Metro regional bike share is coming soon. If all goes as planned, a year from now, downtown Los Angeles will have system on the ground. It will include about 1,000 bikes at 65 docking stations. The system will extend from Union Station to USC. For more detail, see SBLA's earlier preview.
It's not too early to ask Streetsblog L.A. readers -- are Downtown Los Angeles streets ready to make bike share a big success? If not, what changes should L.A.'s Transportation Department (LADOT) prioritize in the coming months?
Let's start by celebrating. Downtown has come a long ways in the last half a decade.
In 2012, Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar and LADOT announced the coming Downtown L.A. Bikeway Network. Other than a few facilities that the city spent a lot of time and money to study (Cesar Chavez Avenue and Venice Boulevard), the downtown network was built out. And then some -- downtown now boasts one of the most complete bikeway networks in the city.
It's notWilmington, but downtown is a great place to bike. Even when LAPD vehicles park in some of the lanes some of the time.
One of my biggest concerns for L.A. bike share is walkability.
I mentioned walkability's role in bike share in this earlier piece. Bike share kiosks cannot quite go everywhere. Bike share trips typically will include a short walk trip on each end. I think of it as bike share's first mile / last mile issue, though it is more like first couple blocks / last couple blocks.
It's a good time to take a peek at how sustainable transportation and related topics are showing up on legislators' priorities. Here's a very NON-comprehensive list.