2009 was a great year for bicyclists. We are excited about 2010 and are looking forward to a year full of exciting campaigns, advocacy, and education efforts.
Here is a sampling of some of our goals for this year:
Launch Separated Bike Lane pilot on Huntington Blvd in Boyle Heights
Work to get a bike lane installed on 7th Street
Continue building relationship with LAPD by establishing an enforcement education workshop with LAPD
Increase bike parking city-wide starting with 30-40 locations in LA
Get Sharrows Pilot launched and on LA City streets
Get a Better Bike Plan approved that includes timelines and substantially more designated bike lanes
4th Street Bicycle Blvd. - Gain neighborhood buy-in to develop political support and have the city adopt a commitment to implement
Create more opportunities for partnership with business community, environmental groups, and social justice groups
Expand our reach to more cities across LA County, in addition to Glendale, Culver City, Long Beach and South Bay cities
Create a bike repair space at Downtown Job Center and develop a Bike Repair Job Certificate program with the Bicycle Kitchen
Improve policy for bikes on Metro transit
Finalize the Resource Guide both in Spanish and English
Ensure that 10th Annual River Ride is LACBC's best ride ever
LACBC is working to ensure that there is a 10% set-aside for bikes and peds in the Measure R local return funds. This set-aside will confirm that there is money for bicycle and pedestrian project implementation for next year.
For more information please refer to our blog.
LACBC and other bicycle advocates have been working over the past few months on bike theft and proper law enforcement with LAPD. Bicyclists have initiated efforts with LAPD to create an educational program for officers to eliminate misinformation on enforcement and cyclists' rules to the road, as well as to ensure equal treatment for cyclists.
We've been working with the City of Los Angeles to procure ad spaces in bus shelters and Public Amenity Kiosks (PAK). The goal is to raise awareness among road users about issues such as rights, rules, safety, and road courtesy in relation to bicycles. All we need now, is your awesome slogans to steer the campaign.
LACBC was recently named a recipient of the RENEW grant from the Department of Public Health. The grant aims to support plans and programs that reduce obesity and/or improve community health.
LACBC was the lead organization for a South Bay Bikeways Initiative, which aims to create a bike master plan for seven South Bay cities: Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, El Segundo, Lawndale, Gardena and Torrance. The planning process will occur over a two year period and will be largely focused upon stakeholder input and collaborative planning.
The Dept of City Planning (DCP) and the LADOT are working on a bike plan update with Alta Planning and Design, an outside consultant. A draft plan was released in September 2009 and public workshops were held to collect public comments which were being accepted through January 8th 2010.
LACBC created the Better Bike Plan Campaign to reach out beyond the cyclist community to gain support from public health organizations, environmental groups, chamber of commerce, community organizations, and neighborhood councils to gain support for a bike plan that incorporates more bike lane mileage and specific goals and timelines. Currently, LADOT is working on incorporating the comments and a revised version and will be presented to Planning Commission, then Planning and Land Use Management and Transportation Committees, and then full City Council.
Shared Lane Markings, commonly referred to as Sharrows, has been an ongoing campaign for LACBC. This pilot project was introduced to LADOT 5 years ago. It sat on their desks for 4 years, with one delaying excuse after another. Last year we brought the concept to the attention of LA City Councilmembers to gain political support for Sharrows in LA and to put more pressure on LADOT.
Councilmember Eric Garcetti has championed the project and with much perseverance through letter writing and meetings we have gained Mayoral support. After acquiring the necessary funding from SCAG and The David Bohnett Foundation, the pilot was finally launched in March 2010. We are expecting to see Sharrows on our LA City streets by mid-June 2010.
Hassle-free. Relaxing. Enjoyable. These are not terms that you generally associate with bicycling in Los Angeles. Soon, however, Los Angeles bicyclists, pedestrians and all users of the road could see this idealistic vision materialize in the form of a series of "bicycle boulevards"! For several years LA's cycling communities have been advocating that low-traffic streets such as 4th Street from Hoover St. to Cochran St. be turned into these bicycle boulevards.
The benefits would be manifold.
The atmosphere created by bicycle boulevards is one that is inviting to bicyclists, pedestrians, and all users of the road alike. Neighbors can once again enjoy their streets together, no longer threatened by speeding automobiles — with some through car traffic diverted, the drivers that do use the streets are your neighbors, traveling at neighborly speeds. Residents can reclaim a landscape that has in the last few decades been almost entirely usurped by the car: in most western US cities pavement has covered up to 70% of the urban landscape. With bicycle boulevards there are opportunities to have more trees, permeable pavement, traffic circles, mini-parks and other amenities. One of the best examples of positive implementation of a network of boulevards is in Portland, OR. Berkeley, CA also has an extensive network of bicycle boulevards.
