https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/isLAbikefriendly

Our Goal:

We want the clearest picture possible of bicycling in Los Angeles, and we believe that what cyclists think is a big missing piece.  Who really knows what cyclists think about cycling in Los Angeles?  Who really knows what motorists think?  Yes, we can identify some common attitudes, but we do not have a sense for how common.

Further, we don’t even know how perception of cycling has changed.  There seems to be a feeling that it’s perceived as safer, more socially acceptable, and more doable than some years ago.  But are we sure?  We can’t really know until we have real data.

The Approach:

There’s many things to find out about what cyclists want, and therefore, what cyclists need.  To that end, we are planning to regularly survey cyclists on a variety of issues, producing top notch opinion data that can be used by Los Angeles cyclists to move things forward.

How you can help:

• Take the survey!
• Share the survey link with your friends on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and via email:
  • https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/isLAbikefriendly

Ride on!

-Alex

A beautiful photograph by Craig Berry

Notable Quotes

Tim Fremaux (LADOT Bikeways) claims to have “noticed a major shift in policy in the city of Los Angeles, one that encourages active transportation as health. Not just maps and routes, but policy and implementation plans.” It was a bit of a shock to hear an LADOT staff member utter the words “we aim to place bike facilities on arterials as well as residential streets.” He also used the term “bike activist” in a positive context.  He also warned that “people complain about traffic and will fight any inch being taken away from cars”, unable to visualize the fact that bike facilities tend to reduce congestion in the end.

Jeff Averill (UCLA Campus Architect) urged people to be more politically involved in order to influence local policy.

Jeff Young (UCLA Police Chief) stated that UCPD has absolutely no policy in place to harass cyclists, they are simply looking out for reckless skateboarders and cyclists in the Dismount Zone near Ackerman Union. He expects cyclists to follow the same rules of the road as automobiles. Jeff closed his short talk with a cordial statement: “No matter where you come from at UCLA, we are your police department”.

Cassandra Carlin (Stantec Consultant) suggested the green sharrow carpet treatment for Westwood Boulevard, similar to Long Beach’s Belmont Shore.

Andrew Thomas (Westwood Business Improvement District), whose goal is a more economically vibrant Westwood, stated that “alternative transportation, bicycling especially, can play a role in economic revitalization”. He is supportive of a Broxton bike corral and a bike sharing hub in Westwood Village.

Justin Resnick (UCLA Bike Coalition) said that the LA Bike Plan low hanging fruit is almost gone. Hard decisions need to be made now, and cyclists will need to get involved and get their voice heard (referring to the expected pushback from bike haters).

Future Bike Facilities

- Sharrows on Ohio in the next month or so
- a bike corral on Broxton in the “near future”
- a totem pole-style cyclist counter on Westwood Bl
- Weyburn Terrace Apartments, which will be future graduate student housing, will have a secure bike room which can fit up to 75 bikes

LACBC intern Hyeran Lee inquires about the disparity between funds utilized towards car facilities versus ped and bike funding

Bike Lanes Protecting Cyclists Should be a Priority

Since you last heard from me, I’ve joined the Outreach Committee for the Sawtelle-Bundy Traffic Safety Program. The Program will help administer funds that were allocated by developers to mitigate traffic in West LA area. We’re hosting a pair of Town Hall meetings for residents to provide their input to the traffic engineer on the project, and we need your voice! Please check out the email blast that we sent out below, and attend one of both of the Town Halls.  See you there!

The Sawtelle-Bundy Traffic Safety Program invites you to two Town Halls in West LA:

Thursday, April 5, 2012 – 7:00 p.m.
West LA Neighborhood Council Office
1645 Corinth Ave. 2nd floor
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(south of Santa Monica Blvd. behind the Library and Felicia Mahood Senior Center)

and

Saturday, April 14, 2012 – 3:00 p.m.
Stoner Park
1835 Stoner Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(south of Santa Monica Blvd., cross-street is Missouri Ave.)

The goal of this new program is to reduce cut-through traffic and the danger it causes to residents and their families, along with the noise and air pollution also caused by traffic in our neighborhood.

A limited fund has been established to help provide for new stop signs, speed bumps, crosswalks and other solutions for a safer community.

We need to know where the traffic problems are near your homes, and what days and times these traffic problems are at their worst. Please attend one of the town halls to discuss your approach to improving our street safety. You can also provide your feedback by filling out the attached survey and returning to wlatraffic@aol.com, and through an on-line form at the website of the WLA Neighborhood Council at www.wlanc.com.

We all complain about traffic, but this is your chance to provide input to the Sawtelle-Bundy Traffic Safety Program and your City Councilmember, Bill Rosendahl (CD11). A traffic engineer will attend to describe possible traffic mitigations and solutions to make our West L.A. community safer.

Please encourage friends and family to attend. You may also submit written comments / suggestions:

Mail: Whitney Blumenfeld
Senior Planning Deputy, Council District 11
1645 Corinth Avenue, Room 201
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Email: wlatraffic@aol.com
whitney.blumenfeld@lacity.org

Phone: (310) 575-8461

How many times have you heard the response, “we can’t do that project because it will require an EIR.” (An EIR is an Environmental Impact Report and is a hefty and timely document) It is almost like environmental review will destroy a perfectly bitchen bike project. The stinging smell that crosses my nose everytime I hear those words come out of a collegues mouth is one of pure BULLSHIT! I have spent enough of my life digging through the CEQA Guidelines book to know full well a line of bullshit when I hear it.

Here comes the super nerdy part. The first thing a project goes through, long before the EIR can come along is an Initial Review. It is basically a checklist of potential environmental impacts. The checklist is included as an attachment in the CEQA Guidelines book that comes out pretty much every year. As one might assume, there is a Transportation/Traffic section of the checklist. But not all checklists are the same. Each year the checklists get tweaked a little depending on case law and what not. My office has a whole stack of these Guidelines books laying around from years past. So lets take compare a 2005 checklist with the 2010 checklist, nerdy bureaucrat style…

XV. TRANSPORTATION/TRAFFIC — Would the project:

a) Cause an increase in traffic which is substantial in relation to the existing traffic load and capacity of the street system (i.e., result in a substantial increase in either the number of vehicle trips, the volume to capacity ratio on roads, or congestion at intersections)?

b) Exceed, either individually or cumulatively, a level of service standard established by the county congestion management agency for designated roads or highways?

c) Result in a change in air traffic patterns, including either an increase in traffic levels or a change in location that results in substantial safety risks?

d) Substantially increase hazards due to a design feature (e.g., sharp curves or dangerous intersections) or incompatible uses (e.g., farm equipment)?

e) Result in inadequate emergency access?

f) Result in inadequate parking capacity?

So each of these items has four boxes next to it that represent “No Impact”, “Less Than Significant Impact”, “Less Than Significant With Mitigation”, and “Potentially Significant Impact”. If your project may have a “Potentially Significant Impact” there is a good chance that an EIR is going to be required. Ok so that is the 2005 checklist and it is jammed full of the assumption that car traffic is bad and a project that increases car traffic is the devil. Now lets move five years into the future and take a look at the 2010 checklist…

XVI. TRANSPORTATION/TRAFFIC. Would the project:

a) Conflict with an applicable plan, ordinance or policy establishing measures of effectiveness for the performance of the circulation system, taking into account all modes of transportation including mass-transit and non-motorized travel and relevent components of the circulation system, including but not limited to intersections, streets, highways and freeways, pedestrian and bicycle paths, and mass transit?

b) Conflict with an applicable congestion management program, including, but not limited to level of service standards and travel demand measures, or other standards established by the county congestion management agency for designated roads or highways?

c) Result in air traffic patterns, including either an increase in traffic levels or a change of location that results in substantial safety risks?

d) Substantially increase hazards due to a design feature (e.g., sharp curves or dangerous intersections) or incompatible uses (e.g., farm equipment)?

e) Result in inadequate emergency access?

f) Conflict with adopted policies, plans, or programs regarding public transit, bicycle, or pedestrian facilities, or otherwise decrease the performance or safety of such facilities?

So there you have it… the bicycle was invented somewhere between 2005 and 2010! Ok maybe not, but the CEQA Guidelines took off their training wheels and stopped riding on the sidewalk somewhere during that time.

As a bureaucrat I am not longer forced to look at the transportation system in terms of how many cars I can cram through an intersection during the hours of 7-9am and 4-6pm. So when you hear someone say “we can’t do that project because it will require an EIR,”  take the Subjective Bureaucrat’s lead and tell them BULLSHIT!

While I am at it I might as well add a list of some go-to exemptions that work really well for bike projects…

15061(b)(3) The activity is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possiblity that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA.

15282 (g) Any railroad grade separation project which eliminates an existing grade crossing  or reconstructs an exisitng grade separation

15301 (c) Negligible or no expansion of existing highways and streets, sidewalks, gutters, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and similar facilities

15304  (h) The creation of bicycle lanes on exisiting rights-of-way

With some fresh paint already on the streets, it is worth noting that we have many improvements to look forward to in the near future.

New Colorado Ave bike lane, Westbound - photo by GarySeven

Gary’s comments on the recent bike infrastructure improvements in downtown Santa Monica were brought up multiple times during the meeting. Planning Commission Chair Jim Ries wondered how other concerned locals can provide such feedback before the bike plan goes to City Council for approval on November 22nd. Lucy Dyke responded that direct email feedback to her would be best. She also mentioned future Santa Monica Spoke Ride Alongs which will be a great way to introduce the public to the new facilities as they emerge, and get feedback in the process – similar to Charlie Gandy’s Long Beach by Bike tours.

Commisionner McKinnon inquired about the project timetable for the next few years. Lucy Dyke promised 2 bike corrals by year’s end, along with 14 miles of sharrows, and 19 miles of bike lane. Included will be the green bike lanes on Broadway and 2nd St, which should be ready by July 2012. Tentatively, the city plans to install 2,500 new bike parking spots in the next 5yrs, 800 of which should spring up next year.

5th and Arizona Bike Corral, adjacent to SM ICE skating rink - photo by Luis Morris

One of those bike corrals has already made its debut at the Southwest corner of 5th and Arizona. Thanks to the efforts of transportation engineer Sam Morrisey and transportation manager Luis Morris, it was installed within days of ICE skating rink’s request. The Zanzibar night club is located on that same corner – great music and overall vibe, except for their deplorable dress code which requires you to wear pants, even during a heatwave. So leave your find-a-decent-parking-spot worries at home – hop on your bike and ride to your preferred entertainment destination.

Overall, the Planning Commission was very receptive of the Bike Action Plan. If anything, their nitpicking of implementation details disclosed their thorough understanding of issues that cyclists face. Lucy Dyke earned most memorable quote of the night by stating that “We (the city) cannot avoid eventually prioritizing bikes over car traffic.”

In other news

• The city of Santa Monica plans to take over Lincoln Blvd from Caltrans in March 2012; My hopes are that Santa Monica will then attempt to turn Lincoln into a Complete Street, minimizing or eradicating the possibility of serious injury or death
• Most cyclists are accustomed to triggering a traffic light in their favor by riding over the embedded magnetic loops?  But what about that white stripe with a bike symbol?  It means that a video camera placed directly ahead will trigger the light, so don’t stray too far away from that mark.
• The Bike Center opens this Friday! Info below.

