big infrastructure investments for ongoing financial returns is how we keep our infrastructure funded and maintained for the long haul.

Santa Monica does have more resources to work with than many cities it’s size, but many of the proposed improvements such as connecting bikeways are low cost and can be accomplished easily anywhere with the will to act. So many American infrastructure investments have been highways to sprawled exurban communities, creating miles of asphalt that will never fully recoup their costs and instead become crumbling liabilities at the end of their effective life. Concentrated development around rail is how we build a rapid transportation network that can actually pay for itself in a sustainable fashion.

When I look out at the acres of lumpy surface parking surrounding the Culver City Expo station opening this summer, I cry a little bit inside. So much of the land use along our new rail corridors in the LA region are strings of missed opportunities to create new value, or projects which are transit adjacent, rather than truly oriented around using the train. In Santa Monica I fully expect Phase II of Expo will open with a much deserved splash that starts reaping dividends for the city on day one, with new projects positioned to take full advantage of rail access along with improvements to multi-modal circulation that will enable seamless car-free travel.

The planning commission agenda website contains the full staff report and slide presentation (item 10-A).

Looking for a job? Here are this week’s listings:

Coordinator, South Bronx River Watershed Alliance, New York City
For nearly a decade, the SBRWA has campaigned to replace the 1.25 mile-long Sheridan Expressway with 28 acres of affordable housing, open space, and new economic development opportunities. The SBRWA is seeking a Coordinator to carry out its community education and organizing work, support the participation of its member organizations in the campaigns, and manage its day-to-day communications and operation.

Marketing Assistant, VELODOME, Clifton, New Jersey
VELODOME is a company that designs and produces bicycle parking shelters and promotes cycling as an alternate mode of transportation to schools, government agencies and private sector companies. This internship, which can lead to a full-time position, will include market research, social media marketing and working with suppliers.

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Yesterday afternoon must have been surreal for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  At noon, he delivered remarks to an audience of 1,200 of L.A.’s elite at the Westin Bonaventure as part of the Center City Association’s “Treasures” awards.  Jokes about the lackluster performance of the Lakers in the past couple of days were contrasted with the upbeat feelings some have about the suddenly hot Los Angeles Kings and the soccer champions with the Los Angeles Galaxy.  The Mayor avoided having his picture taken with newly minted “treasure” Hugh Hefner.

But the real contrast came an hour and a half later when the crowd of 1,200 cheering Angelenos was traded for several hundred skeptical and irritated residents of Beverly Hills who traveled to Metro headquarters to hear the last effort of Beverly Hills’ seismic experts to convince the Metro Board of Directors that the safest and best route for the Westside Subway will not take it under Beverly Hills.  Instead of hanging out with Hef, Villaraigosa was waiting for Metro Board Member Mel Wilson to call in to a hearing, and when that didn’t work out had to appoint a temporary Board Member to meet quorum.

For those of you just joining us, officials and residents from Beverly Hills are waging open war on the preferred Westside Subway expansion route that would take the subway under the high school.  The Metro Board of Directors was poised to approve the route at last month’s board meeting, citing seismic and geological reports conducted on behalf of the agency until the Beverly Hills City Council requested yesterday’s hearing at an emergency meeting held days before the scheduled Metro Board meeting.

Early reports from the yesterday’s hearing hint that the three hours of testimony didn’t change many minds.  Supervisor Mike Antonovich told the Times that the Beverly Hills’ experts made a good case and chided Villaraigosa for trying to “shove the route down their throats.”  Richard Katz, a Villaraigosa appointee to the Board, sounded more skeptical.

Whether the lack of change is a result of Beverly Hills not proving its scientific point, or because the Metro Board had as much of a chance to understand the science as I did, or whether the fix really is in in Metro headquarters will most likely be determined by a judge.  Representatives of the hills wasted no time clarifying that if and when the Board approves a route that goes under the high school, that a legal challenge under the state’s CEQA environmental law would soon follow.

Once quorum was sort-of established, the presentation was dominated by reports from Beverly Hills’ experts.  Opening arguments and a series of objections came from a trio of lawyers,  Larry Weiner, Kevin Brogan and Robert McMurry. Even if the day wasn’t won inside the Board room, media reports ranging from a “live blog” on Patch to television reports were dominated by Beverly Hills’ take on the subway route.  Instead of bringing its own experts, Metro submitted their reports for the record, basically yielding the media day to the team from Beverly Hills.