For cyclists, creating a bicycle boulevard would be simply improving upon an already utilized bicycle route. These boulevards are created on low traffic streets where bicycle and pedestrian traffic can be prioritized. Most, like 4th Street, run parallel to major thoroughfares and pass though both residential neighborhoods and commercial districts.
Furthermore, they link neighborhoods and create a strong sense of place.
Businesses also can rejoice at the coming of bicycle boulevards. Contrary to many business owners' perceptions, studies have shown that 70% of customers in Toronto and San Francisco arrive by means other than a car. Infrastructure that encourages more cycling will improve business for most stores near a bicycle boulevard. One important reason for this is bicycles are very space efficient, parking 12 in a space that accommodates a single car; and of course cyclists can window-shop as they travel and park quickly at whim, unlike drivers.
So what's next? A network of bicycle boulevards has been proposed in the Los Angeles Bicycle Plan Update. Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) and Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange (CICLE) have been conducting outreach and advocacy to support the implementation of boulevards. The team would like to float a proposal to Councilmember Tom LaBonge by early April. So far, the Mid-City West Neighborhood Council, Greater Wilshire Neighorhood Council, Rampart Village Neighborhood Council and the Wilshire Center BID have shown support for the 4th Street campaign. GOOD magazine has also profiled the campaign.
Walk and Ride for a Safer 4th Street!
What: With the paint on the Sharrows markings almost a month old, it's time to keep moving towards making 4th Street a true Bicycle Boulevard. So come walk, come bike, and come explore the plans to make a Safer and Greener 4th Street. When: Saturday, July 24th. The Bike Ride: Meet at 9:45am - depart at 10am from Pan Pacific Park, in front of the auditorium. The ride ends at Shatto Park. The Walk: Meet at 10:15am - depart at 10:30am from 4th and Normandie. The walk ends at Shatto Park. Press Event: Highlighting the efforts and support for making 4th Street a bicycle boulevard. Refreshments courtesy of Larchmont Bungalow. 11am-1pm at Shatto Park, 3191 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles, 90020.
If you want to become more involved with this exciting campaign, please contact Dorothy@la-bike.org or phone 213-629-2142 for more information. You can also join the e-mail list here...
City of Lights provides these cyclists with bike lights and safety information, with the aim of cultivating future advocates in this community.
The objective of City of Lights is to increase working-class Latino immigrant bicyclists' safety and empower them to educate and spread bicycle safety information and advocacy to their communities.
History/Current Plans for City of Lights:
In October 2004, LACBC partnered Metro on the Enhanced Public Outreach Project for Metro's Bicycle Transportation Strategic Plan, which examined and made recommendations for improving safety conditions for this population. With this knowledge, the interest of an LACBC intern, and an initial donation of 100 lights from Planet Bike, the City of Lights program was founded in October 2008. The first lights were given out in January 2009.
In April 2009, City of Lights teamed up with CARECEN's day laborer center as a test hub in the greater network of day laborer centers to provide bicycle lights and safety information to Latino cyclists in Spanish. By establishing a regular presence, we hope to build a more inclusive bicycling community in Los Angeles while simultaneously creating more social equity. In this manner, City of Lights creates a bilingual and sustainable way to support bicycling in LA.
In June 2009, we started a bilingual bike safety training program, modeled on the League of American Bicyclists' educational certification. We have started bilingual bike safety workshops at the CARECEN day labor center. The workshops have been largely attended with over 50 participants.
We are starting the first of our planned bilingual bike maintenance workshops on July 24th, in partnership with the Bicycle Kitchen, a non-profit cooperative bike center that teaches people how to fix their own bicycles. In September, we are planning a community bike ride.
In August 2007, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced a new funding opportunity known as the PLACE Grant Program (Policies for Livable, Active Communities and Environments). In the spring of 2008, the LACBC was awarded one of five PLACE Grants and began solidifying a partnership with the City of Glendale for the three year period of the Grant. This collaboration between the LACBC and the City of Glendale aims to create Glendale's first "Safe and Healthy Streets Plan," a policy document intended to help make Glendale a safer and friendlier city for cyclists and pedestrians. In addition, the Grant is funding a small physical project designed to demonstrate traffic calming techniques, safety measures and streetscape enhancements consistent with the Safe and Healthy Streets Plan. For more information visit la-bike.org/glendale, read this (MS Word download) and/or contact colin@la-bike.org.