Bike Center, Colorado and 2nd St - photo by GarySeven

The Bike Center opens this weekend; it offers bike and segway sharing, lockers and showers, cyclist education programs, assistance with repairs, and secured parking. Santa Monica Spoke is leading a tour there on Saturday, Nov 19th, following a Bike Action Plan community meeting at 502 Colorado. Meet and greet at 10am; Bike Action Plan presentation led by city staff at 11am. Coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls will be on hand, and a 1 month membership to the Bike Center will be given away.

CD 15 candidate Frank Pereyda.

“For the LA Waterfront project to be totally successful, bike and foot traffic will have to be a major part of the planning process,” wrote Frank Pereyda, Council District 15 candidate, in Bikeside’s Survey on Biking and Walking.

One of the key issues in the Council District 15 election is transportation.  Bikeside’s survey provides an opportunity for CD 15 candidates to articulate their awareness and support of sustainable transportation, including biking and walking policies.  All CD 15 candidates were invited to participate in the survey in early September.

The LA Waterfront includes eight miles of proposed bicycle facilities stretching from Cabrillo Beach to Vincent Thomas Bridge, which you can see by clicking HERE.   However, the eight miles of bikeways are comprised of a mix of bike routes, bike lanes and bike paths.  Another obstacle for cyclists is the Waterfront’s lack of connectivity to CD 15′s on-street bicycle lanes.  “There’s a lack of safe bike access to the LA Waterfront,” noted Pereyda.  Although candidates view CD 15’s Paseo Del Mar as bike-friendly, Pereyda thinks CD 15 needs more well marked bike lanes and bike paths.

“I ride my bike once a month,” said Pereyda. “The best part of my bike rides is being near the ocean, the fresh air and great feeling of being outdoors.”  Bike friendly cities such as Long Beach, Oakland and San Francisco have succeeded in striking a balance between supporting the economic vitality of their ports and improving the quality of life for all residents. Why can’t Los Angeles?

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact Bikeside at contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

CD 15 candidates who shared their bike-friendly ideas with Bikeside include (from left to right): Gordon Teuber, John Delgado, Justin Brimmer, Jayme Wilson, Joe Buscaino and Candice Graham. Photo by Enci Box, October 29th Watts Candidate Forum.

Bikeside asked candidates in the November 8, 2011 Special Council District 15 Election to take its bike friendliness survey and participate in the CicLAvia edition of Bikeside Speaks.

Of the eleven candidates on the CD 15 ballot, the following eight candidates engaged with Bikeside and committed to getting cycling on City Hall’s agenda, if elected to City Council:

• Justin Brimmer
• Joe Buscaino
• Rebecca Chambliss
• John Delgado
• Candice Graham
• Frank Pereyda 
• Gordon Teuber
• Jayme Wilson

Bikeside thanks these eight candidates for engaging the cycling community in the democratic process, and encourages CD 15 cyclists to support them in tomorrow’s Special CD 15 Election. Click HERE to find your polling place!

The other three candidates – Warren Furutani, Pat McOsker and Rudy Svorinich – did not complete Bikeside’s survey or participate in Bikeside Speaks.  Bikeside personally spoke with Furutani and McOsker about the survey, but the candidates did not follow through and complete it.  Neither did Svorinich after several conversations with his campaign staff over the course of two months.  Bikeside’s survey aims to measure candidates’ support for the five E’s of bike friendliness: engineering, encouragement, enforcement, education and evaluation.

Bikeside also introduced cycling and pedestrian policy questions at the October 2^nd Candidate Forum hosted by Mayoral candidate Kevin James, the October 22^nd LA Harbor College Candidate Forum and the October 29^th Watts-Willowbrook Candidate Forum.

Bikeside’s participation in the oil-dominated politics of CD 15 marks the second time that cyclists have been actively engaged in an LA City Council race since Stephen Box’s Council District 4 race earlier this year.  In May 2011, nine of the sixteen candidates in the CA-36 Congressional District election responded to Bikeside’s Survey on Biking and Walking, including the major frontrunners Debra Bowen, Janice Hahn, Marcy Winograd and Mayor Mike Gin.

Readers: If there’s a Special CD 15 Runoff Election on January 17, 2012, and you’d like to flyer in support of the pro-walking and biking candidate(s), please contact Bikeside at Contact@BikesideLA.org. 

CD 15 candidate Joe Buscaino.

“The most significant obstacle to CD 15 becoming more bike friendly is the amount of automobile traffic on our streets,” wrote Joe Buscaino, Council District 15 candidate, in Bikeside’s biking and walking survey.  “It makes biking more difficult for casual riders.  While we have some bike lanes throughout the district, I do believe we need many more,” said Buscaino (pronounced Boo-Sky-ee-No).  He believes Neighborhood Councils are in the best position to make neighborhoods bike-friendly.

One of the issues dominating the CD 15 race is neighborhood safety.  “Public safety is near and dear to my heart,” Buscaino told audience members and moderator Stephen Box at the October 29^th Watts-Willowbrook candidate forum.  “I will not cut city public safety services,” emphasized Buscaino. “Everything else, I’ll put on the table,” he added.

Buscaino has served as an LAPD officer for 15 years – six of those years as a Harbor Area Senior Lead Officer.  In January 2006, Buscaino founded the Harbor Area Teen Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB) – an organization LAPD Chief Charlie Beck expanded citywide.  The Teen CPAB focuses on educating teens about gang prevention measures and the fatal consequences of driving under the influence.

Bikeside left a flyer on a voter’s welcome mat right after CD 15 candidate Joe Buscaino did! Photo by Bikeside President Dr. Alex Thompson.

To make every street a safe place to bike for children, teens and adults, Buscaino says he wants to fully implement CD 15’s portion of the LA Bike Plan.  “I have also believed for some time that we should start installing more bicycle-safe street grates and lighting for bikeways,” added Buscaino.  The LAPD Senior Lead Officer told Bikeside he’s most excited about the Comprehensive Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan, which seeks to reduce injuries and fatalities through construction projects that improve safety of K-12 students who walk or bike to school.  “There are some areas in San Pedro and Wilmington that accommodate bike riding,” noted Buscaino, “but I am sad to say that we still have a long way to go here, as we do across Los Angeles.”

Buscaino says the best part about his bike rides is the exercise and “the environmental benefits of riding a bike instead of driving.”  As a California Conservation Corps Green Advisory Committee member, Buscaino says he’s excited about the Bike Plan’s Greenhouse Gas Emission Tracking Program.  Such a program would quantify emissions reductions generated by less driving and more bike trips.  In addition to car pollution, CD 15 residents are susceptible to the Port’s maritime and truck pollution, which costs $61 billion and results in 3,700 premature deaths each year.

A San Pedro voter invited Bikeside to photograph his “Joe Buscaino for LA City Council” lawn sign earlier today. Photo by Bikeside President Dr. Alex Thompson.

Sustainable transportation such as biking could help reduce pollution and support Buscaino’s push for green job and product growth.  “Even if I have to go through the White Pages,” Buscaino told the Watts candidate forum audience, “I’ll reach out to businesses to relocate to CD 15.”  Green transportation could help draw more green technology firms and research centers to CD 15 by sustainably connecting people to jobs.  Buscaino believes there’s room for bikeways growth in CD 15, including more bike paths, lanes and routes in San Pedro, Watts and Wilmington.  “I believe that bike friendliness is likely to spread if it is implemented in the City of Los Angeles,” the San Pedro insider told Bikeside.  ”Bike riders will demand more bike-friendly policies and programs in adjoining cities if they can get them in LA,” asserted Buscaino.

Embedded into every conversation about his campaign is Buscaino’s ties to the San Pedro community.  “The majority of my campaign contributions come from people who live in CD 15.  That is unheard of and unprecedented,” declared Buscaino at the October 29^th candidate forum. “I’m proud I’m not endorsed by public officials,” he told members of the Watts community.

Thank you, Joe Buscaino, for answering Bikeside Survey and for your interest in sustainable transportation!  Bikeside looks forward to working with you on making the streets of CD 15 safer for all road users.

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact Bikeside at contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

CD 15 candidates who shared their bike-friendly ideas with Bikeside include (from left to right): Gordon Teuber, John Delgado, Justin Brimmer, Jayme Wilson, Joe Buscaino and Candice Graham. Photo by Enci Box, October 29th Watts Candidate Forum.

CD 15 Candidate Rebecca Chambliss.

“There are virtually no bike lanes on any streets in CD 15,” wrote Rebecca Chambliss, a realtor running for Council District 15.  “Many of the streets are narrow and it’s rare to see bikes on other than the main streets,” Chambliss noted in Bikeside’s survey.  As a cyclist who rides once a week, Chambliss says that the best part of her bike rides is “the freedom, the exercise and seeing things from a different point of view.”  Acknowledging the prevailing car culture in CD 15, Chambliss says the worst part about biking is “the traffic and the cars that don’t see or stop.”

San Pedro’s Paseo Del Mar is often recognized as the most bike-friendly area in CD 15.  Chambliss sees Paseo Del Mar’s bike lane and walk way as an example of what can be cultivated in other CD 15 areas with the support of local communities.  As part of her strategy to install bike lanes, Chambliss would “get some very local input as to where in CD 15 we could safely add bike lanes.” This includes the neighborhood councils, who “have direct access with and feedback from the people who live in the community and I believe they should have input,” wrote Chambliss.

Bikeside also asked Chambliss what she would do to ensure that the City of LA coordinates with Carson, Compton, Torrance, LA County and other adjoining jurisdictions to improve regional bike linkages. “I think it’s been started with education, laws against those harassing bikers and working to add more bike lanes.  I think there also needs to be areas for bikes to be kept in transportation hubs and attractions,” suggested Chambliss.  As a Councilmember, Chambliss says she’ll direct LADOT to install the Bike Plan’s Backbone Bikeways Network in CD 15, which includes bike improvements on Vermont Avenue, the Pacific Coast Highway, Anaheim Street, Gaffey Street, Del Amo Boulevard, Imperial Highway and Manchester Avenue.

Some of the Backbone’s arterial streets have 35 to 40 mile per hour speed limits, which are hazardous to cyclists and pedestrians.  Chambliss thinks that “setting speed limits in the top end of traffic and only having to review it every 10 years probably isn’t adequate with the increase in cars and bikes on the road.”  Instead, she’d like to see Caltrans’ methodology for setting speed limits give greater consideration to those who use the road and the surrounding communities.  She’s also supportive of allocating more resources to LAPD for bicycle safety and traffic enforcement.

Chambliss was the first CD 15 candidate to answer Bikeside’s survey on biking and walking.  She also joined Bikeside at the October 9^th CicLAvia and spoke with Bikeside at the October 22^nd LA Harbor College candidate forum.  Bikeside works closely with neighborhood councils to create bike-friendly communities and looks forward to collaborating with Chambliss on safe streets initiatives!

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact Bikeside at contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

CD 15 Candidate Gordon Teuber.

“[I]n CD 15, we have a lot of opportunity to improve our bicycle opportunities.  We have some of the most beautiful coastline in all of California right in CD 15, in San Pedro, along Paseo Del Mar,” Gordon Teuber, CD 15 candidate, told cyclists at the October 9^th Bikeside Speaks.

