L.A. to cyclists: 'Do it yourself'

(Curmudgeonly L.A. cyclist Alex Thompson's rants cause the conflict-adverse discomfort, but he cares a whole lot.)

Between 1996 and 2008, the city of Los Angeles added 5 miles of bike paths or lanes each year.  That's an astronomical success!

No, that's a complete failure.  The city of Los Angeles encompasses 469 square miles.  Adding 5 miles of bike lanes per year corresponds to adding 56 feet per square mile each year. 56 feet. That's the width of a small 7-11 parking lot.  Ride your bike for 2 seconds, and that's how much farther you can expect to be able to ride on bike lanes in your neighborhood next year.  You can expect a complete network of bikeways in about 100 years.  City of L.A., EPIC FAIL.

There isn't just failure on cycling infrastructure. There's failure on all cycling issues. The Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee, which advises the City Council on cycling issues, can't find a steady meeting location. The committee president, appointed two decades ago by then-Mayor Bradley, still fails to follow basic rules of order or treat the public with courtesy. Councilman Bill Rosendahl is indulging residents of Mar Vista who are convinced bike paths cause crime, rather than insisting on better law enforcement.

Worst of all is the institutionalized bias against cyclists at the L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT).  LADOT bicycle staff spend most of their time explaining to bike activists, "here's why you can't have what you want."  In order to update the L.A. Bike Master Plan, the LADOT and Planning department scheduled four meetings for community input.  That's about one meeting per million people.  Portland had one meeting per 12,000 residents to update their bicycle master plan.  It gets better, if you visit LADOT's Bicycle Services website and follow the link to "planned bikeways" it sends you to this map:

This map is from 1996!!!  I was still a virgin.  "LADOT, planning to make a difference since 1996."

The only reasonable way to interpret the city's inaction is as a  collective "Go **** Yourself" to cyclists.  Punk rock til the end, cyclists irreverently flipped this, and interpreted it as "Do It Yourself!"  And so a large segment of cyclists have found new and innovative ways to make progress without the cooperation of local government. Indeed, when the Bike Kitchen's budget purportedly surpassed the LACBC's, it was a quiet signal that doing it OURSELVES is the way to go.  Does that sound angry?  That's an echo of a whisper of the frustration that exists throughout the cycling community.

So we've been doing it for ourselves. Outreach? Midnight Ridazz has developed it's own brand of outreach: F.U.N.!  Fun rides through the city -- a nightlife that revolves around biking -- is the unexpected form that cycling outreach takes in L.A.  Most Ridazz prefer not to describe their activities as activism, it's just what they do for fun.  Whatever it is, it's fun and effective.  Thousands have been inspired to bike by these epic displays of F!U!N!

(RichTOtheIE demonstrates FUN at CRANK Mob, best bike ride on the Westside! photo by digablesoul)

Cyclist education?  The bike repair collectives -- the Bike Kitchen, Bike Oven, and Bikerowave -- do more to educate cyclists than any other L.A. org, governmental or not.  These entirely volunteer organizations mobilize over a hundred volunteers weekly to teach cyclists how to fix their bicycles on a not-for-profit basis. Informal education on other topics takes place here as well.  Step into the Bike Oven and mention a recent problem with a motorist and you'll likely hear several similar stories, and learn a couple new coping strategies. To a certain extent this happens on Midnight Ridazz rides too; I learned a lot of the tricks that keep me safe talking with other riders at group rides. There might even be a motorist education effort on the way, and not from the Metro, but from cyclists.

Bike infrastructure?  At Semiotics of the Ride, activists are developing a signage system to turn 4th St. in Hancock Park into a bicycle boulevard. Is the city supportive?  As far as I know, they're not. These activists lobbied hard, to no avail, to get cycling improvements on 4th St. This DIY effort is a reaction to unassailable status quo that persists within city departments. So, now we do our own infrastructure.

There are a few people in the city, or other local governments, that get it. The Santa Monica Planning Department has shown not only a progressive attitude toward cycling, but a remarkable willingness to open their planning process to the public. Lynne Goldsmith of Metro is doing good work to connect cyclists and bus operators to try to prevent conflicts. The city of Pasadena & CICLE successfully worked together to produce Bike Week Pasadena last year. They did so well that the 2nd Annual Bike Week Pasadena takes place in two weeks. Surprisingly, one of the best allies of cyclists is the LAPD.  LAPD treats social bike riders with an open mind, allowing big group rides to continue if the ride is safe and moves along quickly.  As well, anecdotal evidence suggests that officers in the LAPD are far better educated in the rights and needs of cyclists than in other jurisdictions.

