(The following guest piece was written by Joe Linton, co-founder of the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition and one of the good people organizing the Bike Summit. Joe provides the information on how anyone can get involved with the Summit after the jump.)
The Los Angeles Bike Summit is coming Saturday March 7th 2009 at Los Angeles Trade Tech College in downtown L.A.
Bike Summit will bring together the various bike communities in Los Angeles for a 1-day meeting with speakers, trainings, films and other surprises. It's being brought together by the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute - the same folks who brought you ArroyoFest which closed the Pasadena Freeway to cars and opened it to bikes and pedestrians in June of 2003 (perhaps foreshadowing today's crimanimalz?) UEPI is a community-oriented research and advocacy organization based at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. UEPI programs address issues involving work and industry, food and nutrition, housing, transportation, regional and community development, land use, and other urban environmental issues. Learn about UEPI's varied programs at our blog.
Bike Summit will generate a dialog between diverse parts of the bicycling communities, in hopes of building greater effectiveness in future bicycle advocacy. We're hoping that bicyclists attend and become bike activists. The summit will connect bicycling to broader environmental and livability movements – including global warming, reducing oil dependence, transit-oriented-development, walkable neighborhoods, and more. We also want to build the bicycle movement by inviting non-traditional constituencies – such as groups involved in struggles for immigrants rights, environmental justice, and community planning/development.
Like Los Angeles' recent Bike Summer, we need Los Angeles bicyclists to play a big role in coming forward and making the event a success. Is there a workshop that you'd like suggest? Could you teach or help teach a workshop? Even ideas on speakers that you'd like to see, or topics you'd like to explore. What workshops would you like to see? Some ideas: How cities fund and implement bike projects, Bike Blogging, Bike Wrenching Cooperatives, Non-Violent Communication, the Latest in Bike Facilities, Ciclovias, Traffic Calming... let us know what you'd like to see.
There's a call for workshops – online here – deadline for submissions has been extended to January 9th. There's a wiki with background information on the summit. If you have ideas, questions, comments, suggestions, please email them to labikesummit@gmail.com . Interested folks are invited to attend a planning meeting taking place this Tuesday night December 9th at Los Angeles Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, LA 90004.
Mark your calendar now – March 7th 2009 – Los Angeles Bike Summit.