Bicycling

Not all of the bicycling news happened in Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday.  The cities of Covina and Claremont both opened Bikestations.  Each city is now the proud owner of a two hundred fifty square foot facility adjacent to their Metrolink Stations, designed to make it easier for people to walk or bike either to the Metrolink trains or to just within their towns.

(Editor's note: Ari Bloomekatz also has full coverage of the meeting at LA Now.)

About forty cyclists took part in the rally and bike ride to city hall in support of Ed Magos, the cyclist maimed in a hit and run Downtown by a Porsche Cayene last month. After a brief rally, the group headed down to City Hall to take part in the City Council Transportation Committee featuring a "Town Hall" format with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

Long Beach's ambitious campaign to become the Most Bicycle Friendly City in America is well underway. The Second St. sharrows debuted to much fanfare last summer, followed by bike boxes nearby on Second st. and Marina ave. Recently, the city has selected contractors for its Vista Bike Boulevard and Broadway/Third St. bike lane projects, with completion to come in four to five months. In the meantime, a new numbered bikeway project has been quietly debuting across the city.

(Update: Tuesday, 2/23/10 at 8:02 A.M. - I had a chance to talk with Magos' lawyer over email last night and he confirmed that the LAPD sent the case to both the District Attorney and City Attorney; so in this case the LAPD isn't to blame.  I'm going to leave the text below unchanged so that the anyone reading through won't be confused by the comments section.)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, serious dollars from the Johnson & Johnson (baby shampoo etc) empire, is a public health foundation which funds research into healthy eating and active living. Their Annual Conference on Active Living took place in San Diego last week.

From the Livable Streets front lines, Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson goes for a bike ride with the bike-commuting Mayor of Seattle, Mike McGinn.  There's a lot of different lessons that can be drawn from this Streetfilm, but one of the major ones that local politicians can take to heart is the man power provided by a group of passionate cyclists is worth its weight in gold.  McGinn was outspent four to one, but road to victory on the strength of his loyal, empowered volunteers.  Looks like a little bike-friendliness can go a long way politically.  Paging Eric Garcetti...

As cycling grows more and more popular, both in Los Angeles and across the country, the problem with bike thieves also grows.  All of a sudden, those bicycles that were safe chained to a poll with a U-Lock are easy targets for thieves instead of safe.  In response to growing theft, many cyclists end up resorting to vigilante tactics in response.  There's been a strong debate in the bicycling community on this issue, I was part of a debate on Bike Talk back in December, and it's been a hot topic on blogs and message boards for a long-time before that.