I want to call your attention to a good item at CityWatch, which keeps an eye on things at Los Angeles City Hall. Stephen Box, the cycling advocate, has an item there about a push to get the City Council to endorse the cyclists bill of rights. Excerpt:
[Wendy] Greuel spoke of the need to support cyclists and [Bill] Rosendahl referred to it as "a no-brainer!" Public Works Commissioner joined the Committee and spoke in favor of the need to work to create a safe environment for cyclists. Speakers from the community recounted their experiences on the streets of L.A. and of their hope that our City leadership would support cycling as a transportation and environmental solution by endorsing the Cyclists' Bill of Rights "as written -- as ridden!"
It's hard to disagree with anything in the bill of rights, but I am curious what readers think about this one. I covered the City Council for three years, and I find the resolutions that they do in support or against anything to be political cover. Ultimately, it's easy for pols to say they like cycling, but it's much harder to actually build something to improve cycling in L.A. -- that would require diligent, hard work instead of glad-handing, yammering at endless meetings, fundraising and running for higher office in midterm of their current job.
I'm not trying to be unfair. If you're a member of the L.A. City Council and you've actually done something to help cyclists, I'm glad to go on a field trip with you and see the evidence myself. Please bring the paperwork to show the improvement actually required your involvement and wasn't done by a predecessor or community group who had to beg you for your blessed help.
This photo was taken in Stockholm on Monday during the city's first major snowstorm of the year. The storm blew in from the Baltic Sea with hurricane-force winds, but this one cyclist wasn't to be deterred. Gotta love the spunk.
This short film was posted last week at Streetsblog Los Angelesand was made by Streetsblog, the group that promotes walking, biking, mass transit and people-oriented urban planning. The film, directed by Clarence Eckerson, is mostly a look at the Bicycle Kitchen, a do-it-yourself bike repair shop near Hollywood in Los Angeles. The co-op Bikerowave is also featured. It's worth five minutes of your Monday.
At 5:10 this morning, as I rode my bike to the Blue Line in Long Beach, I was mugged. I was on my 50-pound, 1930s beach cruiser, pedaling as fast as I could, when I noticed someone else on a BMX-style bike getting progressively close to my bike.
Just as I became aware of the fact that he was a bit too close for comfort, a hand reached into my basket and grabbed the enormous knapsack that was sitting in it, containing all things I consider necessary in a day -- including my driver’s license, credit card, commuting debit card, debit card, house keys, car keys, proof of insurance, various gift certificates, U-Lock keys, a digital recorder with a yet-to-be transcribed interview on it and an assortment of things of no monetary value but only personal importance. Like my favorite book and a tiny ceramic “good luck” frog.
All these things were taken from me while this man and I were both still in motion.
Confused, I nervously shouted, “Excuse me! Um, excuse me!” thinking there had been a mistake. Maybe the man in a hooded sweatshirt mistook me for a friend he was joking with. Maybe he was trying to teach me a lesson and would surely stop down the block.
But as he sped away little details began to register, like his attempt to conceal his identity with a hood over his head and the speed at which he rode away, and I realized that I had in fact been robbed.
The one thing I was still in possession of was my cellphone, which had been in my hand, and, after calling the police, I began to call every person I knew who might have possibly been awake at 5 a.m.
After taking mental inventory of what was in the bag, I realized I couldn’t ride back home and drive to work: my license and proof of insurance were in my bag. I couldn’t ride the Metro because my commuter card and all my money (which wasn’t much) were in my knapsack. I wouldn’t be able to get into my apartment without my keys or even lock my bike somewhere without those keys. And, after calling my bank, I learned I would not be able to access my account until I opened a new checking account, which still doesn’t make sense to me.
Now, after borrowing $3 from a friend, the only things I have in my possession are my BlackBerry (miraculously), $1.75 from the change I got at my Blue Line station after I bought a ticket to get to work and my police report, crumpled in my back pocket.
