Times Asks: Should L.A. Give Cyclists More Space on the Road

I was waiting to write about “L.A.’s Best Bike Plan’s” Bike Backbone Network that’s was slowly rolled out over the last week until all three maps were public.  In the meantime, the Los Angeles Times and KPCC have picked up on part of the story, getting some of the major details wrong.  The Bike Backbone Network was never about building a lot of new bike infrastructure, it was about declaring the streets that make up the Backbone as the main thorofares for cyclists to commute and move around town.  But much more on that tomorrow…

For today, we have an LA Now Column by Ari Bloomekatz which is bound to stoke the flames of the “bike versus car” culture wars that often heat up on websites and the streets when a simple question is posed such as “Should L.A. give cyclists more space on the road? ”  Right?

Well, less than two hours into the article, the comments section is overwhelmingly positive towards cyclists.  At the time of writing this article there are fifty two comments answering the question and over forty five of them are positive.  Only two are negative and the rest are somewhat off topic.  I’ll be monitoring the Times article throughout the day to see if the mood changes, but if not, I propose a mass tweeting of the article @villaraigosa and @MobilityMaven tonight to make the point that it’s not just bicycle blogs, and Streetsblog where people make the case that cyclists deserve more and safer space on Los Angeles’ streets.

Update: 11:10 – Over 100 comments, and it’s still mostly positive.  A few motor heads are speaking up, but we’re still running at least two-to-one foe positive comments in the last fifty comments.