bike lanes

As a cyclist, I do my best to avoid Vermont Ave. like the plague.

This weekend, the Bureau of Street Services will be repaving parts of 1st Street in Downtown Los Angeles. After the repaving, the street will be repainted. Part of the repainting will include removing the buffer from the 1st Street Buffered Bike Lane in front of LAPD headquarters between Spring and Main Streets.

"I'm lonely," a man half-jokingly testified at the LADOT's Public Hearing in support of the First Year Bike Lanes last Thursday night. "My friends find [riding in the street] terrifying."

When I think "Valentine's Day," I think "bike lanes."

Well, what do you see?

A week or so back, I was riding eastbound on San Vicente Blvd in Santa Monica, a block or two above Ocean Ave.

Amidst all the election news comes word that there is a small Bikelash brewing on the Westside from residents worried that the diet is creating spillover traffic jams on other local streets. The good news is that the proposed solutions seem to be about improving traffic calming measures on the streets parallel to Motor Avenue. The bad news is the complaints will be heard at tonight's meeting of the Palms Neighborhood Council which will feature local City Council Member Paul Koretz. The agenda for tonight's hearing is here.

The buzz started on Monday: an alert reader (and Wilshire bike commute champion) notified Streetsblog that the sharrows on Motor Avenue disappeared between Venice Boulevard and National Boulevard, a three quarter mile stretch of mixed residential and commercial development, during a recent repaving.

Regardless of one's feelings of the LAPD, it's hard to argue that they're not trying to become a more bike friendly law enforcement agency in recent years. From actively supporting group bike rides, to new internal policies and training regarding cyclists and cycling rights and even occasionally appearing at public hearings to testify in favor of smart transportation design the LAPD has been slowly becoming a force for bike safety.