There are people in local government who do right by cyclists, they're just the rare exception to a daunting rule.  News that the L.A. bike culture is a fully DIY culture should resonate ominously within deaf ears at City Hall.  100% independent of city support, a growing constituency of cyclists can now bring uncompromising political will to bear on city officials.

(Next week I'll summarize some ways you can get involved in bike activism.)

Comments

[Mihai]

Even with all the evidence mounting that life will suck if we continue to use cars, those in power want to cling to the car culture until the last possible second.

I got a pretty hopeless feeling during the so-called LA Bike Plan outreach meeting. You can't have this, you can't have that. So much for public input...

Ride on the streets during rush hour, start local not-for-profit bike shops, put up homemade signs, paint your own bike lanes, tell your parents you want to walk or ride to school instead of getting dropped off in a tank.

I was lucky enough to ride on Crank Mob for my first time last month. I have to admit, it makes me question why I have ever waited in line and paid a fee to attend sub-par organized parties in establishments known as dance clubs that rarely have solid DJs. How silly of me...

[SoapBoxLA]

Cyclists in LA should be grateful for the total and thorough ineffectiveness of our leadership with regards to Transportation and Urban Planning.

If there were even the slightest whisper or hint of progress in this, the most land of congestion, busted up curb lanes and poison air, cyclists might experience a tad of optimism, just enough to lull them into a state of passive expectation.

We are fortunate that the City has closed its "Change the World" department and is instead focused on staffing the "Maintain the Status Quo" team.

That leaves the cycling community free to take up the DIY mantle, jump on the Bike Wiki, seize the 2.0 gestalt and make it happen, one ride at a time.

See you on the Streets!

[ben w]

I rode in the Los Angeles Critical Mass for the first time ever last Friday.
What an experience. A few hundred bicyclists riding down the street unimpeded by traffic. Everyone was cheering and clapping on the sidewalks, as if the general public welcomes this type of transportation over cars. There was the motorcycle cop on Hollywood Blvd who gave the group a gentle reminder to stay in the right lane, they did for a while, he then smiled and waved before speeding off. You just have to smile when you see a large group of bicycles riding down the street, their bicycle bells ringing and their voices raised in unison. It was a giant rolling celebration, and everyone who stopped to take a picture or gazed from a car stuck in traffic, had a grin on their face. If this is the type of happiness that bike riding can bring to the people of one of America’s largest cities, who knows what it could do for the rest of the country and the world.

[todd]

Last week's cycling related installment showded someone smoking on a bike. This week, it's a cyclist making a mess with toxic Silly String.

Nice green message there, Emerald City.

[Siel]

Last week's cycling post by Alex actually had no images, which I gave Alex a bit of a hard time about :P

Lots of L.A. riders sound at the same time angry while also cheerfully enthusiastic about the biking life in L.A., as evidenced by the post and the 1st few comments.... I have to say my own biking life seems to be quite different than most Angelenos simply b/c I bike almost exclusively in Santa Monica, where lanes are wide and fellow riders are plentiful, even on non Critical Mass days....

[E.D.]

Right on! What a great way to show people how much or how little to be "involved".

[SKD]

The LA "Bike Kulture" with its hip, party atmosphere has created a bicycle community that gathers together every weekend and rides throughout the city in a ebullient Mardis Gras-type celebration. When it comes to actually organizing bicycles en masse and cycling to a City Council meeting, the results are less than epic.

What is needed is more bicyclists talking to the city and showing them that you pay taxes, work jobs and spend money just like everyone else. Prove yourselves as a political and economic force, rather than just a fringe group of weekend riders. That you deserve to be given the bicycle infrastructure necessary to ride daily, safely and comfortably.

The April 19th incident when West Hollywood Sheriffs tackled a bicyclists from a group ride and arrested him, also is an example of how some of the independent cities still view the bicycle as a hindrance rather than a legitimate means of transportation. They also seem to not know the law, California Vehicle Code 21200 states " (a) Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle..." Some bicyclists have chosen to boycott West Hollywood in response to their transgressions against bicyclists in the past month.

DYI and direct action will yield results, but it will be a protracted struggle.

[Sexy]

Right On Alex!

I tend to think we really don't need the City to get people on bikes. LA bike culture (as your article points out) is doing it already. As the bike culture becomes more successful at educating the populace that there is a way to transport oneself that is an all around winner(fun, easy on the pocket box, environmentally friendly, cardiovascular health promoting and may say again "fun") the more appealing it will be towards commuters.

