Bicycling

As unlikely as it may seem, the City of Long Beach has taken significant steps this week to making the above rendering a reality - or at least having it redone by a much more expensive design team. Last week, the Long Beach City Council succeeded in convincing the port to commit to building a bike/pedestrian pathway on its proposed replacement for the Gerald Desmond Bridge.

We reported recently that the federal government was demanding $2.2 billion back from state DOTs in rescissions -- money that was already allocated to states that they were then asked to give back. Bike and pedestrian advocates were worried that states would disproportionately target active transportation projects for cuts, instead of carving into car-centric programs. They were right.

Earlier this month, the Board of the Southern California Association of Governments (S.C.A.G.) rejected the long-term clean air targets for Southern California requested by the Air Resources Board and recommended by their own staff.  While today's Metro Board Meeting featured good news for cyclists and bad news for bus riders, there was another hot debate over what goals for reducing Greenhouse Gas should be set for Southern California.  You can read the motion here.

Nobody is going to get Los Angeles mixed up with Portland or Copenhagen anytime soon, but a new motion that will be heard and voted on at this Thursday's Metro Board Meeting by Los Angeles' newly-minted bike-friendly Mayor would move Los Angeles' transit agency several steps closer.  While some activists have worried that the Mayor's office isn't reaching out on bicycle policy, that he's taking a "look before you leap" approach, the Mayor's Office has worked closely with the staff at Metro and has taken input from Metro's bicycle roundtable meetings before moving this motion.

Homeowner's whose houses abut the future Expo Bike Path have filed suit to force a full environmental review of the bikeway.  The lawsuit charges that LADOT and Caltrans didn't provide a complete view of the bikeway while applying for and granting  a Categorical Exclusion (CE), a designation which exempted the project from a full federal environmental review.

A new motion by Valley Councilman Greig Smith would require the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to create a public outreach plan whenever new bicycle projects are proposed and would require the approval of the local Neighborhood Council before any new bicycle infrastructure would find its way onto the streets.

Today's City Council Transportation Committee Hearing has a couple of big-ticket items sure to earn ink.  A proposal to increase the city's allotment of spaces for car-sharing has already been covered in LAist.  A second motion asking LAPD and LADOT to make certain that the President can't shut down the Westside next time he needs to raise some money is even more press friendly.  But a one-page motion by Bill Rosendahl and Tom LaBonge represents a small step in changing the way the city plans its transportation projects, and will almost assuredly earn little press outside of Streetsblog.

It's a story that's told so often, it's almost cliche.  Biking in Los Angels is hard, and dangerous.  More people are taking to two wheels in the Car Culture Capital, but they're taking their own life into their hands.  If only Los Angeles were run by people who cared about bicycling, the city could be a cycling paradise.  I mean, consider the weather and reasonably flat terrain...

A heated debate has broken out in Santa Monica casting cyclists and the City Council against a proposed research complex by Agensys, a biomedical engineering company.  According to Santa Monica's much ballyhooed Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) to their Master Plan the site should have a bike path running through the development.  According to Agensys, the proposed path is a safety hazard.  The two sides will face off at a Planning Commission meeting tonight at 7:00 P.M. in Santa Monica City Council Chambers, SM Civic Center on Main Street.