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.)