“My vision is that I want to see a little bit more linkage between our beautiful coastline and our LA Waterfront.  We do have a great plan for the LA Waterfront, a $1.2 billion Waterfront Plan that’s been approved, and we’re going to have, some day, nine miles of bicycle path throughout the Port, and right now, we only have about a mile of it, unfortunately,” added Teuber.

Teuber said it’s difficult for cyclists to get from San Pedro to Long Beach and down to the Pacific Coast Highway.  His solution: build “better connections between our coastline and our Waterfront, and from our Waterfront over to Long Beach so we can be more bicycle-friendly for all of Southern Californiato enjoy CD 15.”

Teuber is consistently engaged with Bikeside, including speaking about cycling at candidate forums, answering Bikeside’s survey (read Alex Thompson’s post here), signing the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights and participating in Bikeside Speaks.  You can listen to Gordon Teuber at Bikeside Speaks in Enci Box’s embedded video below.

A proponent of bicycle safety, Teuber told Stephen Box that his son Gordy wears a motorcycle helmet every time he rides a bike. “I brought something along today because I wanted to tell you a little story about when I was five years old, and I didn’t have a helmet, and I went down my parents’ driveway, and over the curb and landed face first and knocked all of my teeth, broke my upper jaw bone, and ever since Gordy’s been riding a bike, he’s been wearing a motorcycle helmet,” said Teuber as he placed a BMX helmet on his son’s head.  The CD 15 candidate cautioned parents against the safety of the average child bike helmet. “[M]y opinion is that these bicycle helmets aren’t good, not for children, so I encourage all parents and families to get a bigger better helmet for their kids,” recommended Teuber.

CD 15 Candidate Gordon Teuber and his family take the stage at the CicLAvia edition of Bikeside Speaks.

As the former Director of Economic Development for Janice Hahn, Teuber has worked to create  more jobs in CD 15.  “We still have a lot of jobs down at the Port.  Don’t think that we don’t have a lot of job generation down there, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity to come back and grow some more,” declared Teuber.  In the absence of a Green Line Extension to Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, San Pedro, Watts and Wilmington, Teuber says biking helps connect people to jobs in CD 15.  “I recognize that in today’s tough economy, that a lot of people need to use a bicycle as an alternative form of transportation and that really links into public transit, and if you can’t really afford a car today, you can’t afford $4 per gallon of gasoline, you can’t afford insurance, a bicycle’s a great way to get from point A to point B to get to that bus line and get to a job,” remarked Teuber.

After participating in the last three CicLAvias, Teuber says it’s time to bring the event to CD 15.  “Absolutely, absolutely, in fact, you know, we do have a couple of bicycle races a year in Downtown San Pedro on a Sunday morning like [CicLavia] where we close down the streets,” Teuber reminded Box.  “We also have a lot of bicycle clubs in the South Bay.  A lot them go around the Palos Verdes peninsula, and I would think it would be great to have more events in the San Pedro area that are tied into our coastal communities,” suggested Teuber.

CD 15 Candidate Gordon Teuber discusses child bike helmets at Bikeside Speaks.

Teuber says he’s running for public office because he loves public service and is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and give it his all.  “I know in politics you gotta deal with everything from the little things to the big things, and it’s in my heart, I enjoy it,” said Teuber before signing the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights.

Thank you Gordon Teuber for engaging with cyclists at the candidate forums, Bikeside Speaks and through Bikeside’s survey! Bikeside looks forward to working with you on improving bike connectivity in CD 15!

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact Bikeside at contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

CD 15 candidates who shared their bike-friendly ideas with Bikeside include (from left to right): Gordon Teuber, John Delgado, Justin Brimmer, Jayme Wilson, Joe Buscaino and Candice Graham. Photo by Enci Box, October 29th Watts Candidate Forum.

CD 15 Candidate Justin Brimmer

“My brother was riding a bike and a 16-wheeler hit him.  He flew up in the air about 30-40 feet, bounced on the ground, and thanks to God, he survived, but that’s a danger,” said Justin Brimmer, CD 15 candidate, at the October 9^th CicLAvia edition of Bikeside Speaks.  “We give them bikes, we give them the opportunity to express themselves and go green, but yet they have to risk their lives to do it. Unacceptable. We need bike lanes all throughout [Council District 15],” added Brimmer.

Brimmer told hundreds of cyclists that he’d work to bring the Bike Plan’s Backbone Bikeway Network (Backbone) to life in CD 15.  “[The Backbone] is necessary.  A lot of the folks in our district do not have cars.  A lot of the folks in our district have to depend on alternative modes of transportation to get to the places they need to go,” explained Brimmer before signing the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights.

To establish cycling as a long-distance form of transportation, Brimmer said more water stops are needed in CD 15. “When you’re riding and you’re using your bike, not just as a fun two-minute ride, but as a form of transportation, and just like they refuel with gasoline, we need to be able to refuel with Gatorade, or water or anything [cyclists] may need to keep them going that extra mile or two,” emphasized Brimmer who was joined on stage by his wife Misha and daughter Jordan.  You can listen to Justin Brimmer at Bikeside Speaks in Enci Box’s embedded video below.

When asked by former Bicycle Advisory Committee President Glenn Bailey which parts of the LA Bike Plan he’d implement first, Brimmer said he’d look for creative solutions to accommodate pedestrian, cyclists and skaters on CD 15’s narrow streets.  “I believe you have to have a requirement of at least 30 feet of right-of-way for five feet worth of bike lane space.  A lot of [CD 15] streets are too narrow to actually accommodate this [requirement]. The Bike Plan has to be adaptive so that it can accommodate this type of geographic that we have in the 15^th Council District. I know some districts, like in Venice, have a design that allows pedestrians to have one portion and bicyclists to have another portion.  That’s the type of thinking we need in the 15^th District,” replied Brimmer.

CD 15 Candidate Justin Brimmer signs the Cyclists' Bill of Rights at Bikeside Speaks with Jose Sigala and Stephen Box. Photo by Enci Box.

In addition to CD 15 representation on the Metro Board and enforcement of the city parking occupancy tax, Brimmer thinks bike facilities are part of a larger commitment to accommodate different modes of transportation that allows CD 15 residents to move.  “A lot of people in our district depend on public transportation.  We don’t have a Blue Line that goes all the way to San Pedro and connects Downtown.  The DASH Line is being cut.  Certain MTA Lines are being combined with other MTA lines.  So a lot of it is the dependence on a bike or a skateboard,” Brimmer told Stephen Box.

At the October 22^nd LA Harbor College CD 15 Candidate Forum, Brimmer finished first in a straw poll of 14 candidates. The former Hahn Deputy told audience members at Saturday’s Watts-Willowbrook Candidate Forum he thinks the real question is which candidate will truly fight hard to ensure that CD 15 receives its fair share of city resources.  “We have increased fines, fees, and taxes, but our city services are decreasing,” asserted Brimmer at the October 29^th Candidate Forum.  “It’s crucial that we have repaved streets.  The potholes are not only a danger to bicyclists, but they’re a danger to skateboarders, they’re a danger to car drivers, and I really think it’s a sign of a failing infrastructure,” insisted Brimmer.  The CD 15 candidate said one of the things he would change is how the city “distributes the miles that get repaved,” which “need to be based off of a triage system.  Based off of those streets that have the worst or have the most need, should be the ones that get repaved.”

The Brimmer Family at the CicLAvia edition of Bikeside Speaks. Photo by Enci Box.

To promote district pride and increase revenues, Brimmer said cycling can be “marketed in a way that invites the bicyclists internationally, if not nationally and locally, to come to our district and maybe eat there.”  According to Brimmer, transforming CD 15 into a bike tourism center will require opening up streets and creating pathways that attract cyclists of varying skill level to the area’s diverse landscape and terrain.  “So if you do want to bike up Western Avenue and go up those high hills, you need to be able to have that opportunity.  If you want to stay low and stay flat and go through the Harbor Gateway, you need that opportunity as well,” Brimmer enthused.

Over the last month, Brimmer has reiterated he’s running for City Council because he believes too many young people’s lives are being cut short. “One in four members in [CD 15] lives in poverty.  Sixty percent of our district is under the age of 34. So we have a fairly young demographic, but one of the things we have to understand is that we have to bring them to the forefront and give them something to do,” remarked Brimmer.  “So I knew that what we needed was a visionary and a leader who had a vision or something that was big enough for everybody.  Not only in San Pedro,Wilmington and Harbor City, but also the Harbor Gateway and Watts.  So that’s why in the [campaign] title we have a joint vision ‘From the Bridge to the Towers,’” explained Brimmer.

Justin Brimmer and Glenn Bailey, former Bicycle Advisory Committee President, at Bikeside Speaks. Photo by Enci Box.

Many thanks to Justin Brimmer and his family for participating in Bikeside Speaks and the democratic process! Bikeside looks forward to working with you on bringing the Backbone Network to life in CD 15!

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact: contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

CD 15 candidates who shared their bike-friendly ideas with Bikeside include (from left to right): Gordon Teuber, John Delgado, Justin Brimmer, Jayme Wilson, Joe Buscaino and Candice Graham. Photo by Enci Box, October 29th Watts Candidate Forum.

CD 15 Candidate John Delgado and his sons Joseph and Paul William at the October 9th Bikeside Speaks.

“You know, I always tell my kids stories about growing up in San Pedro.  How I rode my bike everywhere.  I would ride my bike as a kid all throughout town and all throughout San Pedro,” remarked CD 15 candidate John Delgado at the CicLAvia edition of Bikeside Speaks.  “But there’s one thing you gotta remember about San Pedro: there’s a lot of hills and a lot of slopes.  It’s not like [Downtown LA] where you’re riding on flat land.  In San Pedro, you have to be ready to climb some hills!” Delgado reminded cyclists.

The Delgado Family joins Stephen Box at Bikeside Speaks.

“I think [CicLAvia] is great! Having all these families and kids out here riding on their bikes and just really having a great family time,” said Delgado who was joined on stage by his wife Gina Delgado and sons Paul William and Joseph.  Delgado told cyclists that he’d absolutely commit to bringing CicLAvia to CD 15 “by Paseo Del Mar, Harbor Boulevard, Ports O’Call, and all throughout San Pedro and also down through Wilmington through Machado Lake and Harbor City and then we could end at Watts Towers.  With the Waterfront development, with the USS Iowa coming down, I believe we could start from [Downtown LA] and ride all the way down to see the USS Iowa, which will be berthed in San Pedro.”  You can listen to John Delgado at Bikeside Speaks in Enci Box’s embedded video below.

To make streets safer for kids to bike and walk to school, Delgado would like to see better enforcement of traffic laws and including the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights on the DMV test.  Delgado would also like to see “more of the rail guards for the kids to ride bikes.  Even on campus, before school starts, kids can have an opportunity to get some exercise and ride their bike before they go into the classroom, and be fit.  Our school, where my kids go to, they had a bike-athon where kids rode their bike as a fundraiser.  And they just rode and rode and got a lot of exercise out of it and that was a great event.” Delgado also told Box that he believes it is “important that the kids have their helmets on.”  To improve CD 15’s transit connectivity, Delgado has also been looking into extending San Pedro’s Red Cable Car to the Blue Line and into Watts.

