Traffic Rant: Hey, City Hall, is it really that hard to build a bike lane?

I promised last week to post more transportation related rants on the blog,, and my colleague Jessica Garrison sent over this dispatch about her bike ride from Highland Park to downtown. If you sense a little frustration at City Hall, it may help to know that both Garrison and I served terms had the opportunity to work in The Times bureau there. It's an experience that doesn't wash away easily.

Hit it, Garrison:

City officials say they want to do more to encourage commuting by bike. Here’s a tip from a frustrated cycle commuter: How about some bike lanes downtown? Why doesn’t Los Angeles have them? Our city officials are so fond of making field trips to Portland, Ore., to study their housing, redevelopment and transit practices. Why don’t they take a look at how officials there have managed to take a can of paint and draw a straight line down many of Portland’s rain-fresh streets?

Otherwise, the experience of biking to work -- a practice at least one city councilman encourages of his staff -- goes something like this: Enjoy a placid and delightful ride through beautiful Los Angeles neighborhoods. Observe as feelings of calm and good humor turn to terror and rage as streets feed into downtown. Instead of bike lanes, the streets are now lined with speeding, groaning, belching buses. A commuter faces two choices: Fight for space at the side of the road with buses, or take to the sidewalks, despite possibility of mowing pedestrians down like bowling pins.

However, if you work at The Times, which is on Spring Street, you at least have the chance to take to the sidewalks in front of City Hall, where there is the chance that some of those pedestrians might be the city officials responsible for this ridiculous policy.

Unless, as was the case Tuesday, city officials had once again rented out the steps of City Hall for a film shoot. What were they shooting? “Dirty Sexy Money.” Of course.

Want your traffic rant published on the Bottleneck Blog? E-mail me something short and sweet and suitable for a family audience. As benevolent dictator of the blog I may choose to ignore, edit or publish and make you really famous! -- Steve Hymon

Comments

[Donald]

I agree, we need bike lanes in downtown LA. Maybe, just maybe that it will be a start of something good.

[ubrayj02]

Gregory,

I can't tell if you're a vehicular cycling troll, but a bike lane network on major arterial roads increases the likelihood that people will use their bikes to get around.

Research in both Portland, OR and Los Angeles, CA support this.

Bridging the Gaps: How the Quality and Quantity of a Connected Bikeway Network Correlates with Increasing
http://www.altaplanning.com/App_Content/files/Bridging_Gaps_TRB_2005.pdf

Enhanced Public Outreach Project for Metro's Bicycle Transportation Strategic Plan
http://bikeoven.com/bicycle_final_report.pdf

[Gregory]

Amen!

Although - instead of (relatively useless) bike lanes on every artery - I'd be more than happy with just one reasonably wide "bus-free/ slow car" street.