This will be my last post until Monday barring something unbelievably major happening over the weekend. Happy Independence Day everyone. Hopefully we can all celebrate our independence from Car Culture in our own ways this weekend. Above is a Streetfilm from New York where a community has taken back their street for a block party. The party was sponsored by the New York Streets Renaissance, who are the same people that keep Los Angeles Streetsblog primed and ready to write. Brad Aaron, from New York Streetsblog, explains the film.

In this Streetfilm by Elizabeth Press, New Yorkers enjoy a block party on West 87th Street in Manhattan. The June event was one of dozens sponsored this summer by the New York City Streets Renaissance, many of them still to come. At over 3,000 block parties per year, New Yorkers mark their independence from traffic and pollution. How are you celebrating your car-freedom this 4th of July weekend?

The Entrance to the Festival of Lights, 2007 

The Griffith Park's annual Festival of Lights is supposed to be one of the highlights of the holiday season for thousands of Angelenos.  The park is festively lit up by the Department of Public Works in an effort to make the park visible from the moon an outpouring of Holiday Spirit.

What's also becoming a bit of a tradition is the battle over the city's illegal exclusion of cyclists from the event.  With the exception of a "cyclists night" that occurs in mid-November before Thanksgiving, bike riders are banned from the event in violation of state law that clearly states that municipalities cannot ban bikes from roads except for freeways.  Naturally, bike activists find this ban an affront to their rights and engage in a yearly battle with the city.  Last year, even the Times joined bike blogs such as Illuminate LA in decrying the festival's ban.

This year cyclists are off to an early start.  On June 9th, a group of cyclists, the Sierra Club, local Neighborhood Councils, homeowner associations and equestrians attended a public meeting on the festival to ask the DWP to lift the ban on bikes.  Some went so far as to suggest a festival wide ban on cars.  Thus, instead of 100,000 cars idling through stop and go traffic; pedestrians, cyclists and even equestrians could enjoy the nation's largest urban park and its unique light festival.  DWP hasn't announced either a lifting of the bike ban or imposing a car ban.

The cyclists efforts don't end with bureaucratic committee meetings, Illuminate LA has also written to Councilman Tom LaBonge, asking him to help lift the ban because it is against state law.  The full text of their letter is available after the jump.

Why have Danes again been named the happiest people on the planet? Early this year ABC News cited bikes as "perhaps ... the best symbol of Danish happiness," and in this clip from "Contested Streets" it isn't hard to see why. Here, livable streets guru Jan Gehl and others explain the many ways an increase in bike traffic (now one-third of all commutes) has improved life in the capital city of Copenhagen.

But it didn't happen overnight. Rather, it took four decades of gradual change to make Copenhagen the place it is today. As for replicating that success elsewhere, says Gehl: "if you don't have enough nice spaces, you can see these [become] overcrowded spaces. Then you should just make more spaces."

Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero is taking a stand.  Romero tells the Times that if she doesn't get she wants for San Gabriel Valley, at no extra cost to her constituents, she'll vote to make sure all of LA County is denied the opportunity to to vote to increase everyone's transit options.  The Senator may have the muscle to back up her threat as AB 2321, the legislation authorizing the sales tax to be on the fall ballot after Metro's approval, still needs a full vote of the State Senate.

Romero's position doesn't make sense from a transportation stand point.  She's basically opposed to the sales tax measure because Metro won't guarantee a Gold Line extension without the funding from the sales tax.  While her argument that the $328 million set aside from sales tax proceeds won't extend the Gold Line as far as it needs to go has some merit; her argument that Metro should guarantee more funds for an extension without the sales tax rests on the argument that San Gabriel Valley residents would be more likely to support a sales tax increase if they have nothing to gain from it doesn't make a lot of sense.  After all, would you vote for a tax increase that has no benefits for you?

Have a headache yet?  If not, Romero also tells the Times that she opposes congestion pricing and Metro should approve it's plan for transit for the valley without knowing whether it will have the $213 million in federal funds.  Her argument?  SGV residents shouldn't be "forced" to pay tolls because there is a lack of reliable transit options.  Last I checked, which was right before I wrote this post, most of that $213 would be going to provide increased transit options for the effected corridors, including the San Gabriel Valley. 

