Long Beach

Last week, while reporting on the green, sharrowed travel lane in Long Beach, I wrote that to the best of my knowledge, this was the first lane of this type in America.  Thanks to commenter Dan Bergenthal, we discovered that Salt Lake City, UT announced their colored, sharrowed, lane in September of 2008.  Funding for the colored lanes comes from an FHWA bicycle safety pilot program.  Reports on the effects of these lanes will be completed in the fall of this year.

Russ Roca, the photographer and bike activist who has taken the lead on promoting Long Beach's world-class shared lane, brings us a video on people's first reactions to the lane.  For anyone that missed Friday's story, Long Beach painted a travel lane green and installed Sharrows on 2nd Street, one of the busiest streets in the city for both bikes and cars.

This upcoming weekend is a big one for bike culture in Los Angeles County.  While our famed DIY culture is already kicking into high gear today, a Friday that features the LACBC's Car-Free Fridays and two Critical Masses; this time the highlights are from a pair of official events.  Tomorrow morning, the City of Long Beach unveils green-colored shared lanes marked with a Sharrow on Second Street.  Across the county, the Eastside Bicycle Club celebrates their one-year anniversary with a ride and party sponsored by the Los Angeles Parks Department.

In the past several weeks, I've noticed a trend.  Cyclists from some of the cities surrounding Los Angeles have been emailing me asking why I never report on the great things going on in their back yards.  As a result, I'm going to write about what's going on around the county every Friday until I run out of topics.

E. 2nd Street, Long Beach, CA

An editorial in yesterday's Long Beach Press Telegram urged readers to vote against the proposed half cent sales tax on this November's ballot arguing that even after Metro's efforts to ensure regional equity there isn't enough money being spent on the southeastern portion of LA County.