Bicycling

Earlier this year, when the designs for South Figueroa's My Figueroa project were released, Josef Bray-Ali wasn't happy.  While many advocates celebrated designs that would, if implemented, result in segregated bike paths, transit-only lanes, pedestrian plazas (at a minimum), Bray-Ali saw another major investment in the Downtown and area around L.A. Live. Meanwhile, the portion of Figueroa where he worked and that he loved remained a traffic sewer, with five lanes of concrete and curbside parking blighting the area.

Only 11 cities in the U.S. have earned the title of Gold-Level Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists. In May, Minneapolis joined the select ranks and, last week, the city got a chance to show off its bike progress to a national audience of active transportation advocates and officials.

You can view the full map at GeoCommons.

(If you're not familiar with the infrastructure innovations in Long Beach, you should read this article first.  In 2009, Joe Linton wrote a two part series on Long Beach's "Leap Towards Livability."  Today and tomorrow's stories are both part of our Annenberg School of Journalism Public Health Fellowship and a continuation of that series.)

(This is the first in a three-part series from Stephen Box.  In the coming weeks he'll be discussing the bike (and passenger) friendliness of Metro Rail and Amtrak. - DN)

When people try to describe the future Expo Bikeway that will provide a bike connection from Downtown Los Angeles to Downtown Santa Monica they reference the Orange Line Bike Path as the example. The Orange Line Path runs parallel to the Bus Rapid Transit Line in the Valley and many people are at least aware of it, even on the other side of hills.

Back in the day when I lived in Mid-town and regularly traveled Downtown 7th Street was by far my favorite route. I would pair it with 4th Street and a North-South connecting street and it was a relatively safe and easy ride excepting that one hill right before the end of Downtown where the wind always seemed to hit me like a wall.

Yesterday, the LADOT and City Planning made their quarterly update to the City Council on the progress of the implementation of the Bike Plan.  The Council's Transportation Committee also moved a motion that would transfer $475,000 to LADOT's overtime account.  Between the somewhat confounding report offered by the agencies and the revelation that bike projects have to be built on overtime, it's no surprise that some advocates are anxious.