(more...)]]> http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/07/02/senator-romero-wont-support-anything-without-guarantees-for-sgv/feed/ http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/07/02/from-the-comments-section-chp-and-knbc-endanger-pedestrians/ http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/07/02/from-the-comments-section-chp-and-knbc-endanger-pedestrians/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:00:34 +0000 Damien Newton http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/07/02/from-the-comments-section-chp-and-knbc-endanger-pedestrians/ [...]]]>

From the comments section, Streetsblogger M reported yesterday that in their rush to get footage of traffic KNBC, with an assist from the CHP, blocked the sidewalk forcing pedestrians onto an unsafe piece of LA roadways.  It's great that California's hands free requirement went into effect yesterday, but couldn't we think of a better way to celebrate than endangering walkers?

 M reports:

This morning I was kinda amused, but also annoyed because I came across channel 4 doing a news story on the hands-free law in the middle of the sidewalk, completely blocking pedestrian and sidewalk-bound bike traffic going towards/away the Universal City Red Line station. I walked around the newscaster, camera dude and CHP officer by walking into the street (there was no way I could have walked around this trio and remained sidewalk without walking through their taping). Conveniently, the area where I had to walk in the street was where people turn left coming off of the 101 freeway or they zoom over the crest of a freeway overpass (i.e. they can't see "downhill" well).

I haven't written letters to official ppl yet, but I was completely blown away. I am glad that cars matter so much that they couldn't think about the fact that they were completely blocking the walkway for people traveling to and from the Red Line station on a Tuesday morning just so they could get a shot of cars driving on the 101 freeway in the background. I thought NBC was supposed to be "green", yet they don't acknowledge that some people utilize the sidewalks to get to the train and around the city?

And I forgot the funniest part.

Can you imagine Channel 4 trying to do a news story on hands free cell phones in the middle of the freeway during morning rush hour traffic instead of the sidewalk?

Maybe one day.

I'm not sure, M.  I think the funniest part is they apparently didn't use the footage they took by the station.

Image: KNBC 

Over at NYC Streetsblog they're calling this strip "The Modern Day Midnight Ride."  Of course, on this coast we have a different idea of what constitutes a Midnight Ride.  Other than that, Ben Fried introduces the strip perfectly.

Paul Revere embarked on his midnight ride from Boston to Lexington more than a year before the United States declared independence. Nevertheless, with the Fourth of July around the corner, this toon from Tom Toles seemed appropriate today. 

We are in desperate need of significant transit improvements. We've got to have the facilities and we don't today, and then we need the fare-box and economic policies that reward people for taking public transportation. Some try to say that it should be "self-sufficient" or have a certain percentage return through the fare-box. We don't do that on our roads, and public transportation is much better for so many reasons -- not just the environment or the quality of life. We should be providing much stronger incentives for people to use public transportation, but first you need to have the facilities.

I'm a big, big supporter of dramatic change in public transportation. It includes more than just the bus and rail systems in our urban areas. It includes a commuter rail and inner-city rail -- the whole gamut of services that get people out of their personal vehicles. I don't want people driving their personal vehicles the way they are today.

Even in the era of $4/gal gasoline, not many elected officials would go on record with such heresies. But that may be changing. Gas tax "holiday" talk has all but evaporated over the past few weeks as pols promote transit as an answer to higher gas prices. And a column in today's Boston Globe predicts that Senator John McCain's dogged and sustained effort to undermine Amtrak could create an opening for transit-friendly Barack Obama heading into November.

Before Metro can place a half cent sales tax increase on the fall ballot, it needs to tell us how it’s going to spend the $40 billion the increase would raise over the next thirty years.  At last week’s board meeting the figures were available to the Metro Board, but for the rest of us they just appeared online yesterday.

The plan itself contains few surprises.  The project that receives the most funds is the Westside Subway Corridor, a.k.a. the Subway to the Sea, which receives more than $4 billion.  Despite Mayor Villaraigosa’s claim that the Subway could break ground by 2012, Metro plans on beginning construction in 2016.

Other rail projects receiving major funding are the Crenshaw Corridor, more than $1.2 billion, the downtown connector, more than $750 million, various Gold Line extensions, several billion, and a Green Line extension to the South the South Bay Corridor, over a quarter of a billion.  Rail projects make up 40% of the funds generated by the sales tax increase.

The rest of the sales tax increase is spent on highway expansion projects, Metro’s maintenance and operations, “Local Return” and administrative costs.

