OUR WORK
Learn more about the work BikeLA is doing around LA County
BikeLA engages in a wide variety of policy, advocacy, education, and community-building work to make the streets of Los Angeles County more bike-friendly for all who ride a bike and all who want to ride a bike. Many of our campaigns are led by volunteers, and we invite you to get involved!
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Education is a core tenant of BikeLA's mission. It’s our goal to educate as many people as possible about riding a bicycle in LA County. We do so through a variety of channels.
Most recently, BikeLA hosted bicycle safety and maintenance classes in partnership with Metro Bike Hub at Metro stations to help promote the practice of multimodal transportation.
BikeLA completed a two-year Community Emission Reduction Pilot Project with the Los Angeles County Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to encourage mode-shift from carbon-fueled vehicles to eBikes.
We are hosting monthly bicycle safety classes for the Department of Public Health in Florence-Firestone to support the county's Vision Zero program, funded by the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). Through a combination of in-class and on-bike exercises, we are equipping local cyclists with the tools to ride safely in Los Angeles, with a focus on quarters that are identified as part of the High-Injury Network (HIN)
Coming up this Summer and Fall, we are excited to partner with Metro Bike Share to host classes in partnership with local community-based organizations to increase access to the bike share program for underrepresented groups. This program, funded by the Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP), focuses its educational outreach on senior citizens, women, and people of color who have been shown to utilize Bike Share far less than other groups in Los Angeles.
BikeLA is proud to be partnered with LA County Public Works to conduct outreach and gather community feedback to help inform the county’s revamped LA County Bicycle Master Plan to make unincorporated Los Angeles safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Metro Active Transportation Outreach
BikeLA has been contracted to serve as the lead community-based organization responsible for executing the public engagement strategy with Metro, LADOT, Walk ‘N Rollers, and South Bay Bicycle Coalition +. Our role is to gather feedback from those who live, work and play within a 1⁄2 mile radius of the Culver City Metro Station on the E-Line (formerly Expo Line) and the Aviation/LAX Metro Station on the C Line. Our goal is to ensure that future street improvements in the project area create more accessible and safer pedestrian, cyclist and transit rider pathways and experiences.
League Cycling Instructor Program
BikeLA values bicycle education and best practices on the road. BikeLA pays for our staff to get certified as LCIs as part of that mission. This allows us to have in-house LCIs on all our rides and to provide expertise to our network of bicycle advocates and supporters.
Operation Firefly/Operación Luciérnaga
Be Safe, Be Seen!
Operation Firefly/Operación Luciérnaga is BikeLA's signature education and bike light distribution program to ensure people riding bikes in Los Angeles County are riding safely at night. Since 2012, we have distributed over 16,000 bike lights and safety materials across Los Angeles County. In partnership with our Chapter members and Volunteers, we distribute across the county where night-time and early morning ridership is high. Operation Firefly/Operación Luciérnaga is generously Sponsored by Waymo.
BikeLA's Local Chapter Program aims to empower local champions with the resources, tools, and peer-to-peer support networks necessary to be effective community advocates while presenting a united political force on countywide issues, including regional planning and funding for walking and biking. Join a local chapter in your area HERE, or info@bike-la.org to start your own!
Training Series
BikeLA hosts a Chapter Training Series to educate our advocates and chapter leaders on skills that will help their work. Our 2023 classes included “Power Mapping Your Community,” “Basic Bike Repair,” “Connecting With Your Elected Officials and City Staff,” and “Social Media Best Practices & Cultivating An Audience In The Bike Community”
Sunset4All
Sunset4All was founded by local residents, small business owners, and community organizations to create 3.2 miles of pedestrian improvements, protected bike lanes, more trees, beautification, pocket parks, safer access to schools, and transit upgrades. In 2018 they began partnering with BikeLA, and with BikeLA's help, Sunset4All raised over $60,000 from over 360 donors to create the preliminary engineering plans for Sunset4All.
SCAG Go Human 2023 Grant Funded Programs
Operation Elephant: BikeLA and its newest chapter Bike Central LA have partnered to distribute digital bike horns along Los Angeles’ high-injury network, which represents 6% of streets but accounts for 70% of deaths and severe injuries for people walking and biking. The Central Los Angeles area is a hot spot within this dangerous network, attracting bicyclists who rely on its accessible main thoroughfares. BikeLA believes that bicyclists need to be equipped beyond bike lights and high visibility gear to be noticed by traffic as road users. Bicyclists also need to be able to make noise that catches the attention of vehicle traffic. By providing bicyclists with digital bells more similar in volume and sound to a car horn, we can help prevent some of the accidents in this area.