Of course, almost all media made mention of the silly “Beverly Hillbillies” YouTube spoof video which stood in stark contrast to the serious and intelligent discussion that happened in the Metro Board Room yesterday.

The first scientist called was Philip Buchiarell from Leighton Consulting.  Buchiarell brought maps showing where his firm discovered faults around the campus and city and pictures of the soil sampled that led to their conclusions.  Leighton consulting using a soil sampling method that is oft-referred to as the “gold standard” because it utilizes trenching, couldn’t find the trenches that Parsons Brinkerhoff found in their study of the school area.  Parsons responded by moving their estimates to other parts of the campus.  Their report is available here.  Metro’s response is available, here.

Next up was Eldon Gath of Earth Consultants International.  Gath reviewed the data by Leighton and found it to be solid.  He described Metro’s response as “frustrating.”

Following Gath was Miles Kenney of Kenney Geo-Science presented on his review of the original Parsons Brinkerhoff report for Metro.  Gath slammed the PB study noting that many of the active faults listed did not, in his professional opinion, actually exist.  Kenney agreed with the research done by Leighton consulting.  He conceded that there are likely faults along Santa Monica Boulevard, but that the faults are likely inactive.

Following a video presentation by Dr. Roy Shlemon, a consulting geologist that confirmed much of what had already been said, Tim Buresh, the lead engineer studying the alignments for the City of Beverly Hills and the former regional director for the High Speed Rail Authority in Southern California, attacked the ridership models that determined the preferred station.

Buresh claimed that the least expensive of the four station options for Century City, one placed under Santa Monica Boulevard with station entrances on either side of the street.  Metro rules out that station citing fault activity in the area, but Buresh argues that if Metro was wrong about the faults under Beverly Hills High School, as demonstrated by the previous witnesses, than it might also be wrong about the Santa Monica Boulevard fault that disqualified a station at this area.

The reaction to Buresh was different than that to the scientific experts.  Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who is a supporter of the subway regardless of route, mocked Buresh’s assertion that the subway would be going “through classrooms” by asking if the High School was planning on building classrooms six stories underground.  Buresh responded that the school hadn’t ruled it out.  Board Member Katz mocked Buresh’s position on tunneling under Miramar College when he worked for High Speed Rail.  ”Do you stop caring about kids at a certain age?”

Following Buresh’s testimony, there was no time left for public comment, which actually played to Beverly Hills’ favor.  Regardless of your position on subway routing, the staid intelectual conversation yesterday stands in stark contrast to the hysterical testimony seen at public meetings on the subway in the past.  If you’re trying to make people take your scientists seriously, it probably isn’t a good idea to hand over the microphone to the people that made video with the exploding high school.

The Board clarified that they will be discussing subway routing at next Thursday’s Metro Board meeting, but stopped short of guaranteeing route selection.  Public comment will be part of next Thursday’s Board meeting.

If the Board doesn’t vote next week, the politics of the hearing could change somewhat.  By July, Villaraigosa will be replaced as Metro Board Chair, by Mike Antonovich.

Looking at median housing prices and Walk Scores in more than 250 cities, Emily Washington found a clear correlation. Photo: Market Urbanism

As part of her graduate studies, Emily Washington at Network blog Market Urbanism set out to determine if people were willing to pay a premium for housing in a walkable urban setting. She developed two different models to see if there’s a link between housing prices and Walk Scores in 259 cities. Wouldn’t you know it, she found a pretty clear connection. Washington shared the results of her research in a post yesterday and is asking for feedback on her methodology:

I tested the impact of Walk Score on median house prices controlling for household income, unemployment, and cost of living. The sample includes 259 cities for which I had Walk Score data and Census data by Metropolitan Statistical Area for the other controls. The results suggest that for a one-point increase in Walk Score, we can expect a .5% increase in a cities’ median house price, and this result is statistically significant.

In another way of measuring the same question (an IV regression using the year the city was founded as the instrument), I found that a one-point increase in Walk Score can be expected to increase home prices by 3%. This result is also statistically significant, but I have less faith in this model.