As expected, there is no set aside for either bicycle or pedestrian projects.  While non-motorized transportation is flourishing and will only continue to grow as America goes through oil addiction withdraw Metro can’t even scrape together the half a percent of the total budget for bicycle and pedestrian projects that it found in the sofa cushions for the Long Range Transportation Plan.

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I was in Seville last week for the first time since February 2007, and in the intervening year there's been something of a transportation revolution in the city. It's most visibly evident in the Sevici bike-share bikes (bicis in Spanish) that are everywhere. The system launched in April 2007, and ultimately there will be 250 stations and 2,500 bikes spread throughout the city of some 700,000 residents.

I saw the bikes in use by locals in all parts of town, including the rather bleak office parks and university complexes on the west side of the Guadalquivir River. The cycles seem less popular among tourists, although they're a great way to get around the very flat terrain -- and, at 5 euros for a weekly membership with the first half hour of each ride free, and very reasonable rates for longer use, they're a good option.

One of the most amazing things to me was how quickly the city has put in an extensive bike-lane network. The green-painted lanes lead you for miles and miles through the city's neighborhoods, and as far as I could tell, they're all protected. In many places, this is done by putting the bike lane in the street shielded by a low concrete barrier -- enough to deter cars, but far less unsightly than the Jersey barriers used in some parts of New York. Elsewhere -- and here is the revelation, as far as I'm concerned -- the bike lane shared the sidewalk with pedestrians. Not once, in nearly a week, did I see this causing any distress to pedestrians or cyclists (although one resident did grumble to me, somewhat half-heartedly, about reckless cyclists).

It is long standing of Los Angeles MTA to not allow bikes on trains from 6:30-8:30 every morning and 4:30 to 6:30 every evening. However, the law is never enforced and when I've asked LA County Sheriffs checking tickets on trains about it, they say they don't know what I'm talking about.

If rumors are to be believed, all that might soon change. Last week during the Metro Board meeting I was pulled aside not once, but twice, to be warned that Metro would soon begin enforcing the peak hour restriction. That this ban is on the books at all sends a confusing message, after all wasn't it just last month Metro was encouraging people to bike to work and offering free rides for a day?

Conversely, enforcing this ban, especially since many Metro facilities still don't have adequate bike parking, is a great way to discourage cyclists from taking Metro in a time when people are flocking to bikes and transit because the financial cost of driving is too high.

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(Editor’s note: this is third in a monthly series of ride reports on Critical Mass from throughout the region.  In April it I rode Pasadena.  In May, Los Angeles.  This month was going to be Costa Mesa, but I decided to put it off until the fall so instead it’s the nascent Venice Critical Mass.)

At first, Venice Critical Mass seems like a weird off-shoot of the Critical Mass movement.  Many of the riders are also regulars at Santa Monica Critical Mass, which takes place the following week, there’s no rolling boom box, few people wearing bright colored costumes, and most of the ride didn’t actually take place in Venice.

But, once you do the ride, you realize it has what’s most important.  A sense of community as you roll through the streets, and a goal of reclaiming public spaces for everyone.  True, some of that public real estate was on the makeshift soccer fields and not just streets, but the theory is the same.

It was sometime after 8:00 P.M. when a group of about 75 riders pulled out of Winward Circle and rolled around the streets of Venice.  The group had taken an informal vote of whether or not to try and meet up with the Los Angeles Critical Mass group going downtown, or to stick to Venice, Santa Monica and West LA and have more time to hang out at the pit stops.  The group voted for the pit stops.

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<sigh> Another Streetfilm about how awesome Portland is.  It's time to take a stand, Angelenos!  You Portlanders might have your complete streets, balanced transportation system, colored bike lanes and bike boxes; but I get to ride my bike on the sidewalk!  Whenever I want to!  So, there! </sigh>

Like Brad Aaron before me, I must concede that film maker Clarence Eckerson sums up the film perfectly, so without further ado.

At just about any public gathering I go these days, there's usually at least one person who will come up and give me an enthusiastic "Bike Box!", based upon our earlier, popular Streetfilm. In my heart I hoped there would one day be a sequel to Bike Box, and it all came together last week while in Portland at the World Car-free Conference. Earlier this year, Portland's Office of Transportation installed many high visibility bike boxes that are filled in lime green to help cyclist avoid right hook collisions. (Note: NYC now has a few green ones as well.)

