New bike racks at NoHo subway station!

posted: 11:30 a.m. July 22, updated: 12:25 p.m., July 22 and 2:00 p.m., July 22

Eight days ago the Bottleneck Blog challenged Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge to get more bike racks installed at the NoHo subway station, which is in LaBonge's fourth council district. LaBonge has said he wants to do more to help cyclists -- and, in fact, is leading a bike ride tomorrow night on 4th Street.

Well, I just got the news: Metro has installed seven new racks at the station. That was quick and goes to show local government can do the small things that count for commuters without going through weeks, months or years of constructing and then deconstructing bureaucratic hurdles.

12:25 p.m. update: LaBonge -- like me -- was also told by one of his deputies that new racks had been installed at the station. Not quite believing a public project could be done that fast, he drove out to NoHo at lunchtime and found only one new rack that as of 12:17 p.m. was holding 15 bikes, according to LaBonge's count.

"We'll get more," he just told me over the phone. "I was impressed with the news that they installed them, but I came out here because I didn’t believe it and I wanted to investigate.”

He promised to get more bike racks at NoHo and other stations. "We're going to put a bunch of bike racks everywhere," he said, "because it's an invitation for people to use an alternative form of transit."

2:00 p.m. update: As it turns out, seven bike racks were installed. Lynne Goldsmith, Metro's bike chief, just emailed a photo. Now I can see what tripped up LaBonge in the above update: The racks aren't the big ones that hold multiple bikes, but rather the smaller ones that hold two or three apiece.

Related:

Pathetic bike parking situation continues

Are folding bikes the answer?

More on bike parking at train stations

Caltrain's bike cars

--Steve Hymon

LaBonge photo: City of Los Angeles

bike rack photo: Metro

lter

Comments

[calwatch]

How does an inverted U hold four bikes? Unless you are double parking bicycles, or somehow able to slide the handlebars inside that little gap of the U, I fail to see how it secures more than two, especially when you are supposed to use two locks in open areas for extra security.

[Tony Fernandez]

So wait, LaBonge wasn't expecting these kind of bike racks? I wonder if he feels he was swindled by Metro? That would make for a great topic on this blog.

[Joe]

Great to hear that these rack are in! One note, though - the "inverted-U" (or staple) racks can secure 4 bikes each (though, from the photo, it looks like they're installed a bit too close to eachother for maximizing this.) The longer "wave" racks, in my experience, are often less effective than the basic inverted-U because sometimes folks will lock their bikes parallel to the rack taking up multiple spaces. Well-spaced inverted-U racks in a line (not parallel as in the above photo) are great.

[SoapBoxLA]

Great work on the additional racks.

Now, what will it take for Tom LaBonge to lift the ban on cyclists during the Griffith Park Festival of Lights.

It's hard for Tom to take the high road on cyclists' amenities while violating State Law. (CVC 21)

http://illuminatela.com/2008-griffith-park-festival-of-lights/

[Tony Fernandez]

Great to see that Steve has such influence in local government. Seriously, great work.

Now what will it take to get the city to adopt the Cyclists' Bill of Rights?