Gina Delgado and son Paul William on stage with Stephen Box at Bikeside Speaks.

“I grew up on the streets and now I want to give back and serve our community,” Delgado told moderator Stephen Box and members of the Watts-Willowbrook Community at the October 29th CD 15 Candidate Forum.  Delgado said that he’s running for CD 15 because he believes that Los Angeles “needs leadership and it needs accountability.”  His “One Vision, One Community” campaign aims to bring that accountability to the people through an open door policy.  ”If [people] want to ask me questions. If any bicyclist want to ask me questions, if they have any questions, my door is always open to hear them,” asserted Delgado.

Delgado said that he doesn’t believe in “raising thousands of dollars,” and that “our cities and our residents are taxed enough.”  According to Delgado, what the voters need is “accountability and they need to be able to talk to a real person about real issues.”  He  says he sleeps comfortable at night knowing that he’s done his best by “going out there and speaking to people one-on-one and not having to worry about the special interest groups saying do this or do that.”  “I’m just led by what I believe is right” asserted Delgado. “I’m [campaigning] the old fashioned way, by going street by street and walking.  Now that I see these [CicLAvia] bikes, I might just get a bike and do it bike-by-bike and bike through the neighborhood” Delgado told Box.

The Delgado Family at Bikeside Speaks.

Delgado affirmed his support for community engagement when asked by Box if he strongly supports the public establishing policy to ensure that citywide policy is sensitive to the needs of a local neighborhood.  “Yes, absolutely,” said Delgado.  “I believe that’s why the neighborhood councils are a great forum. I believe the neighborhood councils should be used in order to get those policies brought, not only to the local people, but to the community as a whole, and really preach that, and get that out to the communities,” elaborated Delgado.

The October 9th Bikeside Speaks took place in front of LAPD HQ and City Hall.

As the former President and Board Member of the San Pedro Central Neighborhood Council and member of the Land Use Sub-committee, Delgado told cyclists that he “gained the respect of the people in the community, of [his] colleagues, and they elected [him] as their president,” where he served for three years.  Delgado has helped revitalize San Pedro by refurbishing Leland Park and YMCA Bloch Field, re-establishing the San Pedro Youth Sports Association, and raising $200,000 to renovate the Peck Park sports facilities.

Thank you, John Delgado, for your leadership in Central San Pedro and for signing the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights!  Bikeside looks forward to seeing you and your family on the campaign trail!

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact Bikeside at contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

John Delgado and sons Joseph and Paul William at Bikeside Speaks.

 

Bikeside’s 20-question survey aims to measure candidates’ support for the five E’s of bike friendliness: engineering, encouragement, enforcement, education and evaluation.  Wilson said that he favors bike-friendly engineering solutions that “minimize the negative impact of parking by accommodating bicyclists, carpool and car share vehicles in design of upcoming public parking infrastructural sites.”

Former San Pedro Chamber of Commerce President Jayme Wilson is one of 14 candidates vying for the Council District 15 (CD 15) seat vacated by former Councilmember Janice Hahn who was recently elected to the 36^th Congressional District seat.  CD 15 encompasses the communities of San Pedro, Watts, Wilmington, North and South Harbor Gateway and the Port of Los Angeles.  The election for the CD 15 seat will be held on November 8, 2011.  If more than 50% of the vote does not go to any one candidate, the top two vote-getters of any political party, will advance to the January 17, 2012 runoff.

A San Pedro voter invited Bikeside to photograph their "Jayme Wilson for LA City Council" lawn sign. Photo by Bikeside President Dr. Alex Thompson.

As you’ll see below, Bikeside’s survey covered topics ranging from implementation of the LA Bike Plan to regional planning to speed limits. Read on to see what Jayme Wilson had to say, feel free to comment below and don’t forget to vote on November 8th, if you live in CD 15!

[Editor's note: I just wanted to jump onto Bikeside Chris's post here and mention that I spoke 1 on 1 with Jayme at last week's candidate forum for a few minutes.  He really impressed me.  He knew about the relative affordability of bike lanes, and when I started running through cost comparisons of bike lanes, sidewalks, repaving and bike paths, he understood it all.  That's pretty uncommon to find someone who is that comfortable with the quantitative side.  Afterward, he launched into a description of a Safe Routes to School application he had collaborated on, and he discussed curb cuts and traffic calming.  On the whole, he gets it, as much as any candidate I've talked with yet.  - Alex Thompson]

CD 15 candidates who shared their bike-friendly ideas with Bikeside include (from left to right): Gordon Teuber, John Delgado, Justin Brimmer, Jayme Wilson, Joe Buscaino, and Candice Graham. Photo by Enci Box, October 29th Watts Candidate Forum.

Q&A With CD 15 Candidate Jayme Wilson

Bikeside: How often do you bike?

Wilson: Two or more times a year.

Bikeside: What’s the best part of your bike rides? What’s the worst? How can we cultivate more of the good and less of the bad?

Wilson: I am a huge advocate of bikers and active people in my community. I believe exercising, especially biking, is not only great for our environment but also an activity that enhances our health and promotes healthy living. I not only encourage my community members to participate in cycling activities, but as the next City Council member, I will see to it that there are more bicycle friendly roads available.  By fixing the sidewalks and making smoother roads in the 15th District, I believe the community will be more attractive for all active citizens to enjoy.

Bikeside: In Bikeside’s recent survey, 70% of respondents (386 out of 552) say that Los Angeles is not bike friendly. Generally speaking, what do you see as the obstacles to CD 15 becoming bike friendly?

Wilson: I believe the sidewalks in my district have not been maintained, making it hard for active members of the community to make much use out of them. It concerns me that the trees and the hedges are not being cleaned out, making it dangerous for cyclist to bike along the side of the road or even on the sidewalks.  Furthermore, there are also too few bike lanes incorporated into 15th District’s roads! As the next City Council member, I will see to it that there are funds being set aside for building bike friendly roads for active citizens to use.

LADOT Commuter Express Line 142 in San Pedro. Photo by LA Wad.

Bikeside: Which components of the 2010 LA Bike Plan do you plan to implement in CD 15 to make streets safer and more inviting for cyclists?

Wilson: I like the plan that has been incorporated into the West Hollywood and Santa Monica Boulevardwhere there exists Bike friendly routes and lanes added to their streets. I believe the 15th District has failed to develop a practical bike network that makes pedestrian and bicycle mobility a true option of transportation for their community.  Though, I support a shuttle service system to be active for key destinations of my district via the West Hollywood General Plan 2035: M-2 section. I do believe that we should seek to incorporate suggestions like minimizing the negative impact of parking by accommodating bicyclists, carpool and car share vehicles in design of upcoming public parking infrastructural sites. I believe we have the capacity to collect fees from developers and even set aside city funds to follow projects in sidewalk improvement, aesthetic repaving and landscaping, bicycle infrastructure, traffic calming devices, traffic signals and other street improvements that [support] the pedestrian/biking activities within the 15th District.  In addition, as funding becomes available, as a City Councilmember, I believe we should attempt to explore the development of bicycle stations throughout the 15th District and at major transit stops that [include] lockers, showers, bicycle repairs and even bicycle sharing facilities. Lastly, as employers of the local government, we should also provide incentives for employees to participate in car-sharing and bike sharing programs.

Bikeside: Are there areas of your district that are bike friendly?

Wilson: Yes, but too few and too far apart! That concerns me!

Bikeside: What aspects of those bike friendly streets can you cultivate in other areas?

Wilson: We need to incorporate public parking infrastructural sites for cyclists, improve our sidewalks, aesthetic repaving and landscaping, traffic calming devices. We need to add more traffic signals and other street improvements that [support] the pedestrian/biking activities within the 15th District.

Officer Michael Walker prepares to take a 1,600-mile bicycle trip from Long Beach to Seattle. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Officer Cory Mendenhall.

Bikeside: In your view, what are the pros and cons of Caltrans’ current methodology for setting speed limits?

Wilson: The new rules have lots of cons to poke at, speed limits are set based on how fast the “eighty-fifth” percentile of drivers are speeding.  This is not safe for our communities, especially our children, and [does] not protect our active members! The only pro in the matter, that I can think of, is that a law concerning how to evaluate speed limits is being upheld and maybe that people are going to get to their destinations faster, but not necessarily safer!

Bikeside: What have you done or worked on in the past that shows your record of being involved in Safe Streets campaigns?

Wilson: For three decades I have given my time and resources to serve on a variety of local organizations; I was a founding member of the Port of Los Angeles Charter School, which has guided young people to not only stay out of trouble, but also aided about 80%+ to graduate and go off to college.  I have served as a Chair of the San Pedro Business Improvement District and served three times as Chairman of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.  Lastly, I was heavily involved in launching the Wilmington Waterfront Park, in fact Jesse Marquez, the director of the Audubon Center at Deb park, is one of my campaign endorsers.

Bikeside: What do you think should be the role of Neighborhood Councils in transportation policy?

Wilson: I believe that local representatives are the individuals that should take full responsibility in making sure the transportation policies of their community are not only safe, but can also promote active life styles. Citizens in the community should be exuded by energy when they get out of the house. The beauty and safety of the 15^th District streets can compel even the most inactive person to want to get out and take a stroll, we as city representatives, should just maintain the aesthetics of the sidewalks and streets, for the rest has been offered by our Districts’ geography.

Bikeside: After taking this survey, what do you think about LA and cycling? Does it seem like a more challenging question or easier? Has your perspective changed?

Wilson: I’ve always been a big supporter of safer, better streets. I thank you and your organization for bringing these vital issues to light.  As a City Council member, I would continue to support safer, more bike-friendly streets.

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact Bikeside at contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

Graham was one of four CD 15 candidates to sign the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights and take the stage behind 1000 Watts of power at the October 9th CicLAvia Edition of Bikeside Speaks. “We need new ways of making things work. Up north and in other places where they do respond better towards bicycles, they have started educational programs in elementary school through high school. The people in Southern California aren’t respecting [cyclists] because they don’t know. They don’t care,” said Graham when asked by Bikeside’s Stephen Box what it would take to make CD 15 streets bike friendly. “That’s actually what the problems are. That’s why so many bicyclists are hurt every year, because of that. Ignorance is bliss in this city. Occupy LA knows that. All the protestors know that. All the cyclists know that and it’s time for [cyclists] to say you’re fed up and you’re not going to take it any more” added Graham at Bikeside Speaks. You can listen to Graham’s call for action in Enci Box’s embedded video below.

Graham told hundreds of CicLAvia spectators that more bike facilities in CD 15 could lead to more tourism industry jobs because CD 15 is “one of the most beautiful bicycling areas that a bicyclist could ever have. You have rolling hills. You have so many beautiful spots. You have the ocean. You have an invigorating feeling just being there.”

CD 15 Candidate Candice Graham and Stephen Box at Bikeside Speaks. Photo by Enci Box.