What we were unprepared for was being stopped by random cyclists who wanted to lend their collective "Bike Box!" exclamations. So watch and see all the fun improv as it flows. Do you have Bike Boxes in your city? Want to be creative? Then upload a YouTube video and tag it "streetfilms" and we will feature it in our sidebar! 

Pam, we hardly knew ya.

Unless I'm reading my Metro Board Rules and Procedures incorrectly it appears that Metro Board watchers will be experiencing a little back to the future next week, because on Tuesday, July 1 current Metro Vice Chair and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will succeed Pam O'Connor as Chair of the Metro Board of Directors.

 For a lot of people, this will probably be bad news.  After all, while the Mayor has been an outspoken supporter of congestion pricing and the sales tax increase he's also the guy that takes advice from a transportation deputy that cruises around in a hummer and has been accused of not knowing what the word "bicycle" means.

But what is clearly bad news is that Pam O'Connor's term is over.  While Streetsblog, and Street Heat before it, have been critical of the way Metro Board meetings are run; it was nice to have a Metro Board Chair who lived a car-free lifestyle and knew her way around a transit system even when she wasn't going to a press conference.  Hopefully her initiatives such as the online chat with the board chair and the sustainability committee continue through and past Villaraigosa's years as chair.

(more...)]]> http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/06/27/meet-the-new-metro-board-chairsame-as-the-old-metro-board-chair/feed/ http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/06/27/introducing-bike-un-friendly-destination-of-the-week/ http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/06/27/introducing-bike-un-friendly-destination-of-the-week/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:18:00 +0000 Damien Newton http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/06/27/introducing-bike-un-friendly-destination-of-the-week/ [...]]]>
I Can't Give the 3rd Street Farmer's Market Too Much Grief.  There Was An Empty Bike Rack 100 Yards Behind Me.

I've been planning for awhile to start a weekly column about how bike unfriendliness of LA culture is reflected in the poor to terrible bike amenities at public places.  Given the recent discussion of LAMC 12.21 that popped up in the comments section in the story about buses to Dodger Stadium, it seemed like a good time to start.  But here's the deal, I want these stories to come from you so it doesn't appear that this weekly column is "Damien complaining about places that he doesn't like."

While government buildings, arenas, public parks and transit stations are all great places to write about; your local grocery store can be just as good.  Just write out your experiences, take a picture, send them to me at damien@streetsblog.org and let me know if you want to be credited with your real name or some other alias.  If you'd like, we'll also throw in a plug for your blog, website, myspace page, or whatever you'd like.  Lastly, make sure to have some sort of contact information for the place so we know where to send suggestions for improvement. 

If you're still not sure what I'm looking for, the Bottleneck Blog actually does a good job discussing the North Hollywood Train station's shortage of bike parking.  While he doesn't give us contact information for Metro, Steve Hymon does make a point that seems to be missed on a lot of public officials.  Just because a place has some bike racks doesn't mean it's doing enough to provide safe and convenient bike parking.

If I don't get any submissions by next week, I'll write a story about the restaurant that wouldn't let me park my bike in their parking lot and directed me to a bike rack that was big enough for three bikes and already had five chained to it.  But after next week, it's up to you...

In a weekend speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Senator Barack Obama continued to distinguish himself on urban policy, talking up cities as vital economic centers worthy of investment. Harry Moroz of DMI Blog has the story.

Obama opened with a reference to his time as a community developer in Chicago and he joked (I paraphrase):

“You know if I’m president I’m going to talk about cities. If I don’t, you know you can just talk to [Chicago] Mayor Daley who will make sure that the pot holes in front of my house don’t get filled.”

Obama called for a new vision of cities, one that recognizes the growth of both cities and metro areas... Strong cities, Senator Obama suggested, are the backbone of regional growth and regional growth the source of national prosperity.

Finally, the Illinois Senator returned to the vision of cities he set out at the beginning of the speech: “we must stop seeing cities as problems and start seeing them as the solution.” Indeed, Obama called this the “new metropolitan reality”.

In highlighting the differences between himself and his presumptive opponent in November, Senator John McCain, Moroz writes that Obama "attacked Senator McCain’s criticism of the COPS program and Community Development Block Grant funding, both of which are major priorities for mayors." Meanwhile, a "Talk of the Town" item from this week's New Yorker posits that Obama is the real straight-talker of the two candidates for president, and suggests that staying the course on issues like energy policy will help him with voters.