Car-Free Fridays, an exciting campaign had its kick off in January 2009. This is a highly successful campaign whose goal is to highlight the benefits of riding a bike and to encourage new riders to start commuting by bike at least one day a month. We initiated collaboration with some Councilmembers who sponsored rides, we elicited great media attention and have created valuable relationships with local businesses and organizations. We have developed a business partnership program to offer cyclists who ride on CAR-FREE FRIDAY discounts at local shops around LA County and can hear PSA announcements on a variety of Local radio stations.
See a list of participating businesses and organizations.
CicLAvia has been a group since mid-2008, incubated through the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, inspired by the famous street closures in Bogotá, Colombia. Various LACBC volunteers and other professionals came together for the purpose of promoting and planning liveable, car-free streets. It is now an independent collective that is in partnership with LACBC and other environmental organizations.
Creating opportunities to recreate within the urban environment of Los Angeles is becoming more important, in order to address health, environmental, and public space issues.The objective of CicLAvia is to encourage more Angelenos to become pedestrians and cyclists in Los Angeles by offering residents a temporary, safe place to walk and bicycle and to simply have fun.
The project will also increase the amount of open space in Los Angeles by making the streets temporarily, but consistently available for recreational uses. We have currently networked with neighborhood councils, the Mayor and City Council, and foundations to have our pilot route debut by Summer 2010.
Due to LACBC's and other bicycle advocates' efforts, LAPD police chief, William Bratton has issued a report recommending that the Bicycle License program be discontinued and an immediate moratorium be implemented on the enforcement of the program.
This is in response to a motion Ed Reyes initiated due to overwhelming demand from cyclists to revisit the effectiveness of the Bicycle License. The LA Transportation Committee, at the initial meeting requested more information from LAPD about the issue. LACBC and many bicycle advocates worked hard to bring this issue to the forefront of LA City Council.
The LA Transportation Committee met again on Wednesday, January 14th and came to the final decision to put a moratorium on the Bicycle License. They will continue to do some research on the implementation of a program that could aid in the safety of youth cyclists.
"LACBC was very pleased to see the correspondence from LAPD today and we thank all the agencies and individuals involved in conducting the research that lead to this decision," says Jennifer Klausner, Executive Director of LACBC.
As a result of lobbying by bicycle advocates and local elected officials, the Expo Construction Authority is now drafting alternatives for accommodating the bikeway that is planned to parallel Phase 2 of the light rail line (Culver City to Santa Monica). One stretch of the Cheviot Hills route (if this becomes the chosen alignment for the train) does not have room for the bikeway. LACBC initiated a first meeting with Expo-adjacent Cheviot Hills neighbors whose properties could provide a small corridor to get around this bottle-neck. The draft environmental document for Expo Phase 2 will be released shortly and will have alternatives that include this bikeway plan. Cyclists should express their support for this alternative. Contact Kent Strumpell, Planning Committee Chair for more info at kentstrum@aol.com
Due to concerns about crime from a few neighbors who live next to the Ballona Trail, LAPD and local Councilman Bill Rosendahl had planned to permanently close the Purdue access gate (just east of the 405). Months of opposition to this strategy by cyclists and trail groups has gotten them to back off of the gate closure for now. Instead, police are working with the Council Office to explore other safety measures, including improved lighting, security cameras and fencing that eliminates uncontrolled access points. A recent incident in which a Loyola Marymount University professor was ambushed, pepper-sprayed, and robbed in this area seems to have focused attention on finding ways to improve safety for trail users and not just nearby homes. Contact Kent Strumpell, Planning Committee Chair for more info at kentstrum@aol.com
On July 4th, 2008, two cyclists were injured when they collided with the back of a car, driven by a Dr. Christopher T. Thompson. The cyclists claim that Dr. Thompson purposefully slammed on the brakes of his car, thus causing the accident. He has been charged with two felony counts of reckless driving causing injury, and two felony counts of battery with serious bodily injury. Shortly after this incident, Councilman Bill Rosendahl convened a task force of local cyclists, Mandeville homeowners, and city staff. Members of the task force later made a site tour to identify problem areas of the road and explore other solutions to resolve issues between neighbors, motorists and cyclists. Councilman Rosendahl is also planning a town hall-type meeting to address the broader issue of cyclist/motorist relations some time this fall. No details are available as of yet. Contact Jennifer@la-bike.org for more info.
LACBC has written the final report for the Transit Hub Project, to increase pedestrian and bicycle access to transit hubs across LA County: Compton, Rosa Parks, Florence, and Vernon Metro Blue Line Stations, Van Nuys Metro Orange Line Station, and Newhall Metrolink Station. Read each the six individual reports for each station. Read the history and download other documents following the final reports.
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