Graham reminded cyclists that transforming CD 15 into a bike friendly community will require targeted coalition building. “It’s a trickle down effect. If you guys want something to happen, we have to focus and create it. It’s like one spot. One spot. If you can finish and get CD 15 together, then we can conquer Los Angeles and we can get Los Angeles together, but it doesn’t start without a first step and you guys know that. Dream and you’re dreaming a long time. You’re sleeping a long time. Nothing worse than sleeping on the job. And that’s what Los Angeles has been doing” asserted Graham.

Bikeside President Alex Thompson Welcomes Occupy LA to Bikeside Speaks!

Thank you Candice Graham for signing the Cyclist Bill of Rights, taking Bikeside’s Survey and for advocating for a bike friendly CD 15! Bikeside looks forward to seeing you on the campaign trail, including the October 29th Watts-Willowbrook Community CD 15 Candidate Forum!

"Vote for M. Candice Graham" signs posted throughout San Pedro.

Readers: Join Bikeside to flyer on behalf of the pro-walking and biking candidates of CD 15!  For more information, please contact: contact@BikesideLA.org.  If you’re a cyclist who lives in Council District 15, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th! Click HERE to find your polling place!

Occupy LA at LA City Hall.

 

The Trail is not a Trail

by Gary Snyder

I drove down the Freeway
And turned off at an exit
And went along a highway
Til it came to a sideroad
Drove up the sideroad
Til it turned to a dirt road
Full of bumps, and stopped.
Walked up a trail
But the trail got rough
And it faded away—
Out in the open,
Everywhere to go.

In some primitive past, before the use of the wheel, people followed game tracks through grasslands and woodlands on foot. They shared the same degree of directional freedom that animals have. I did this as a child in East Africa: followed game trails through the bush. Small and lithe, I was able to finesse myself through tight spaces, stooped close to the ground.

When the wheel becomes the norm of human movement, though, we need roads in some form or another. But when four footed animals provided the motive power, these roads could be–and often were– narrow and rutted. The cobblestones of the European spring cycling classics shows how minimal such roads could be: rough enough that cyclists often use the dirt or grass verges as smoother alternatives to the cobbles themselves.

When the internal combustion engine and the bicycle wheel become the norm (these developments happened at the same time) not only do we need roads; we need macadamed roads, smooth roads. Unlike those drawn by four hooved animals, vehicles with motor driven tires need to keep these rubber donuts in touch with the surface they are traversing. Furthermore, expectations of speed go up as motorized wheeled vehicles become the norm.

Then, in the logic of human development, some of these roads eventually become multilane highways, divided highways, divided limited access highways, and finally freeways and interstate highways. All this is an understandable evolution: what works for 5 miles per hour does not work for 30; and what works for 30 miles per hour does not work for 75 or 80.

Such roads can only be created and maintained by powerful, sophisticated, and centralized governments, institutions with the power to tax, legislate, penalize, and maintain. These powers all go together and build off of each other and require a dense commercial and financial tax base to be viable. But the roads they build also help create that commercial and financial base: think of the network of interchangeable fast food restaurants, gas stations, truck stops, and (especially in New Mexico) Indian casinos that dot the US interstate highway system. Furthermore (and this is harder to imagine; out of sight, out of mind), think of how many small communities have died because the new interstate bypassed them fifty years ago. The Southwestern US is dotted with such hamlets along the old Route 66, full of crumbling buildings with roofs caved in. Highways are not merely passive reflectors of preexisting realities; they shape geographic, economic, and social facts on the ground.

What this means is that roads and money have a chicken and egg relationship, one that alters over time. They bring money into the settlements (not necessarily communities) that themselves spring up to take advantage of the traffic and hence money that passes along these asphalt ribbons. Soon most human movement becomes dictated by these expensive, technologically impressive roads. Furthermore, what happens in physical geography equally takes place within human mental ecology.

The larger roads no longer exist by a kind of local consensus, a development of local geography, local needs, and preexisting trails. Instead, they exist when some immense centralizing power deems that it is in its own financial or political interests for them to go along a certain path, between certain places.  The interstate system of the United States–its official name is “Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” partly came into existence because of Cold War fears, and to ease the movement of troops and war materiel in the case of military need. In other words, they are a direct product of what Eisenhower called the “military-industrial complex.”

And similarly we, the road users, are more and more channeled along paths that are preordained for us. Not only do the literal roads take us to and from work do this; so also the financial paths that undergird the roads themselves guide, force us even, along preordained paths that we might not otherwise choose. In a world that is complex, we become ever more embedded within this complexity that is geographically distant, beyond us and equally beyond our control.

The more complex our society, the greater our material rewards: this is the promise that the voices of concentrated capital and industrial progress have made again and again over the past few hundred years. Their promise is no doubt true in large part: more people own more than ever before. But what seems equally true is that we pay a price for these riches in our  freedoms. To a degree that might surprise our ancestors, we now traverse only preselected, preordained paths, both metaphorically and literally. Progress; yes; but there’s a real price paid for all this ease and convenience.

The modern world is supposedly about sheer individual freedom. But when we look at the infrastructures (both physical and mental)  that this form of freedom requires, perhaps it’s more accurate to note that instead, we have amazing ranges of choice within the narrowest of narrow corridors: that, of the 360 degrees possible geometrically, we can now traverse whichever of the five or ten degrees that society has dictated are possible in whatever way we like.

So our first thanks goes to CicLAvia – the event and organization that made it all possible.  Thank you for creating a new place in Los Angeles – 10 miles of city streets that didn’t know they belonged together – that drew tens of thousands of cyclists together.  Thanks especially Aaron Paley, Joe Linton, and Rachel Burke, as well as Romel Pascual, Ben Flores and Aram Sahakian.

Heidi Sickler – my biggest thanks.  Heidi dedicated herself to this project for weeks, making a project well outside Bikeside’s capabilities a reality with her hard work.

Thanks to Tom Forsyth, the dedicated bicycle attorney who represents wronged and injured cyclists, for supporting Bikeside’s effort to get the candidates excited about cycling.  You can check him out at BicycleAttorney.net!

Thanks to GEK Law, aka Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton & Goldstein LLP (more partners guys!)  GEK Law has served cyclists excellently as personal injury attorneys for decades.

Thanks to all of the individual donors who made this possible.

Thanks to LAPD for being gracious hosts and letting us do soapbox advocacy on their sidewalk.  Thank you Officer Kievit and

Thanks to Bikerowave for handling an enormous volume of flat tires, low tires, busted bikes, and bike valeting hundreds of bikes.  This means you Molly, Joe, JD, Richard, Apollo, Gav, Enzo, Deborah . . . and yes, last but not least, the Montana Man, Steve Mattson.

Thanks to Ron Durgin for representing Sustainable Streets with Bikeside at our booth.

Thanks to all the candidates, and their hard working staff and beautiful families: Austin Beutner, Candice Graham, Cary Brazeman, Gordon Teuber, John Delgado,  Jose Huizar, Justin Brimmer, and Kevin James!

Thank you to Fortnight Coffee – Peter Carvalho Molignano, Logan O’Brien, and friends – for keeping everyone maximally caffeinated.

And thank you of course to all the Bikesiders who made it happen.  Stephen Box, Jeremy Grant, Enci Box, Sara Bond, and Mihai!  Volunteers – Max, Jenni, Thai, Dylan, Julia, Kevin and Ivan!  And thank you Jose Sigala, for your excellent work with Heidi, Kevin, and the candidates.

Thank you Occupy LA, Don Ward, Glenn Bailey and Noel Weiss for joining us on stage.  And thanks to Matthew Deters for fabricating excellent signs and stands.  Gracias to Chuck Ray of the Mar Vista Community Council for connecting Bikeside with Austin Beutner’s campaign.  And to Mike Chamness for shirts, and the Real Ridazz for personality.

If there’s anyone I missed – thank you too!  We look forward to doing this again.

Best,

Alex Thompson

Edit: foolish AT – I accidentally left out Cary Brazeman in the original version of this post.

Join us Sunday, 11 am – 2pm at the Bikeside Stage, located between Spring and Main on 1st St.

Coffee + Politics + Bikerowave + 1000 watts of sound = Trouble.  Good thing we’re on LAPD HQ’s front lawn!

We’ll have streetside pro-cycling political stumping that hasn’t been seen since preachers on milk crates.  Don’t miss your chance to engage with the LA’s bike friendly candidates.  Or get your bike tuned up for free by Bikerowave’s best mechanics.  Don’t miss:

• Austin Beutner, Candidate for LA Mayor
• Kevin James, Candidate for LA Mayor
• Cary Brazeman, Candidate for LA City Controller
• The candidates of LA City Council District 15: Rebecca Chambliss, Justin Brimmer, Frank Pereyda, Gordon Teuber, John Delgado, and Candice Graham.
• Get LAPD’s take on cycling at the LAPD tent
• Free tune-ups at Bikerowave
• Free bike valet at Bikerowave
• $3 coffee via the mobile coffee gurus of Fortnight Coffee
• and sign up with Sustainable Streets for cycling skills classes!

Gordon Teuber kicks off his campaign in art deco style!

So said Gordon Teuber in response to Bikeside’s recent survey of Council District 15 (CD15) candidates.  Gordon didn’t just leave it at that though, he continued:

“The worst part is worrying about safety with vehicles.”

I hear that – isn’t that what we all worry about?  Bike parking, showering at work, and sunscreen concerns aside, the core worry is tangling with vehicles where cyclists are outmatched.  Later in Bikeside’s survey Gordon agreed that LAPD needs more resources to enforce the CVC to keep cyclists safe.

You can meet Gordon Teuber at CicLAvia by swinging Bikeside Speaks (RSVP on Facebook!) – Bikeside’s gathering of political muscle outside LAPD HQ and City Hall at 1st and Spring.  We’ll be there from 11am to 2pm, conversing with political leadership, imbibing Fortnight Coffee, talking with LAPD officers, all while Bikerowave tunes up bikes.

Teuber is running in the special election to replace Janice Hahn, who resigned from LA City Council this summer to take her seat in Congress.

Teuber’s responses to Bikeside’s survey are a mix of first hand knowledge and qualified support.  He’s not afraid to admit he’s not informed on a subject.  For example, when asked which components of LA’s 2010 Bike Plan are most important, Teuber responded “To be perfectly honest, I have not thoroughly reviewed the 2010 Plan.”  But asked about the specific facilities proposed on the Backbone in CD15, Teuber responded ” I support bike facilities on these streets and highways.”

Close to Bikeside’s heart is the Neighborhood Council system, and Teuber believes in it as well:

Neighborhood Councils have a vital role in transportation issues. They are the eyes and ears on the street. They are usually the first ones to report problems to the Council Office and LADOT. They should absolutely have a voice in transportation policy.

Teuber also endorsed expanding CicLAvia from 10.5 miles to 15 miles!

Teuber signed off his survey boldly:

I appreciate BikesideLA’s involvement and advocacy. Cycling in LA is a challenging subject. Dealing with a overburdened, under maintained roadway system is going to be difficult in the future.

We appreciate your work also Gordon!

Meet Teuber at CicLAvia!

LADOT Bikeways staffers kicked out two prestigious bike experts from the workshops.  The details appear in my City Watch commentary – reprinted below.  One, Dale Benson, a California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) engineer, administers pedestrian and bike funding for Los Angeles.  The other, Rock Miller, has been hailed by Long Beach’s Charlie Gandy as Long Beach’s “traffic engineering genius”.  Miller designed Long Beach’s most famous bike facilities: the green stripe with sharrows, much of LB’s bike boulevard, and the protected bike lanes on 3rd and Broadway.