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Walk Bike Glendale 2023 Summertime Series: BikeLA serves as fiscal sponsor for Walk Bike Glendale’s Summertime Series, which received funding from the SCAG Go Human Grant. The series includes a community ride and bike repair event with Glendale Mayor Dan Brotman, a kids' bike skills course, a walking survey of Glendale’s unique streets, an advocacy webinar and more.
BikeLA advocates for and against legislation on the local and state level, from writing letters to support or oppose bills to rallying our networks to flood elected officials and city staff with emails to campaign for better infrastructure and transportation-related policies.
Bike Infrastructure Audit Rides
BikeLA takes elected officials out for curated infrastructure audit rides to give the officials and their staff on-the-ground experience of what it’s like to bike in their district. We propose policy solutions to challenges and discuss opportunities to improve the roads for all users. With help from a fleet of bicycles generously donated to BikeLA by Brompton, BikeLA can accommodate elected officials and their staff, even if they don’t typically bike or have a bike.
BikeLA Safety Report
This report examines the conditions surrounding the bicycle-related fatalities reported on Los Angeles County roadways in 2022. By considering these collisions' common characteristics and locations, we hope to guide investment decisions and enable community members to advocate for neighborhood improvements.
BikeLA Safety Action Plan
BikeLA strongly advocates for a comprehensive approach to improve the safety of our roadways. Building on the recommendations outlined in the 2023 Bicycle Safety Report,
this Safety Action Plan lays out recommendations and policy changes for local governments, mobility advocates, and the general public to achieve safer streets for everyone. While no one action will solve the problems facing our roads, we envision a broad set of strategies that together make progress and recognize the various responsibilities governments, cyclists, drivers, and advocates play.
Bikes Mean Business
Small businesses needed more support than ever due to the COVID pandemic. To help, BikeLA partnered with Sunset4All to launch the first #BikesMeanBusiness promotion, encouraging our community to patronize specific businesses along Sunset Blvd. From there, the program has continued to grow countywide and will continue encouraging bicyclists and pedestrians to help keep their local small businesses around by directing their spending.
BikeLA Coalition Work
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CalBike PAC
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OSAC (website under development)
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BikeLA Executive Director, Eli Akira Kaufman, co-chairs Our Streets Action Committee, a coalition of community-based nonprofits committed to creating a Los Angeles where everyone can move by foot, bike, wheel, or car with dignity and safety. OSAC has three primary goals:
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Bring order to how LA builds and designs streets by developing a 5-year Capital Infrastructure Plan.
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Create an equity framework to guide the prioritization of projects and to assure agencies uniformly serve and genuinely engage the communities in most need, not neighborhoods most convenient or politically expedient.
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Create the Department of Mobility, a new city agency that deals with all businesses on the public right of way.
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Whether you're new to biking or consider yourself an experienced bike commuter, BikeLA's community rides welcome everyone. We aim to bring Los Angeles bicyclists together to explore new neighborhoods, make friends, learn more about infrastructure advocacy and experience the health benefits of bicycling. Our rides are fully supported, no-drop rides to ensure everyone feels ready and confident riding in Los Angeles.
Cruise + Connect
BikeLA’s newest program, Cruise + Connect, brings together cyclists of all skill levels across Los Angeles County to share the many benefits of bicycling. Our goal is to bring the community together and increase daily ridership to reduce car traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health through sustainable exercise, and cultivate more vibrant neighborhoods where residents are more connected to the businesses and institutions within their commutes. Our Cruise + Connect program is at no cost to all participants! Check out upcoming rides and classes here.
Cruise + Connect is generously Sponsored by Individual Donors and Lyft.
Climate Ride & Training Series
BikeLA was the 2023 Climate Ride Green Fondo’s #1 fundraiser, raising $15,790.10. We also curated a training series for our team to prepare for the big weekend in Solvang, with group rides along the Los Angeles River, the Ballona Creek Bike Path, and the Marvin Braude Bike Trail.
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