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 [...]

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 [...]

There’s still time to take Bikeside’s bike friendliness survey, and join the 478 people who have answered our core questions, including “do you think LA is bike friendly?”  Take it here, at Survey Monkey!  The survey will remain open until Sunday at midnight. For those of you who have taken it already – THANK YOU! [...]

Monday night, Santa Monica’s draft Bike Action Plan (BAP) was presented to the public for the first time at a Santa Monica Spoke meeting at 502 Colorado. Six city staff, one city council member and even one former mayor were in attendance. The atmosphere was jovial, and borderline celebratory.