While the opening and closing sessions were open to the public, the meat of Think Bike were full day workshops on Thursday and Friday.  These workshops were invite only and not open to the public.  So when Miller and Benson showed up, they weren’t on the RSVP list.  Ted Rogers (BikingInLA) argues they should have registered:

Number one, the workshop was by registration only, and these weren’t the only people turned away for failing to register. Whether or not Alex Thompson thinks they should have been allowed in, they were the ones who failed to observe the simplest of requirements to pre-register.

Rogers and others are confusing the opening and closing sessions, which had open registration, with the private workshops, which were invite only.  Regardless, it is objectively foolish to turn away Benson and Miller, who asked only to observe.  The Think Bike workshops produced design concepts for three study areas.  Miller has the expertise to fully express those concepts as full fledged designs that can earn institutional support as he did in Long Beach.  And Benson oversees the funding that could fund these projects.  Turning them away is like kicking your boss out of a meeting because she wasn’t invited; it undermines what Think Bike was trying to do

So when Rogers and other point out that Benson and Miller weren’t invited, it’s besides the point.  If the Mayor had showed up would they have turned the Mayor away?  Or a Councilperson?  Miller and Benson will still be here in July 2013 when the Mayor is gone.

The Mayor’s office knows this was a bad incident – and that is why they issued official apologies to both Miller and Benson.

The uncomfortable truth no one wants to talk about is that senior LADOT Bikeways staff – Mowery chief among them – are often abrasive and oppositional in destructive ways.  It’s still a problem, and their loyalty to making LA bike friendly is still in question.  In the same period when the 7th St bike lanes went down, planned bike lanes became door zone sharrows.  While everyone is talking about green bike lanes, Tom LaBonge said “No” to 4th St Bike Boulevard thanks to flawed outreach from LADOT.

Think Bike is a great concept – a best practice for sharing best practices.  And I will defer to others in evaluating its outcomes, though I will share that I liked the Pacoima designs that came out.  But you can still screw up a good thing with boneheaded behavior.  For some reason talking about that makes me a pariah in the eyes of some.  Comments on LA Weekly and elsewhere have skipped polite disagreement, substantive criticism, and gone straight to character assassination.  For example, India Brookover:

Another instance of lazy journalism from the LA Weekly– the only “sources” are a couple of bitter guys that have weird, personal beef with LACBC.

Those two “bitter guys” are me and Stephen Box. I can’t speak for Box, but my problem with LACBC is the way that they conduct business.  That’s not a weird or personal beef, it’s a substantive disagreement with LACBC strategy.

So I will be a pariah then.  Someone has to point out when things aren’t working.  Right now that’s Bikeside, Joe Linton and a few others.  Even Damien Newton at LA Streetsblog could qualify his criticism less these days, IMO.  Even I have held my tongue too much.  It’s time to be open and honest about things that aren’t working.

(Re India Brookover’s allegations as to sources: the sources were actually Alexis Lantz of LACBC, DJ Chickenleather, an anonymous source, myself, and Stephen Box.)

My article in City Watch:

INVITATION ONLY … OR ELSE – If your boss asked to sit in on a meeting you were having with your staff, would you tell him to get out? Of course not! Or if you were a CEO of startup, and one of your major investors stopped by unexpectedly at a staff meeting, would you chastise them for not RSVPing? No, you’d give them your chair, your praise, your coffee, and your briefcase if they asked for it.
But here in the City of LA we’re experts in the art of foot-in-mouth. We’d turn away the boss and tell the investor to call first next time, and send him packing.

Case and point: at a workshop for LADOT engineers to learn best practices from the Netherlands, LADOT staff turned away a CalTrans employee who controls LADOT funding.

Dale Benson, the Senior Transportation Engineer in CalTrans District 7′s Local Assistance section, and Rock Miller, the award winning consultant who designed Long Beach’s innovative bike facilities, were turned away from the Think Bike LA workshops. The Think Bike LA workshops connected Dutch cycling experts with bike-challenged LADOT engineers to help them draft concept bike facilities to solve bike issues.

Benson administers bicycle funding and pedestrian funding for CalTrans District 7, which includes millions in federal and state funding that goes to LA biking and walking projects.  Miller is the Vice President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) – the dominant national organization of transportation professionals – and has been praised by Charlie Gandy [link] of Long Beach as “Long Beach, California’s consulting traffic engineering genius.”

Benson and Miller have so far declined to comment.  However, LACBC Planning and Policy Director Alexis Lantz, the beloved Kill Radio DJ Paul “Chickenleather”, and a third source, who asked to remain anonymous, have confirmed that Benson and Miller were excluded.  DJ Paul was also excluded.

Rumors are circulating that Metro Transportation Planning Manager Tony Jusay was also excluded.

Lantz said “Michelle [Mowery] sort of pushed everyone out of the room that wasn’t part of the teams.”

Lantz emphasized that Benson, Miller and others were not on the three teams of twelve invited to participate in the workshops.  DJ Paul confirmed Mowery’s involvement saying “Ms. Mowery asked us to leave.”  Mowery, who works in Bikeways at LADOT, is the Bicycle Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles.

It was the anonymous source that provided the play by play.  The source reported that Benson entered the room and was confronted by Mowery.  Benson asked to observe, and emphasizing that he didn’t expect to participate:

Benson: I just want to observe and watch the groups working.

Mowery: This is a closed thing.

Benson: Well who made that decision?  Who do I need to speak with?

Mowery: You can talk to the mayor’s office . . . don’t make this difficult for me.

The source said that it seemed like “Mowery was going to call security.”  Benson, who is known to be very soft spoken, never raised his voice.

Historically, the City of LA has struggled to compete for Metro and CalTrans funds.  In the recent call for projects, the LADOT Bikeways only secured one on-street bikeways project.  That project received only 20% of the funding that LADOT Bikeways requested.

DJ Paul brought levity to the situation recounting a minutes long ordeal to get his camera battery charged, where ultimately he prevailed by trading use of his bike pump for use of a City Hall power outlet.  He said of the whole situation “it may have been a blessing because it made me work that much harder.”

Ultimately DJ Paul ran into one of the workshop teams at lunch.  Bikeways Transportation Engineer Nate Baird invited him along, saying, according to Paul, “I don’t see a problem with that.”

Neither do I!

LA’s Department of Transportation may have the right to toss a Senior CalTrans engineer out of its bike party but the question is … is it prudent? It’s way past time for LADOT to go to work on its less-than-friendly public image.

Bikeside Speaks is pulling together leadership around the city to talk about biking, especially how we might expand and extend CicLAvia across the region.  We’ll be on the corner of 1st and Spring hamming it up from 11-2, with Fortnight Coffee, Bikerowave bike tune-ups, and LAPD.

We can use all the help we can get to pay for event expenses, so if you’re willing to help, please donate!  We also seek volunteers, so if you’d like to volunteer, contact us on our volunteer page!

Bikeside Speaks Leadership Summit at CicLAvia, 10/9, 11am-2pm, corner of 1st and Spring

We’ll be unveiling the schedule for Bikeside Speaks as we approach CicLAvia, but for now know that it’s the perfect time and place to talk to LA’s political leadership about how you’d like CicLAvia more often and bigger and bigger.

Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 26, 2011

CicLAvia brings the people to the streets, Bikeside brings the candidates to the people!

Bikeside puts the Candidates, the Voters, the Issues, the Questions, and the Answers where they belong, on the streets of Los Angeles.

On Sunday, October 9th, Bikeside will celebrate CicLAvia’s vision for open streets with a special edition of Bikeside Speaks – “A conversation with the candidates” that focuses on the upcoming CD 15 Special Election as well as the 2013 Citywide races. The event will take place from 11a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of LAPD Headquarters, right in the middle of CicLAvia’s third open streets celebration, this time transforming 10.5 miles of LA’s streets into 100,000 person party on foot, on skates, on bikes, in strollers, and even at the podium.

The CD15 race includes front-runner candidates such as Assemblyman Warren Furutani, Firefighter Pat McOsker, and former Councilman Rudy Svorinich. LAPD Senior Lead Officer Joe Buscaino leads a pack of local contenders that includes local business operators Jayme Wilson, Frank Pereyda, John Delgado and M. “Candice” Graham. CD15 Deputies Gordon Teuber and Justin Brimmer, and Real Estate Agent Rebecca Chambliss round out the crowded field in a campaign that opened with a sprint and then sped up.

Confirmed candidates are Justin Brimmer and Frank Pereyda. Deputy Mayor Larry Frank will be joined by General Managers Nazario Sauceda of Street Services and Enrique Zaldivar of Sanitation, along with neighborhood councils leaders such as Doug Epperhart, Nelson Williams and John Stammreich. Citywide candidates include Kevin James and Cary Brazeman.

Fuel for the bold and robust forum of candidates is provided by Fortnight Coffee, a mobile purveyor of fine caffeinated beverages.

Bikeside is one of the premier bicycle advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, effectively promoting the transportation, environmental and public health benefits of walking and bicycling. Thanks to Bikeside’s commitment to connectivity and relentless advocacy work, the recently approved 2010  Bike Plan includes a state of the art Backbone Bikeway Network that will make Los Angeles more navigable for cyclists.

Ciclovia’s originated 30 years ago in Bogota, Columbia when city leaders closed several main streets to vehicles and opened them to pedestrians and cyclists on Sundays. Over the years, a culture of street life developed resulting in giant street parties that are now held around the world with music, group exercise classes, dance parties, music festivals, games and, of course, people walking and riding their bikes.

LA’s third CicLAvia is the biggest yet, stretching from Boyle Heights to Downtown, MacArthur Park to East Hollywood, Chinatown to South LA! removing vehicles from the streets and filling them with LA’s unique expression of community, recreation, art, culture, and politics.

For more information on Bikeside Speaks, on the candidates running for The CD15 seat, or on the issues related to active transportation, visit Bikeside or join us on the streets on Sunday, October 9, 2011 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. To join the journey, visit Bikeside or join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or simply “Follow your Feet” on Sunday, October 9, 2011

For more information contact:

Dr. Alex C. Thompson

President, Bikeside

AlexCThompson@gmail.com

Cathy Jean Jones struck a young woman in a crosswalk at Main and Pacific in February 2010, then tried to evade police.

From Danny Jimenez:

At the preliminary hearing on October 12 2010, the judge held there was sufficient evidence for the case to be heard before a jury. After a few continuances and postponements, Cathy Jean Jones pleaded No Contest on July 19th, 2011. Judge James Dabney sentenced her to two days county jail, but given two days credit for time served. She was also ordered to complete 180 days of community service, with permission to perform at a non profit organization approved by the LA County Probation Dept. She was placed on 5 years summary probation and ordered to pay court fines and make full restitution to the victim. Finally, she was ordered NOT to drive a motor vehicle. However, it does not say how long the driving restriction will last.

The restitution hearing is scheduled for January 5, 2012 in Department F at the LAX Courthouse.

In the Jeffrey Ray Adams case, District Attorney Steve Cooley decided to uphold the Misdemeanor charge.

