Bike Master Plan

Bicycle advocacy in the city entered a new phase last week, when the Department of City Planning released a five page Notice of Preparation (NOP) for an environmental review of forty three miles of bike lanes. These projects represent some of the more controversial bicycling projects as they often times require removing curbside parking, mixed-use travel lanes, and/or turning lanes.  The public process, which begins with scoping meetings next week, could prove to be contentious as this is the first time the City of Los Angeles has publicly proposed a city-wide program of creating bicycle facilities at the cost of mixed-use facilities or automobile parking.

Following up on the success of the 12th Annual River Ride, and the ongoing success  of its regional partnership program; the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition looks to recruit local Livable Streets advocates to fight for safe streets in their communities.  The new Neighborhood Bike Ambassador program seeks to educate and empower cyclists to fight for implementation of the Bike Plan on their local streets in their local communities.  Over the summer, LACBC will begin to recruit ambassadors before organizing

The Los Angeles Times ran an editorial earlier this week entitled L.A.'s bike lane blooper. While the Times was generally supportive of L.A. City bike plan implementation, it did come out against green bike lanes in downtown Los Angeles stating that "the green lane spoiled the shots that made Spring the perfect stand-in for Anytown, USA."

Earlier today, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors quickly and unanimously passed a motion by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky urging for progressive changes to the L.A. County Draft Bike Plan.  The L.A. County Bike Plan addresses the "unincorporated" parts of L.A. County (those without a municipal government) such as Marina del Rey.

Late last year, a team of advocates descended on City Hall to urge the City's Planning Commission to reject the most recent draft of the city's bike plan for a variety of issues, ranging from equity to the vague nature of the goals and timeline for implementation.  The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition is hoping for a  re-run as the L.A. County Bike Plan heads to the County Planning Commission with many of the same issues needing resolution that the city's plan had last year at this time.

(I was on the road yesterday and missed the big announcement of L.A.'s first buffered bike lane coming this December.  Streetsblog contributor Brigham Yen caught the news first and announced it on his personal blog at BrighamYen.com - DN)

It seems like every time the City of Los Angeles and bicycles are mentioned in the same sentence, some controversy is involved.  Yesterday, the League of American Bicyclists released its list of "Bicycle Friendly Communities" and the City of Angeles received an Honorable Mention for the second time in four years.  The League's Award has proven somewhat controversial with some seeing it as a sign that things are getting better, while others are wondering what in the world the League was thinking.

This week’s series on the grants from the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s Policies for Livable and Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) Grants focuses on Glendale and their groundbreaking Safe and Healthy Streets Plan.

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.