For the most part, the other studies that I’ve seen of Walk Score’s relationship to house prices look at one city or a few cities and control for variables like a neighborhood’s crime rate and housing quality. While there are obvious advantages to these more detailed, local studies, I think the national view gets around the sample selection problems that make other results ungeneralizable.

Elsewhere on the Network today: An exhibit brings the trains rejected by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to Milwaukee, demonstrating what might have been if it weren’t for political antics, reports Urban Milwaukee. BikeWalkLee writes that a Fort Myers area women who fell asleep at the wheel and killed a local cyclist won’t face criminal charges. And Bike Portland highlights some of the successes from the local political action committee dedicated to walking and biking issues.

Ruthie and Christopher man CSU's Bike Week pit stop at Menlo and MLK Blvd.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, I had a hard time figuring out what time the South L.A. Bike Week Pit Stops would be up and running today. I took a gander at the pit stop map and promptly devised a route in my head so I could hit all of the South L.A. stops.

I had missed what turned out to be an epic exploration ride led by CICLE’s Dan Dabek along the Expo Line bike lane on Wednesday because I woke up feeling very sick. So, I was determined to get out and support the South L.A. organizations offering pit stops for riders on Bike-to-Work Day.

So determined was I, in fact, that I did not pay attention to the times listed that the stops would be offered. I’m sure I saw the times listed on the map (of those that were there — some were not). But I must have ignored them, assuming that bike-to-work hours would coincide most closely with the morning rush hour, i.e. the hours that people go to work.

I rode down to Community Services Unlimited’s (CSU) Expo Garden stop to find no one there. A little sleep-deprived, I came to the conclusion that perhaps I had missed it because it was now 8:30 a.m. and headed for the City Lites‘ site at 84th and Vermont.

Nothing.

The security guard looked at me like I was insane.

“Pit stop? Bicycles?” he repeated slowly, shaking his head. “I don’t think so…?”

Great, I thought. I’m 0 – 2. Either I AM actually insane or I am dumb and I got this all wrong.

I must have looked forlorn because an older gentleman riding his BMX on the sidewalk stopped in front of me and asked if I needed help. Then he said he liked my bike.

I asked why he was riding on the sidewalk. Vermont Avenue is about eight lanes wide, with the main lanes and the service lanes. Yet, few of the folks I see riding actually take advantage of all that road.

“It’s safer,” he said. “Drivers are crazy. Plus you need a helmet to ride in the road and I don’t have one.”

I told him that was not the case for adults and protested that “there’s so much space in the street [while] on the sidewalk, people move in and out of shops and that can be dangerous, no?”

“Oh, yes!” he said excitedly, explaining that just yesterday someone coming out of an alley had jumped in front of him. He knocked the pedestrian off balance and somehow they ended up hugging each other to stay upright.

“You have to be careful!” he concluded.

Indeed.

From Vermont Ave., I headed over to the WLCAC at 109th and Central Ave. in Watts. The East Side Riders (ESR) did receive some Clif bars to hand out, but they had none of the accompanying paraphernalia that Metro had been giving out. Without a banner to advertise the stop, the maps, or patch kits, the ESR didn’t have an easy way to let people know they were hosting the stop or link it to Metro or cycling. Thus, although it was great hanging out with the men of the ESR and discussing plans for their Friday night ride, it was a little depressing that the only people stopping by for refreshments were the guys that worked on the grounds of the WLCAC.

It wasn’t until I headed back up to CSU’s stop around 12:00 P.M. (their scheduled time to begin), that I had my first encounter with a genuine pit stop, run by apprentices Ruthie and Christopher. But by that time I had to be somewhere else, so I couldn’t stick around to enjoy it.

Sigh.

Fear not. Tomorrow, I shall redeem myself. Metro and non-profit Safe Moves are hosting a Bike-to-School event at 7:00 A.M. at New Designs Charter School at 2303 S. Figueroa Way. There are a bunch of activities for kids, including safety workshops and a visit from 2000 Olympic Team Cyclist Tony Cruz.

That’s all well and good, but the real draw for me is the meet-and-greet with life-size traffic sign costume characters. If I’m going to hop on my bike at 6:00 A.M. to be somewhere for work, I want to see dancing stop signs.