The victim expressed frustration that his situation was not dire enough to merit Felony charges, even after his assault was caught on camera. BikingInLA explains that although the behaviour of the driver was outrageous, he is still not considered dangerous enough to warrant a Felony charge under California law. Rather sad that we have to be dismembered, left in a comatose state, or killed in order to elevate assaults with deadly vehicular weapons to a Felony status.

Tuesday evening, bike boxes on Ocean Park, downtown bikeways, and incorporating bike facilities into the future light rail station locations will be discussed at Santa Monica City Council. From Richard McKinnon, SM Parks and Recreation Comission:

First on the consent calendar is an item approving Alta design to design Santa
Monica’s first Bike Boxes at the Ocean Park Blvd and Main intersection and
at Michigan and Lincoln. The work is funded from a 2007 metro grant.

Second, the Council will consider circulation in the downtown area. In a great
staff, bikes are mentioned right through the document. The discussion will be a
chance to be heard about how bikes will be used in our central downtown
area.

3D rendering of a bike box

Road diets do create a safer environments for the most vulnerable road users. However, speed limits are merely suggestions, so bus or no bus, it would be nice to have seen a 10ft car travel lane instead of 11ft, and a nice roomy bike lane with a hashed door buffer zone.   So, in the defeatist tone of a lot of folks that I’ve seen commenting on local bike blogs – “It’s good enough for now”.

The main motivation for this article is the overall tone of the LACBC support letter in favor of the road diet, which I ran across a day after the deal was sealed.

Now on to…

The Gripes

Outright ignoring the dooring hazard is irresponsible, especially for a Bike Advocacy group. Also, it seems that LACBC continues to make excuses for LADOT’s inability to come up with a first-rate bike facility while deriding cyclists’ for their lack of “education”. The Main St corridor through Venice is a key connector between two very active commercial, relatively walkable areas. It is heavily used by cyclists and deserves the best bikeway possible. LADOT instead offers the MUTCD minimum bike lane design, which pales in comparison to what Long Beach is doing for its residents.

I am aware of the usual excuse: protected bike lanes are not an accepted standard, therefore LADOT is not eligible for funding, yadda yadda. Make it happen, in Venice. Go that extra yard and get that grant money, call it a temporary pilot project if you have to.

A cornucopia of caveats and assumptions...

Getting doored hurts and can cause very serious injuries.

What’s most offensive about the statement above is the shift of blame from city planner to the cyclist. “You should have seen that door opening from a mile away, newbie cyclist!” Are we designing a bike lane for the 8-80 age group, or for those with heightened spider-senses? I was unable to attend LACBC’s recent ThinkBike workshop, but I’m fairly certain the Dutch would set the bar higher.

Cyclists in cities with amazing bike facilities don’t have to be educated about the perils of the door zone. Why? They have amazing bike facilities, which minimizes dangerous situations from the start.

Another gripe:  ”Build it now, improve it later” mentality.  Built it well the first time around, instead opting for mediocre and hoping for improvements decades down the road!  Smaller cities like Santa Monica are more nimble, and  actually do react to cyclists’ concerns in a reasonable amount of time.  Maybe it has something to do with accountability – there are less departments to infinitely shift blame and responsibility onto when your project is lagging.

But honestly, when’s the last time you’ve seen the Venice Bike lane being “improved”? There’s fresh, smooth pavement in the travel lane adjacent to the Venice bike lane, but the bike lane itself is untouched.  It’s just as gritty and dishoveled as it was 5-10 years ago.

The Numbers

The paragraph below is what mainly sparked my outrage, and caused me two nights of lost sleep while I mapped and double checked the collision data repeatedly. A bold statement butressed by a breeze of thin air:

Excerpt from LACBC Main St Road Diet support letter - a brief review indeed

I will assume that the erroneous statement meant a two-year time span, from 2008 to 2010. According to my calculations, there were 28 total traffic incidents involving cyclists on Main St in Santa Monica between Jan 1st 2008 and Dec . About a third of those incidents were Sideswipes (10 incidents), another third were Broadsides (9), with the rest being Uncategorized (5), Head-on crashes (3), or Rear-end collisions (1). I have absolutely no idea how anyone can clearly draw a conclusion about how many of these incidents were doorings or caused by the door zone, after all, there is no specific label for a dooring in SWITRS.

CORRECTION: During the same LADOT time span, there were 17 traffic collisions reported, not 28.  A lesser discrepancy than originally reported.

Jan 2008 - Dec 2009 Main St Collision Types (2 yr time span)

2008-2010 Main St Collision Types (3 yr time span)

Primary Collision Factors for those same 28 incidents, same two year three year time span – unfortunately not very useful without a mention of which party was at fault.

Note:  The dataset I used is mostly comprised of street intersections.  This PDF contains traffic collision data involving cyclists from February 2006 to February 2011.  I have not been able to acquire a more accurate list of street addresses from the Santa Monica Police Department. Also, my dataset does not state which party was at fault. Regardless of that, keep in mind that’s a subjective call made by the responding officer.  If LACBC has more detailed data like actual street addresses and party-at-fault, I would still like to see how it supports their conclusions.

Now, let’s not be naive, we all know a large portion of incidents go unreported – the estimate is around two thirds. The former SMPD Deputy Chief was allegedly doored on Main St, and even he chose not to file a report. And in at least one case, a cyclist in Santa Monica has been convinced by a police officer that he should not file a police report if the paramedics do not respond to the scene. He was doored in the Broadway bike lane.

Think about that scenario for a moment.  It often takes paramedics arriving on the scene AND a willing police officer to take a report in order for these incidents to even be recorded. Most of the time, cyclists are so shook up, they allow the motorist to leave without exchanging contact info.

So when you see a red H&R Felony or orange H&R misdeameanor on that map, you best believe someone was seriously hurt.  Imagine that map with the other 2/3 of the unreported collisions.

Another takeaway is that Main St isn’t as rosy of a picture as it’s painted.  Clearly, there is unresolved conflict between cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians.  And we’re duplicating the same lane layout just south of Rose, and somehow hoping for better results.

Conclusion

In retrospect, the aforementioned LACBC support letter was rushed, and the project backed mainly by a culture of fear. It’s a covert way of saying “this offer of a bike lane on Main St may disappear off the table if we don’t accept it as is“. The Main St road diet is a win, but the attitude that we should accept the first bike project LADOT offers without any scrutiny is a losing mindset. This paints cyclists as hungry dogs fighting for scraps. And as we gain political power in this city, we need to leave that mindset behind.

It would be nice to see bike advocates looking past the bare minimum design standards. We deserve better, the momentum is on our side.   Also, a bicycle advocacy organization should stray away from deriding the very people it claims to represent.

I understand that LACBC is considering this a win, and rightfully so, but why not set the bar higher? Extending the bike lane on Main St the last 0.7 miles is a no brainer.  Once it’s clear that there’s enough public support for the project as it stands, why not ask for more?

Don’t be afraid to criticize something that doesn’t feel right. Don’t be afraid to expect more from your city planners.

I used to think Alex Thompson was a conspiracy theorist, but now I truly wonder if that extra half a foot would have been eked out if Bikeside had not pushed the envelope on this issue.

Gary Kavanagh's illustration of door zone bike lane - Door Lane!

There’s a road diet proposed in Venice which will add bike lanes to Main St.  The road diet is controversial (check the comments on LA Streetsblog), as the bike lane is tight against parked cars, putting cyclist riding the center of the bike lane.  The proposal comes before Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) tomorrow (Tuesday) and below you can find my open letter to the board of directors.  For context: VNC and Mar Vista Community Council are adjacent to one another.

Edit: Mihai Peteu modified the Santa Monica Bike Map to show just the collisions taking place on the Main St bike lane in Santa Monica.  It paints a striking picture.  Not only are there a lot of collisions, but the usual ratio of 5 to 10 pedestrian collisions to every cycling collision is inverted: there are far more cycling collisions than pedestrian.  I can remember complaints about the Main St bike lane in Santa Monica since I started riding . . . and there’s been quite a number of awful collisions there, among them the Cathy Jones hit and run.  LADOT has stated that one benefit of the Main St project in Venice would be to continue the Main St. bike lane in Santa Monica.  This map calls into question the wisdom of continuing a door lane with a bad reputation, when the travel lanes are overly wide (11 feet).

Here’s the map, click through for the dynamic version:

Cyclist and pedestrian involved collisions in Santa Monica on Main St. Map by Mihai Peteu and Jason Leung.

The letter:

Venice Neighborhood Council members,

I’m writing you to ask that you reject the motion for item 6-C (Main St Road Diet) and ask DOT to provide you with better, safer and more innovative options for Main St. I will try to be at VNC for the item, but I have a prior obligation in Santa Monica which runs till 8. If I cannot make it, these are my thoughts:

I have appeared before you on this item, as well as on the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights and other items. I’m writing as a Del Rey resident who still bikes on Main St, and who often rode it in 2008 and 2009 when I lived on Horizon Ave in Venice. My background in cycling activism includes co-founding Bikerowave, authoring elements of LA’s 2010 Bike Plan as President of Bikeside, and my work as board member of the Mar Vista Community Council.

There are two good reasons to reject this motion, a motion which voices support for an LADOT plan for modifying Main St. First, while LADOT has participated in the NC process by appearing before your committees, they have not offered you options, a key feature of democratic process. Second, the nature of the proposed bike lanes endangers cyclists perhaps as much as it protects them.

Neighborhood Councils should be offered options by city departments. Too often proposals shopped by the City are “my way or the highway.” In this case, LADOT’s proposal is “keep Main St the way it is, or change it to what we want.” To my knowledge, DOT has not offered other striping plans besides the plan under consideration. This lack of options gives VNC little leeway to express its vision of Venice.

The proposed road diet is controversial in the cycling community. Some cyclists, this advocate included, argue that, as a minimum standard bike lane, it puts cyclists at risk. This has been written about on LA Streetsblog, Gary Rides Bikes, and Bikeside.

The proposed bike lanes will be in what cyclists call the “door zone.” The door zone is the section of the road next to parked cars where, if someone opened their door while you were riding by, you would crash into the door. If you bike in the door zone you’re risking free open heart surgery at the hands of a car door.

These bike lanes are the minimum 5 foot width next to a minimum 7 foot wide parking lanes. LADOT may characterize the bike lanes as “up to standard”, but realize this is the minimum standard that LADOT must build to *by law*. A study of parking behavior conducted in San Francisco showed that in 1 in 7 cars, when the driver opened their door to get out, that door extended beyond 9.5 feet from the curb. In this case, 9.5 feet from the curb marks the dead center of the proposed bike lane. So the study suggests that 1 in 7 car doors will cover most of the bike lane – that’s a risky bike lane.

And even more risky because many riders in Venice are novices. A veteran of LADOT’s minimally supportive streets knows that when a bike lane is in the door zone, you ride the outside edge, escaping most doors. Casual cyclists usually don’t know this. And what makes Venice such a bike paradise is the thousands of casual cyclists riding the streets on any given day. A design like the one offered by LADOT puts those casual cyclists in the door zone – offering them a false sense of security.

