Bikeside LA

Best Saturday ever – ArtCycle at Madison & Santa Monica Bl, from 2pm till 10pm.

Have wished you knew how safe each street is for cycling? Bikeside is proud to bring the community one step closer to that goal. Above we have displayed all the collision data from 2008 recorded by LAPD (involving cyclists.)

It’s always good to know what you’re up against.  This article in the LA Times Comments Blog, was an eye opener.  It summarizes comments on an article on the Backbone Bikeway Network.  The best?  Julie writes:
I am begging you – NO!!!!!! let bicyclists ride on paseos and around neighborhoods. Bikes are NOT viable [...]

This Saturday, March 6th, we’ll finalize the Backbone Bikeway Network streets, and move on to discussing methods for making those streets ultra safe and ultra convenient for cyclists.  From 2pm till 5pm the fifth Bike Working Group will convene at the Hollywood Adventist Church (around the back) at 1711 N Van Ness Blvd.
Everyone is welcome, [...]

LAPD released a final version of a report on 2008 collisions involving bikes. 23% of bike involved collisions are hit and run, but 38% of all collisions are hit and run! Hit and run is a city wide epidemic affecting all the citizens of LA – let’s include everyone in the solution.

Welcome to Bikeside! Bikeside is a new organization for bike activism. Our mission, simply, is to make LA safe for cyclists. We’re going to do that with the same brand of hard hitting, assertive and insightful activism you’re used to getting from the Bike Writers Collective.

As the city, state and federal government burn money that doesn’t exist, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl & Paul Koretz are pushing LA to support an extension of the beach bike path at $15 million per mile. Cyclists’ have expressed preference for on-street facilities in the city, but the two West LA councilman, who both serve on the Budget & Finance Committee, [...]

LAPD Sergeant David Krumer and Commander David Doan sorted through massive collision data for 2008, and found that in 2008, 23% of bike involved traffic collisions are Hit & Run – 3% were misdemeanor and 20% were felony.  This was just one statistic of many in a report on bike collisions in LA in 2008.  [...]

Jeremy Grant, one of the members of the Bike Working Group Steering Committee, just released the Valley Area map for the Backbone Network. I highly recommend going over there and reading his post, because he gives some good visuals of how we put the network together, and has some interesting comments on it.  Also, because [...]

There will be some new guest bloggers around the place in the coming weeks, but if some writer comes in and says “I this, I that” without stating who they are, you probably know it’s me, Alex.  For instance, they might say “I’m running for Community Director of Mar Vista Community Council.”