Bicycling

Last week, MetBlogs reported that some enterprising souls took it upon themselves to improve the city's bike network by adding their own lanes to the Fletcher Bridge that runs over the Los Angeles River.  The Do It Yourself, aka DIY, Lanes lasted less than half a week as the DOT saw to their quick removal.  Apparently, in Los Angeles it takes well over a decade to construct the projects in a Bike Master Plan, but a couple of days to remove vigilante bike lanes.

We've written before about some of the problems those brave few who bike to Dodger Stadium face.  This year we found that a bike rack had been installed and hoped things would be better.  After some decent early reviews from myself and the Militant Angeleno we discovered the biggest flaw with the new bike parking was nobody in the security and parking staff knew where it was and there was no mention of it on the Dodger website.

Speaking of Tom LaBonge…earlier in the month Streetsblog reported on the efforts to overturn the city’s ban on bicycles during the Festival of Lights in Griffith Park. Tonight, activists will have another opportunity to urge the DWP to follow the state law prohibiting banning of bicycles from a public space at a meeting about the … Continued

Last week, the LA Times reported that Metro will be taking the lead in restoring the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  For years, critics have contended that construction errors for the Red Line have led to the cracked and raised sidewalks, but despite Metro’s alternate theories, the agency will create a task force to rally government … Continued

Three weeks ago, I announced a new Streetsblog feature where "every Friday" we'd examine a particularly bike-unfriendly place to visit. The idea was to show how far we have to go to have the Los Angeles that we all want and that's it's not all a political problem.  Many places in Los Angeles can actively discourage bicyclists from visiting by doing the little things wrong, such as not having bike parking or just being rude to people with helmets. While I asked for submissions, I also promised that I would write the first one up on my own. However, if there's a place you would like to receive the same treatment, please email me at damien@streetsblog.org. If you have pictures to support your story, all the better.

Two recent road rage incidents are all over the news in Portland. Earlier this month, a drunken man on a bike became aggravated when a driver, himself a self-described bike advocate, reprimanded the cyclist for blowing a stoplight. The cyclist threatened the driver, picking up his bike and hitting the car with it. Then this week, a driver struck a cyclist and continued to drive as the victim, who escaped without serious injury, clung to the windshield.

A Promo for the Les Ninjas Du Japon, Showing on Saturday at 3:30 P.M.

Today we're launching a new feature on Streetsblog -- Wiki Wednesdays -- where we'll highlight new content coming online at StreetsWiki, the community-created livable streets knowledge base.