Bikeside LA

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. [...]

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! [...]

On Thursday afternoon, Jeffrey Ray Adams had an argument with a cyclist while traveling south on Barnard Way.  As the situation was escalated by the driver who allegedly repeatedly swerved in front of the cyclist and hit the brakes abruptly, the driver then “Intentionally struck the victim with the side of his vehicle, knocking the [...]

Is Los Angeles bike friendly?  It’s a simple question and Bikeside aims to answer it, so we created a survey (TAKE THE SURVEY!) to ask you if you think Los Angeles is bike friendly. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a quietly held consensus, but the reality is the question hasn’t been answered systematically.  I [...]

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.

Almost 6 months after the passage of LA’s 2010 Bike Plan (passed in 2011), City Planning will report to City Council on progress thus far.  Specifically, tomorrow, they will report to the Transportation Committee (and for some reason, DOT Bikeways will not report.) What Council will hear will be a lot of rah rah cheerleading [...]

“We’ve got seven kinds of Coke; five hundred kinds of cigarette. This freedom of choice in the USA drives everybody crazy.” –John Doe and Exene Cervenka, “See How we Are,” X Bicycles are wonderful tools. They magnify the limited physical abilities of the human body in a manner that is not completely at odds with [...]

As part of C.I.C.L.E.’s Community Workshops, Bikerowave volunteers stopped by A Place Called Home to demonstrate how a tire change is done proper. Thus, a sunny Sunday morning, a group of Bikerowave volunteers sailed across town in cars and on bikes to do what they do best: pass on wrenching skills. En route, we were [...]

(Previous posts on Bikeside about the Culver City Crash – #1, #2, #3, #4 – and a nice comprehensive post at LA Streetsblog.) If you want to know what rank and file Culver City police officers think of cyclists, you don’t have to go far to get their opinion.  Bikerowave board member Thomas Anthony was [...]

Jan Morgan, 57, was struck from behind by a vehicle traveling at 55mph Highway 50 in Clay County, Mississippi, on the morning of Sunday, May 22nd. Robbie Norton, a Cedar Bluff woman, rammed into her while allegedly on the phone, stepped out to observe her on the ground, yelled at her, then ran over her [...]