Month: February 2011
Streetsblog LA
Escort the Sweethearts Ride – Helen’s to LAX
Ok, so the week after Valentine's day, this guy who's a student at UCLA (that's me!) wants to ride his bike to drop his sweetheart off at the airport. He doesn't wanna sit in 405 traffic, or take 3 trains and a shuttle to get there. Problem is, transportation planners, in all their wisdom didn't forsee of anyone ever wanting to do that. As a result it's kind of dangerous to ride a bike to LAX because the approaches are basically set up like freeways. Given that car-centricity, it's no surprise that 85% of all ground trips to LAX are made by cars, with all the pollution and congestion that comes with that (the majority of those trips are people getting dropped off and picked up, creating 4 trips total and 4 times the pollution)!
February 12, 2011
Buses vs. Rail: Conservatives Do Battle Over Which Mode is Better
Bill Lind is a big man. The director of the Center for Public Transportation at American Conservative stands well over six feet tall, and when he really gets going, he seems to loom even larger. Maybe that’s why he hates buses so much. “Those seats designed for garden gnomes,” he said.
February 11, 2011
In CD8, Transportation Committee Member Bernard Parks Faces Two Challengers
The race for the 8th District City Council race, pitting Councilman Bernard Parks against Forescee Hogan-Rowles and Jabari Jumaane was supposed to be a cakewalk for the incumbent. Parks, like most of his fellow Council Members, has a massive fund raising and name recognition advantage. However, in the wake of his significant loss to Mark Ridley-Thomas in the Supervisor's race, Parks is not considered a political shoe-in by residents and activists in the 8th.
February 11, 2011
Retired Military Leaders, Corporate CEOs: Driving Alone Aids Terrorists
What do the president of FedEx, the former Director of National Intelligence, and 19 other business and military leaders have in common? They’re urging the U.S. to adopt less oil-intensive transportation habits. They say our national security depends on it.
February 11, 2011
CD6 Race Update, Two Candidates Write to Streetsblog
After Tuesday's review of the race for the 6th Council District attracted comments from two of the insurgent candidates in the race. Since our story focused on the mixed record of the incumbent Councilman, Tony Cardenas, I thought we would highlight the comments by David Barron and Rich Goodman in the order that we received them. Both candidates full comments are available after the jump.
February 11, 2011
On Bicycle Coverage and Media Bias
Since I've been producing Streetfilms (at last count, 196 of them), rarely do I come across work in our field that I find monumentally enlightening, savvy, or high-caliber. But the latest blog post from David Hembrow's "A View from the Cycle Path..." contains an embedded video produced by Mark Wagenbuur that left me in awe. The video examines the media and public response to a road incident in the Netherlands between a reckless driver and the three cyclists he struck while they were stopped waiting for a traffic light. Please watch it through, it should be seen by everyone.
February 11, 2011
When Will AASHTO Revise Its Policy Against Separated Bike Lanes?
Researchers at Harvard have delved into the relative safety of separated bike lanes versus riding on the road. In case you had any doubts, cycle tracks are safer.
February 11, 2011
From Spokes People to Bikeroots
Back in January 2009, Los Angeles Magazine writer Matthew Segal took an assignment as an embedded reporter (so to speak) with bike activists and group riders. The resulting article, titled "Bike Culture: Spokes People," was a thoughtful five-page assessment of the state of the bike community in Los Angeles from the perspective of a curious onlooker. Segal discussed the genesis of the bicycling advocacy movement in the 1990s, its slow, organic evolution and its branching into more radical and more mainstream elements.
February 10, 2011