Damien Newton at Streetsblog Los Angeles posted a good item Thursday: Metro (aka the MTA) staff is proposing to remove seats from their trains to accommodate -- get this! -- bikes. The above page comes from a Metro report showing what staff thinks could be done.
The idea is to take a few seats from a few trains and see how that swings with the public. If it goes well, a few more seats may be sacrificed.
As someone who occasionally takes his bike on the train, I think this could be a smart move -- bikes are often the best and fastest way to get to and from rail stations that may not have parking or great bus service. On the other hand, I'm not to sure this will play well with regular riders. Your thoughts?
UPDATE, 1:25 p.m.: Metro spokesman Dave Sotero says that the agency is indeed going to start removing some seats in the next 30 to 60 days and not just for bikes. The extra space will also help those in wheelchairs and those carrying luggage, etc.
More than two years after the city of Pasadena and Caltrans began investigating how to install more bike racks at the Allen stop on the Gold Line -- these things are difficult, you know -- here are the 12 new racks that were finally built in the last few days. The Bottleneck Blog had over the summer grumbled about the lack of bike racks at the station, pointing out that buying a few bike racks is seemingly a far easier task than, say, building an $859-million light rail line. Of course, there are still many transit stops around the Southland with a woeful supply of bike racks (if you want one highlighted on the blog, send me an e-mail and photo) and it should also be pointed out that the Allen stop lacks auto parking despite the fact that the contractor that runs Pasadena's bus service has its bus yard right next door to the station!
We've posted plenty in the past about how the Southland could be a lot more bike friendly and perhaps there are lessons to be learned from places that have embraced bikes -- such as Copenhagen. The following is a guest post from Mikael Colville-Andersen, who publishes two bike-related blogs, Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic:
The transportation of goods and children through an urban landscape is a universal need. In Copenhagen many our of citizens choose the self-propelled transport option and cycle to work, school and on errands.
On any given day you'll see people moving things about on their bikes. A ladder, a newly-purchased bean bag for the living room, heavy bags of groceries dangling from the handlebars. It's what we do.
In Copenhagen, however, we have our own version of the SUV. We call it 'ladcyklen' or 'the cargo bike'. Often there are goods too large or cumbersome for convenient bicycle transport and if you have a child or two or three, they have places to go and things to do and you are the one who has to get them there.
In Denmark the three-wheeled cargo bike is the vehicle of choice for moving things about and the cargo bike market here continues to enjoy steady growth. A cargo bike is a generic term for any bicycle that is designed to carry 'stuff,' whether it has two wheels or three.
The necessity for cargo bikes is as old as bike culture itself. Since the early part of the last century, cargo bikes have moved things around the city. A little sub-cultural group formed rather quickly in cities, namely 'svejerne'. They muscled their heavily-laden cargo bikes through the streets and were known for their rowdy tone and for whistling at girls. Half a century before the modern bike messengers.
My Dad was a messenger boy during World War II, fetching fruit and vegetables from the market and transporting them back to the green grocer's where he worked. The two most widespread bikes were the Long John and the Short John - or Chimney Sweep bike. Both designs are almost a century old.
Since then, the Danes have expanded their fleet of cargo bikes and
there are currently a dozen or so different brands competing for a
market share and Denmark has rightfully become the Cargo Bike Capital
of the world.
It was in the early 1970's that the first cargo bike of the modern
era was developed. It is called the Christiania Bike and named after an
abandoned military area which became Europe's largest anarchist town.
Large, chunky and functional, with a big box placed in front of the
cyclist, the Christiania bike quickly became a generic name for cargo
bikes in Denmark.
Inevitably, other brands started to pop up and today the list is
long and it includes; Nihola, Sorte Jernhest [Black Iron Horse],
Bellabike, Triobike, Esimex, Larry vs. Harry, Long John, Short John and
Kangaroo Bike.
At any daycare in the city you'll see parents dropping off and
picking up their kids in cargo bikes, with the cargo bays equipped with
small benches to sit on. There's room for groceries, too. Deejays and
musicians use cargo bikes for transporting gear, kindergartens have
them for taking kids on outings and companies use them for moving goods
about.
