It Should Be Easy Being Green – Responding to the L.A.Times

For the second time in just over a month, the Los Angeles Times devoted a good portion of its real estate to hitting the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane. A lot of the piece hits the same points as last month's editorial on the same topic, but transportation writer Ari Bloomekatz goes into greater detail and includes interviews with Film L.A. and even a brief recap of Carlos Morales' run-in with a film crew last week.

In an attempt to head off a flood of anti-Green Bike Lane stories, Streetsblog would like to respond to some of the points in the story.

1) The Green Lane Ruins the "Anytown USA" feel of Spring Street for film companies

I have to admit that I'm far from an expert on this, so I talked to a former producer, who asked not to be named in this story, if this was true.  His response, "as if the green lane would show up in the film and ruin the shot and the opportunity to convince the world that this street is NY or Chicago or Budapest or Bangkok or Saigon or Nairobi or any other urban street filled with cars that are registered in CA and operated by unlicensed operators who lack insurance."

Taking out the rampant sacrasm in the above quote, the writer does hit a point that there are a lot of cities that do have green bike lanes and that more and more of them are coming online.  In the long term, the film industry could be thrilled that there are green bike lanes in L.A.

2) Drivers are confused by the lane and try to drive in it.

Those drivers should be ticketed.  The Driver's Manual is very clear about driving in bike lanes.  It says nothing about color.  Don't drive in bike lanes. This is basic.

3) The paint keeps peeling/fading/looks bad

First off, Streetsblog completely agrees that the green paint job is pretty poor.  However, this isn't a unique problem.  Perhaps the most famous green bike lane in America is the 9th Street Bike Lane in New York City.  A picture of the lane appears on the right.

Actually, it turns out the painted lane on the right is from Carmine Street in New York City.  The general point remains.

LADOT says they are working on a solution.  If they find one, they might actually find themselves ahead of the game.

4) Nobody told the film community this was happening.

You're not going to find Streetsblog defending outreach on the green bike lanes after last month's story by Morales on teh outreach for the 1st Street Green Lane in Boyle Heights.  It seems that LADOT has learned their lesson on this one and is talking to Film L.A. before implementing any other street changes in areas with a lot of filming.  Hopefully, they're consulting with the industry, not giving them a veto.

5) "We haven't really figured out a way to coexist if we have to temporarily impede the bike lane,"

Get a permit.  Close the lane with barriers.  Put up signage directing cyclists to other places to bike.  Same as you do with car lanes.  This is basic.

If more articles appear on the lane, Streetsblog will continue to respond to them, even if we end up repeating ourselves over and over.