LADOT

"Bicycle Friendly Street."

In 2011, the City of Los Angeles passed a new Bike Plan which included a  “5 year bike network implementation plan.” The implementation plan focued on a handful of “core” areas to focus the bulk of the new bike facilities. One of those areas is Downtown Los Angeles. A year and a half later, checks in on how Downtown Los Angeles has changed in the past year and a half and what is in store in the coming years.

LADOT Bikeways is celebrating the addition of 5,000 official bicycle parking spaces to their online bikeways map. While this is hardly earth-shattering news, it is a nice step for the agency as it moves towards creating a bicycle friendly city. In the real world, it's nice to be able to plan a trip and know how much bicycle parking is at or near your destination.

Back in a January 2012 L.A. Streetsblog article, Joe Linton stated that LADOT was "not quite on track" to complete Mayor Villaraigosa's pledge for 40 new miles of bikeway each year. In that article, Linton projected only 31 new miles to be completed during Fiscal Year 2011-2012. The fiscal year ended two weeks ago, and LADOT not only met, but greatly exceeded the 40 new miles pledged.

Bicycle advocacy in the city entered a new phase last week, when the Department of City Planning released a five page Notice of Preparation (NOP) for an environmental review of forty three miles of bike lanes. These projects represent some of the more controversial bicycling projects as they often times require removing curbside parking, mixed-use travel lanes, and/or turning lanes.  The public process, which begins with scoping meetings next week, could prove to be contentious as this is the first time the City of Los Angeles has publicly proposed a city-wide program of creating bicycle facilities at the cost of mixed-use facilities or automobile parking.

In January 2011, consultants for the South Figueroa Corridor Project unveiled three different visions for the soon-to-be Living Street.  The visions were labeled "Good," "Better," and "Best."  A recent presentation to Caltrans, made available on their website, shows current thinking on the legacy project from the project team and the new lead agency, LADOT.

Friday I was riding on the DASH Fairfax route when I noticed it had a message printed on a paper bag sitting on the dashboard announcing that the Transit Access Pass (TAP) is coming to L.A. Dept. of Transportation (LADOT) bus services (DASH and Commuter Express) in June.  The LADOT website also has a frequently asked questions page with information about the transition.

(Many of you know Carlos Morales from his leadership roles with the Eastside Bike Club or Voice Community Newspapers.  In his earlier career, Morales was an event programmer, producing large concerts and other major attractions.  He offers his views on this weekend's Sportsaggedon from both the view of a transportation advocate and large event planner.  In his eyes, L.A. has proven itself ready for many more major sports attractions. - DN)

South Los Angeles has three new bike lanes. Maybe it's the celebrations of bike week. Maybe it's the push to meet the mayoral directive for 40 new miles of bikeway by June 30th 2012. Maybe Mayor Villaraigosa, City Councilmembers Bernard Parks and Joe Buscaino pushed hard enough. Maybe it's just good livable streets attitudes taking hold.