Bike Master Plan
Streetsblog LA
Bike Master Plan Comments Due Friday: Here’s Mine
This Friday, comments are due on the Draft Bike Plan lovingly prepared by Alta Planning and Design and submitted for public perusal and comments by City Planning and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. I've gotten some criticism from critics of the Bike Plan for not writing more about it myself, and instead writing "just the facts" reviews of meetings, even though Streetsblog has hosted blistering critiques of the plan by Stephen Box and Joe Linton. The few supporters of the plan have urged me to write up some good news about the plan. Below are the comments I'll be emailing to City Planning, through the "unofficial" Bike Plan website at http://labikeplan.com. You can also submit comments through that site or the official site at http://labikeplan.org.
January 6, 2010
Thoughts on Portland, Los Angeles, Race and Bicycling (updated 4:24 P.M.)
At last week's Big Bike Meeting at City Hall, Senior Bike Coordinator Michelle Mowery took a swing at a question about the city's outreach on the Draft Bike Plan, and missed. The questions, which compared the outreach in Los Angeles to that of Portland, home of Alta Planning who consulted on the city's plan, asked why the outreach for our plan is somewhat lacking. Mowery's answer, transcribed at Westside BikeSIDE has been lampooned and pilloried throughout town. But now the debate has headed north to Portland.
December 16, 2009
In San Francisco: Judge Partially Lifts Ban on Bike Injunction
(Editor's note: Because the LADOT uses the lawsuit barring bicycle projects in San Francisco as reason to "go slow" on bike projects, I thought checking in on the status of that lawsuit with the folks at SF Streetsblog could be enlightening. Also, Michael Rhodes contributed significantly to this story.)
November 30, 2009
Westside Kids “Testify” on Bike Plan and Are Heard Across the Country
Today on the Streetsblog Network,
a story about some kids in Los Angeles who did their research and came
up with several good ideas about improving conditions for bicycle
commuters. Then they ran up against the reality that the public forums
on the city's bike plan weren't so public. But they didn't let that
stop them.
November 6, 2009
The Times Looks at the State of Cycling in Los Angeles
Over the past two days, the Times has written five articles about bicycling in Los Angeles. Because these articles appear in L.A.'s paper of record, and this is the largest look the Times has given to cycling in Los Angeles in recent memory, Streetsblog is going to take a look at each of the articles. We'll begin with yesterday's analysis of Dr. Thompson's trial and end with today's "list of bike resources."
November 2, 2009
Less Anger, More Posterboard at 2009 Bike Plan Meeting
The first thing I noticed when I arrived at last night's Bike Plan meeting for the Westside was that the format had completely changed from the 2008 meetings. In 2008 the format consisted of a public presentation and "Q+A" session which last time devolved into a contentious debate over the state of cycling and the ability of the city to deliver on its promise of better cycling in the city. Last night there were three sets of posterboards manned by staff from Alta Planning or the city and tables with maps for people to draw comments. All city and Alta staff took comments on large paper note pad.
October 29, 2009
Gov. 2.0? Activists Mimic Bike Plan Site
The other day, I noticed that some of the stories reviewing the Draft Bike Plan on Streetsblog were receiving incoming links from what I thought was the city's Bike Plan Website. Given the strong critiques of the plan and the city, I was surprised that the City Planning would link to the pieces written by Stephen Box and Joe Linton.
October 27, 2009
Streets Notes for the Upcoming Bike Plan Meetings
Starting on Thursday, the City of Los Angeles will hold the first of five "official" public meetings on the Draft Bike Plan that was released for public viewing after some draft maps were released earlier this summer. It's been a long road for the Bike Plan from the scoping meetings held in February of 2008 and a process that has brought a groundswell of hope and the seeds of change in other cities has been one full of anger, accusations and a near complete lack of trust.
October 20, 2009
Neighborhood Focused Bicycle Plans
Thanks to hard-working bicycle activists like Joe Linton and Stephen Box
who’ve read through the L.A. draft Bike Plan, Angelenos who care about
bikes can get the skinny on the 212-page draft without wading through
the typo and error-riddled document themselves. That said, I’d love it
if this draft were not so big and intimidating so that more people
would be encouraged the actual document — which is why David Byrne’s latest blog post got me thinking.
October 15, 2009
L.A.’s Draft Bikeway Plan: Non-Committal, Sloppy and Perhaps Illegal
In September 2009, the city of Los Angeles released its draft Bicycle Master Plan update. This followed the May 2009 release of slightly different facility map portions of the plan. The public is invited to four meetings later this month to learn about and give input on the draft plan.
October 9, 2009