Bikeside LA

Bureaucrats cannot resist the desire to get nerdy every once in a while, so please allow me a quick opportunity to do so. How many times have you heard the response, “we can’t do that project because it will require an EIR.” (An EIR is an Environmental Impact Report and is a hefty and timely document) [...]

Last Wednesday, the Bike Action Plan [PDF, 48.6mb] took center stage at Santa Monica’s Planning Commission. Here it enjoyed a warm reception. It is headed next to Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting for final ratification. With some fresh paint already on the streets, it is worth noting that we have many improvements to look forward [...]

The Trail is not a Trail by Gary Snyder I drove down the Freeway And turned off at an exit And went along a highway Til it came to a sideroad Drove up the sideroad Til it turned to a dirt road Full of bumps, and stopped. Walked up a trail But the trail got [...]

Was Think Bike LA great?  I can’t answer that question, I wasn’t there.  What I can say is that the concept behind Think Bike LA is great.  Dutch planners sharing their biking best practices with LADOT staff and community stakeholders is a great idea.  Instead of LA’s bike activists electronically screaming “you don’t get it!”, [...]

A couple of updates on how justice is being served in two unrelated Santa Monica traffic incidents. Cathy Jean Jones struck a young woman in a crosswalk at Main and Pacific in February 2010, then tried to evade police. From Danny Jimenez: At the preliminary hearing on October 12 2010, the judge held there was [...]

I am glad it’s happening.  It will make that short yet scary-to-ride stretch of Main Street more lively, rideable, and livable.  The road diet and bike lane was approved on Tuesday evening at the Venice Neighborhood Council meeting. Most speakers favored the project, a few had reservations. Road diets do create a safer environments for [...]

There’s a road diet proposed in Venice which will add bike lanes to Main St.  The road diet is controversial (check the comments on LA Streetsblog), as the bike lane is tight against parked cars, putting cyclist riding the center of the bike lane.  The proposal comes before Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) tomorrow (Tuesday) and [...]

(EDIT – I’m happy NYC is getting a massive bike share in place, but find the figures curious.) $50 million.  That’s what Alta Planning says that the New York City bike share system – unveiled this week – will cost to run each year. That figure seemed really high to me, so I hit page-up, [...]

We’ve concluded our ultra succinct survey of bike friendliness in Los Angeles, and the results are in: 70% of respondents (386 of 552) think LA is *not* bike friendly. At 552 respondents to that main question, “do you think Los Angeles is bike friendly?”, we think we’ve got a pretty good read on the cycling-public’s [...]

I thought I’d add an update on my personal circumstances, and use it as a chance to raise issues about cycling and sustainability. I’ve taken a job teaching in a remote area of the American Southwest, some fifty five miles from what even an exurb Angeleno would identify as a small to medium sized town. [...]