Here's the latest from Knabe spokesman David Sommers, who e-mailed me last night:
Here is an update on what the County accomplished today in order to immediately address the conditions at the stretch of the bike path you mentioned in your blog entry this morning.
Right after we contacted them, the Department of Public Works (DPW) reported they sent a crew out to put a temporary asphalt patch on the impacted area. DPW will be working to make a more permanent repair to the area and to other adjacent sections of the bike path and parking lots.
DPW also reported that this area is one of five spots they had previously identified to repair, slurry and repaint. Those repairs were scheduled to happen in approximately 3-4 months.
As I mentioned to you in a separate e-mail this morning, I think it’s important to point out the ongoing work the County is doing to improve and maintain the entire bike path network along the coast. The larger Marvin Braude South Bay Bike Trail is over 20 miles long and passes through more than half a dozen cities.
This beautiful stretch of pavement can be found on the Marvin Braude Bike Trail as it winds through Marina del Rey. The seam in the pavement is perfect for catching bike tires.
In fact, this photo -- taken Sunday about 5:30 p.m. -- is actually kind of flattering. The bike trail through the marina, which is part of unincorporated Los Angeles County, is in deplorable shape. The pavement was passable when I lived out that way more than five years ago, but it has been allowed to get even worse. Too bad. The bike path, which continues along the beach both to the north and south, is a great regional attraction.
The bike path, I believe, falls under the domain of Supervisor Don Knabe, whose website says he is a "leader in regional transportation." Great! Surely, such a leader will be able to get a relatively small section of bike path repaved so that grumpy reporters aren't making inquiries about it, as I'm about to do.
There was a provocative story published by the Wall Street Journal today about efforts about a local gadfly, Rob Anderson, who has held up the city's effort to implement a new bike plan. The Critical Mass rides in the city have shown the popularity of biking (see above photo) there and the WSJ story is in that vein:
"At a time when most other cities are encouraging biking as green transport, the 65-year-old local gadfly has stymied cycling-support efforts here by arguing that urban bicycle boosting could actually be bad for the environment. That's put the brakes on everything from new bike lanes to bike racks while the city works on an environmental-impact report.
"Cyclists say the irony is killing them -- literally. At least four bikers have died and hundreds more have been injured in San Francisco since mid-2006, when Mr. Anderson helped convince a judge to halt implementation of a massive pro-bike plan.(It's unclear whether the plan's execution could have prevented the accidents.) In the past year, bike advocates have demonstrated outside City Hall, pushed the city to challenge the plan's freeze in court and proposed putting the whole mess to local voters. Nothing worked."
Anderson maintains a blog in San Francisco and has reader reaction to the WSJ story. He has written in the past that the bike plan is an effort to "screw up" traffic on behalf of cyclists who will always be in the minority.
In a related post, Andrew Leonard, over at Salon, responds to the story. He wrote about the issue two years ago and is despondent that the dispute is still dragging on:
"A few weeks ago, while riding in the Marin Century, I had the pleasure of pedaling a few miles in the company of Kim Baenisch, the executive director of the Marin Bicycle Coalition. I asked her what kind of things the MBC was working on. For the next 20 minutes, she gave me chapter and verse on an astonishing list of bicycling-related projects. But across the bay, San Francisco remains hamstrung, primarily due to the efforts of one man intent on defying the will of his community and the tide of history."
Here is a link to the city of San Francisco's bike plan that is in the works. Read the section on Bicycle priority streets -- a lot of the tactics discussed are the same ones discussed in my recent post about Portland.
Steve Hymon is The Times' Road Sage. He covers traffic and transportation in a region united by a confounding network of freeways that frustrate drivers daily. The Bottleneck Blog is Steve's website home, where he breaks transportation news, reports on traffic tie-ups and brings a critical but humorous eye to commuting in Southern California. You can reach Steve at steve.hymon@latimes.com.
