Bicycling

After years of being considered the most bike-friendly city in the Southland, Santa Monica fell behind Long Beach in recent years both in terms of infrastructure and cyclists imagination.  However, in recent months, the city once known as the People's Republic of Santa Monica for embracing many of the most progressive ideals imaginable (at least in America) is playing catch-up.

One week ago, LADOT and city politicians opened the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane to a flock of media and the appreciative roar of the L.A.'s cycling community.  One week later, cheers have turned to grumbling as the green paint has dissolved in areas, gotten blotchy in others and basially looks like Long Beach's Green Sharrowed Lane after a year of wear and tear from cars and bikes.

This week's been a big one for bike parking in L.A. County with the opening of Bike Stop in Burbank and Bike Center later this morning in Santa Monica.  Meanwhile, the Culver City Bike Coalition is looking at plans for the Expo Line stop in Culver City and wondering "what about us?"  Streetsblog presents a quick tale of three public cycling centers:

It's been a year since a group of Westside homeowners filed a lawsuit against the Expo Bike Path that would run adjacent to the rail line through the Westside into Santa Monica.  The homeowners alleged that the categorical exclusion (CE) granted to the bikeway (a technical term meaning that only a partial environmental review is necessary) by Caltrans was wrongly granted.  In response, Caltrans pulled the CE and the city went back to the drawing board. The bikeway opponents declared victory and bike advocates fumed.

Senator Barbara Boxer is receiving bi-partisan praise for managing to move a transportation policy and funding bill through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a divided Senate, but she may be facing trouble from a usually supportive constituency back home.

(Note: Statistically speaking, riding a bicycle on a sidewalk isn't a safe way to bicycle versus the street.  However, for many novice or otherwise inexperienced riders the sidewalk is the only place they feel safe riding.  The below piece discusses the safety concerns for pedestrians, but sidewalk riding poses some danger for cyclists as well. - DN)

Visitors to Griffith Park over the last year have noted that there is some major construction going on near the Silver Lake Resevoir.  In order to protect Angelenos from any future plans to poison the water, the federal government is ordering that all open air resevoirs be taken offline and replaced with below ground ones.  That edict is creating constrcution projects in parks across the country, but in in Griffith Park it might alwo seal off parts of the park to bicyclists.

Today's Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee meeting includes action on the Transportation Department's (LADOT's) proposal to seek $13million in federal funding for extending the Los Angeles River bikeway. The federal funding sought is part of a federal funding opportunity called Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), a stimulus funding that encourages innovative and sustainable transportation.

Last week, ABC ran another part of its ongoing "What's Bugging You" series, and for the second time the focus was on bicycling.  This time, it's "unexpected bike lanes" that are "bugging you."  Last time, it seemed that the mere existence of bicyclists was "bugging you."