We have critical mass rides, but it won't be until we reach true critical mass, that the city will have no choice but listen and create the infrastructure to allow cycling to be done in a way without intimidation from motor vehicles, and a on safely paved roads.

As for the issues most on Angelenos mind; Yesterday it was traffic, today it is gas prices, tomorrow it will be a safe bicycle infrastructure

I have no worry that is what the future will bring.

Ride On!

[David in Tarzana]

Sadly, our best ally in the fight for a safe, intelligent bicycle infrastructure, is the rise in gasoline prices. I pray daily for the $7 dollars a gallon price that is supposedly lurking around the next corner. Until it becomes financially untenable for Angelenos, bicycle infrastructure will remain an afterthought and irritant to the leaders of this city.

[Lasbi Anlov]

As someone who has painted a few extra-legal sharrows, I want to lend support to what Alex has said.

The state can do a lot - but when they totally ignore the best interests of an educated, moneyed, community, they do so at their own peril.

Cycling interests are really starting to coalesce into a political force. I hope we're able to have more fun, and wield some real political power during the next City Council election cycle.

[Siel]

Love the idea of channeling fun into political activism. Do you really think it'll be a protracted struggle though? I'd like to think maybe we've reached a tipping point, but maybe that's overly optimistic thinking --

[Alex Thompson]

Car culture is pretty deeply ingrained. Cars are our most important status symbol. Once cyclists develop the muscle to push politicians, I expect a strong push back. Economic conditions will play a big part I think. If things are bad economically (as they are now) or gas is expensive, cyclists have the additonal cover that what they're doing is affordable. If not, they'll get painted as kooky environmentalists, a special interest.

Rambling rambling.

[SKD]

Here are just a few of the major obstacles and solutions: the Hollywood and Highland entertainment/shopping complex has a five level 3000 space car parking facility. Yet their bike rack can only accommodate five bikes, usually seven or even ten are sometimes packed in there. Bicyclists want to shop, go to the movies or eat at CPK but are not afforded the luxury or even the courtesy of bike parking.

I say ride by these places, don't shop there. Start making a list of places that do not provide adequate bike parking...post a list on bicycle forums. Tell the businesses that bicyclists won't shop there until changes are made to accommodate the bicyclist.

It really comes down to economics. If businesses and municipalities see bicyclists as a potential source of revenue, they will bend over backwards to capture that revenue. We just can't be afraid to use our wallets as weapons.

The "car culture" was born in LA. It's death will be resisted by many. The struggle to bury it will be a long and arduous journey.

[Roadblock]

I love riding my bike. LOVE. Love.

[Julie M C]

I love riding my bike, too. Except today I got hit by a car. Thank God I'm ok, I was able to ride off. I think my adrenaline was pumping and somehow I became able to resist pain. The motorist was all pissed at first and threw his hands in the air, but then he was nice enough to get out and see how I was. I don't even remember who was in the wrong, it happened so quickly, it just sucks because when you're on a bike you're at a tremendous disadvantage, in bike vs. car the car will always win. I think it's hard for motorists to realize, I mean you're sitting there in your plushy seats with your favorite music playing and a/c blasting, nice and comfortable, and that luxury that a car affords you makes you so much less alert. So on the one hand I could say I hate drivers, but on the other hand, I hate the cars more because they bring our laziness in human nature, "oh I'll just speed by this biker, who cares" type thing. In a car one is so far removed from nature and what's happening that you tend to sit back and speed and make shoddy turning decisions, etc etc.

That being said, riding in LA scares me, there's potholes so bad in the right lane sometimes I am forced to ride the sidewalk, which blows too. It should be illegal to drive a car for personal transport, I mean the idea that everyone gets their own two ton car and any tom, dick, and harry can drive it is insane. So insane.

[ingipet]

Alex Thompson does not have the correct information about 4th Street, or the efforts of 4SBB or in fact of Semiotics of the Ride (check the front page of 4SBB to see the link there) to improve bicycle infrastructure in Los Angeles.

http://www.4sbb.com

(check the Bicycle Library also!)

It is discouraging when even the activists seem to tear themselves apart, but so it goes. So it goes.

Ingrid Peterson enjoys seeing Alex Thompson riding his bicycle on the 405.

Bike Boulevards vs. Freeway riding.

Hey dude, Live the DREAM!

I support Alex Thompson!!!

Sometimes Ingrid Peterson wishes Alex Thompson would allow Ingrid Peterson a place at the table.... and not summarily exclude her (and many other) positive efforts and contributions to building a better and more bike-able city.