Santa Monica

It has been a week since Metro Bike Share opened in downtown Los Angeles. The system is currently open only to members, who must pre-register online. So I figured it's time to take a ride and assess how bike-share is doing in various incarnations around the L.A. basin, including West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and downtown Los Angeles.

Santa Monica closed off two miles of streets to motor vehicles on Sunday for its first-ever open streets event, Coast.

Santa Monica is an embarrassment of riches in many ways. That is especially true when it comes to alternatives to driving everywhere.

(There are six more open streets festivals coming up April through June 2016. See this earlier CicLAvia article for listings for Lawndale, Southeast Cities, Downey, and two San Gabriel Valley events!)

Yesterday, The Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee approved terms for five Breeze bike-share stations to be located in the L.A. City neighborhood of Venice. Full details are available in the staff report [PDF] for council file 16-0176.

Update: The Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved three locations for the city’s pilot parklet program. The three locations include the two recommended by staff and a third at Main and Hill in front of Finn McCool’s.

Last week, Santa Monica launched Breeze Bike Share, the first public bike-share system in Los Angeles County. To celebrate, more than 100 early subscribers, city staffers, and elected officials went for an inaugural ride in front of City Hall.

The first public bike-share system in Los Angeles County opened today to much fanfare. Santa Monica's Breeze bike-share features 500 bicycles at 75 stations throughout the city of Santa Monica, plus four in adjacent Venice. The system is run by CycleHop under a contract with the city of Santa Monica. System start-up funding came from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Metro, and Caltrans, plus an annual $675,000 sponsorship for at least five years from the Santa Monica-based entertainment company Hulu. Bicycles are available for rent hourly, monthly, or annually.

Elected officials, labor leaders, and Metro's CEO assembled this morning to call on Congress to pass a long-term transportation bill. In order to highlight the ways that transportation infrastructure funding benefits communities, the press event showcased the bluff-top construction site of the city of Santa Monica's California Incline retrofit project.