Santa Monica

Last night, the Venice Neighborhood Council agreed  to the Main Street Road Diet/Bike Lanes plan proposed by LADOT.  The new road striping ought to be on the ground "in the next couple of weeks."  Despite its approval, the Neighborhood Council had some concerns with the project and wanted LADOT to return with more safety measures to protect cyclists and calm traffic.  The Road Diet will run on Main Street from Navy St. to Windward Circle, and will extend the Santa Monica bike lanes and road diet into Venice.

Sometime in the late 1980's, the last Southern Pacific Freight train rumbled along Exposition Boulevard in West L.A. and Santa Monica before voters passed Proposition C and the newly formed Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority purchased the entire right of way.  What followed was two decades of studies, public hearings, lawsuits, Phase I of the Expo Line going through what seemed an infitinte amount of delays and passage of a new transit tax (Measure R).

On Saturday afternoon, the City of Santa Monica hosted its 20th annual Santa Monica Festival. The wholehearted embrace of biking at this year's event was, it seemed, both an embodiment of the city's early successes in encouraging biking and a hopeful harbinger for an even more bike friendly future.

Cyclists riding South on Main Street in Santa Monica are "welcomed" to the City of Los Angeles by a bike lane that disappears at the city border.  For no other reason than switching sides of a political boundary, cyclists who were riding in a bike lane in Santa Monica are moved in to the rest of traffic in Los Angeles.  And, the two-lane Main Street doubles to a four-lane one as well.  Welcome to Los Angeles!

It's official, many Westside neighborhood leaders really don't want bus-only lanes.

Note: If you choose to share your thoughts at the bottom of this article, I would also urge you to “make it count” and put it on the official public record by sending your comments directly to Metro by October 18th 2010.  Instructions on how to comment can be found at the end of the article.

(Remember I told you we'd be adding new features to the blog?  If someone sends me an action alert that can be filled out online, we'll repost it here. - DN)

Friday and Saturday Oct. 1st & 2nd the 5th annual AltCar Expo will be held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Admission is free. A map of the venue are on the event's website along with a map showing which Big Blue Bus routes serve the site and a page extolling the free bike valet.