DOT has been creating some innovative bike lanes recently in other parts of the city. In Central LA they’ve built a bike lane with a buffer, and in Highland Park they’re doing a painted bike lane. Why innovative options like this are not on the table in Venice is beyond me!

So I encourage you to ask questions and get at the core of the issue. I believe that LADOT can offer other designs, they simply have not. In my work as part of the Bike Plan Implementation Team, I have seen LADOT turn around new designs within a month, so asking for alternatives is not unrealistic, and it doesn’t risk much delay. I defer to whatever VNC concludes – y’all know your neighborhood and if I could somehow move back to Venice (make the rent lower!) I would!

Here’s some questions you could ask of LADOT:

• We’ve heard that you are implementing bike innovations like buffered bike lanes and painted bike lanes in other parts of the city. Will you report back with new options that incorporate these kinds of elements?
• Why can’t the travel lane widths be reduced from 11’ to 10’ to encourage lower travel speeds and provide additional width for bike lane design?
• How often do you estimate a cyclist will be doored in the current proposed design?
• Realistically, will large, 11′ travel lanes reduce traffic speeds? Isn’t reduction of travel speeds supposed to be a benefit of road diets?

Best,

Dr. Alex C Thompson
Community Director, Mar Vista Community Council
President, Bikeside

(PS – Joe Linton pointed out that there is no MUTCD specified minimum width for a parking lane, so I got that wrong.  However, functionally it doesn’t make much difference, as cars don’t shrink if you make the parking lane narrower, and most cars are nearly 7′ wide.)

$50 million.  That’s what Alta Planning says that the New York City bike share system – unveiled this week – will cost to run each year.

That figure seemed really high to me, so I hit page-up, and saw that the system will have 10,000 bikes.  Do the division:

$50,000,000 per year / 10,000 bikes = $5,000 per bike per year

Five grand per bike per year?  I just don’t see how that can make financial sense.  How can a system cost that much per bike per year.  Even if there’s substantial administrative overhead, that implies you’d be spending thousands of dollars per bike per year administrating the system.

And keep in mind, the press releases seem to suggest this $50 million figure does not include the initial investment.  So it’s not as if this is the start up cost.

NYC cyclists, Halloween, 2008. Photo by Alex C Thompson

Perhaps figures like this are the reason that NYC will not spend any public money (apart from the allocation of public space) for the bike share system.  In way, that’s a sad sign of the times.  Why can’t a city make the relatively small investment in a bike share system?  They do it for every other transportation system – government spends enormous capital on roads, airports, subways . . . but we can’t afford a bike share system?  Government makes those investments despite recession, in spite of falling revenues.

Here in LA former Mayor Richard Riordan and allies have long been investigating a bike share system for LA.  Word on the street is that private operators won’t do it because the estimated liability costs are too high.  They think LA is that dangerous to ride.

Maybe that’s why it’s costing NYC $5,000 per bike per year – insurance.  If the insurance policy is just 1/3 of the $50 million yearly – $17 million – what does that imply the operator expects in terms of injuries and fatalities?  It’s a stark reminder of how far we have to realize bike friendliness.

If someone has firm figures or insight, I’d love to hear it.

CicLAvia 2, photo by Heidi Sickler

Since March 22nd, two days after the LA Marathon, I’ve been training.  I’ve run 1,429.8 miles, all of them in preparation for the Long Beach Marathon.  But then when I heard that the Long Beach Marathon is the same day as CicLAvia – October 9th – I said screw the marathon, I’m going to CicLAvia.  Why?  Because it’s awesome, because Bikeside will be there in spades, and because I’m not tough enough to run a marathon and do CicLAvia in the same day.

It’s gonna be rad.  To help it be more rad you can kick $$ for CicLAvia events at Kickstarter, where CicLAvia is raising money to make it a badder and radder event than in April.

Now this is where it gets complicated.  Bikeside is also raising money – we’re raising funds to support our general operation, and to support our work on elections.  Right now we’re working on the special City Council election in Council District 15.  We’re pushing those candidates hard to commit their support for CicLAvia, and come out to the October 9th event.  In the end, we think this push will be a game changer, redefining the politics of City Council to be far more supportive of open streets events.

So donate to support CicLAvia, or donate to support Bikeside, or donate toward both – it all helps get the job done!

And now, PHOTOZ of CicLAvia Episode 1 (101010) and Episode 2 (CicLAvia Strikes Back!) :

CicLAvia 2 - Ride A Bike, photo by Heidi Sickler

CicLAvia 2 - Richie style, Photo by Alex C Thompson

CicLAvia 2 - MacArthur Park, photo by Alex C Thompson

Into the City at CicLAvia 1, photo by Alex C Thompson

Scoops in the Bicycle District at CicLAvia 1, photo by Alex C Thompson

Candidate for Mayor, Wendy Greuel, happy at the first CicLAvia press conference, photo by Alex C Thompson

“A field of twenty?! I’m excited, LA’s grassroots are deeper by the year, and I think a big rowdy race can only mean victory for democracy. It also means that Bikeside has an opportunity to get cycling on the agenda and change the politics of City Hall,” said Bikeside President Dr. Alex Thompson.

This survey marks the second time that cyclists have been actively engaged in an LA City Council race since Stephen Box’s Council District 4 race earlier this year. “One of the key issues in the CD 15 race is transportation. Viable candidates must clearly establish a philosophy for the movement of people and goods that is sensitive to the needs of all modes, including a commitment to supporting cyclists on the streets of LA,” said Bikeside and Sierra Club Board Member Stephen Box.

Bike friendly cities such as Long Beach, Oakland and San Francisco have succeeded in striking a balance between supporting the economic vitality of their ports and improving the quality of life for all residents. Why can’t Los Angeles? For decades, CD 15’s political wheels have been greased by the powerful oil lobby whose pipelines ensnare South Bay communities and LA City Hall.  Bikeside’s survey is a new opportunity for CD 15 candidates to demonstrate their oil independence and commitment to sustainable transportation. “I’m proud of Bikeside and the leadership role this organization is taking in engaging the cycling community in the democratic process.  Now it’s up to the CD 15 Candidates to establish themselves as bike advocates” said Bikeside Board Member and ArtCycle Producer Enci Box.

Photo by wirralwater. Port of Los Angeles.

Why should non-cyclists care about CD 15 candidates’ views on biking? We’re all susceptible to the assault of dirty air and Los Angeles remains the most polluted city in the nation, according to the American Lung Association’s 2011 State of the Air Report Card. In fact, fifty percent of the total U.S. population exposed to deadly air pollution live in Southern California and 80 percent of Californians who are exposed to emissions from the ports live in Southern California. Port pollution costs $61 billion per year and results in 3,700 premature deaths annually, according to Communities for Clean Ports.

Despite this ongoing public health threat, “we have a “transportation” mayor who can’t even pay lip service to cycling: in a 2,200 word speech to Mobility 21 in which he covered every aspect of transportation – from cargo docks to traffic signals to the subway – Mayor Villaraigosa didn’t mention cycling once.  Electeds will only pay us lip service till we become a force for change at election time, so that’s what we’re doing,” Thompson added.

Photo by Irargerich.

Bikeside’s 20-question survey aims to measure candidates’ support for the five E’s of bike friendliness: engineering, encouragement, enforcement, education and evaluation. In May 2011, nine of the sixteen candidates for the CA-36 Congressional Candidate Survey responded to Bikeside’s Survey on Biking and Walking, including the major frontrunners Debra Bowen, Janice Hahn, Marcy Winograd and Mayor Mike Gin.  There was unanimous support among all nine candidates for improving cycling conditions in Southern California and expanding CicLAvia.

There is a City Council race during a non-election year because Janice Hahn (D-CA), the former Councilmember for Council District 15, was recently elected to the 36th Congressional District seat. This left her seat open, so a special election must be held to fill her seat.

Council District 15 encompasses the communities of San Pedro, Watts, Wilmington, North and South Harbor Gateway and the Port of Los Angeles. Twenty candidates are running for the open Los Angeles City Council seat. If more than 50% of the vote does not go to any one candidate, the top two vote-getters of any political party, will advance to the January 17, 2012 runoff. Among those seeking the seat are ten Democrats, five Republicans, and five candidates with no identified party preference. To learn more about each candidate, visit www.BikesideLA.org.

Bikeside will be inviting the winner(s) of the November 8, 2011 Special Primary to participate in a follow-up survey if there is a January 2012 runoff. If you would like to recommend questions for the January survey, please submit your comments and questions to Bikeside at Contact@BikesideLA.org or in the comments.

Click to EMBIGGEN! Three charts showing how respondents evaluated bike friendliness. Looking at all respondents, 69.9% said LA is not bike friendly. If we only consider people who ride bikes frequently in LA (the majority of respondents fell in this category), then 65.8% find LA not bike friendly - slightly less. If we look at all other respondents, LA is evaluated more harshly, with 77.6% responding that LA is not bike friendly.

Over the next few weeks we’ll break down the data in a number of different ways. We’ll compare how people responded on one question against how they responded on another question, to get a sense for how asking the question differently affected their answer. We’ll look at how different user groups feel about bike friendliness and try to divine why. And we’ll look at some of the comments we received. We’ll map the responses, and we’ll talk about the implications of the data. We’ll also reveal some of our plans for the future, and we’ll engage in the great debate – is it a fair to ask “is LA bike friendly?” Some said “no!”

The negative result shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows cycling in Los Angeles. Whether you personally find LA to be bike friendly or not, you must recognize that there is immense frustration with aggressive driving and a city government that is slow to act.

Personally, I was surprised that so many people responded that LA is bike friendly. However, in the end even those that said LA is bike friendly saw lots of room for improvement. 16% of respondents who said LA is bike friendly and answered the question “how long will it take for LA to become bike friendly?” responded that LA will take at least two more years to become bike friendly. 44% said that will take at least five years, or even more!

How long will LA take to become bike friendly?

Overall, respondents think it will take a good while for Los Angeles to become bike friendly. 76% of respondents said that LA would take 5 or more years to become bike friendly at the current rate of improvement. The following chart breaks out responses to the time-to-bike-friendliness question accordin to whether respondents think LA is bike friendly:

How long will it take LA to become bike friendly? This chart shows what the overall response was, and also breaks out the response according to whether a respondent thought LA is bike friendly, or not. For those that said LA is bike friendly, the results are curious.

As mentioned above – many respondents who said “No” to “do you think Los Angeles is bike friendly” also said that it would take a few years at the current rate of improvement for LA to be bike friendly. A simple hypothesis would be that the 65% of respondents who said Los Angeles is bike friendly, but then went on to say LA will take some years to become bike friendly, didn’t get the question. I don’t think this is the case.

What I think is happening is that if you ask a question different ways, you will tend to get different survey results. This is a common feature of survey work, and many social scientists spend a lot of time just trying to get consistent data when different questions lead to different answers (and compromised pollsters often use it to control the results of survey, such as in Presidential elections.) This is precisely the reason that we asked about bike friendliness three different ways. It gives us three ways to talk about bike friendliness, but it also allows us to study how people answer the question differently. In the long haul that will allow us to better understand what it really means when people say a place is bike friendly.

0 to 10, how bike friendly is Los Angeles?

Which brings us to our other question: how bike friendly is LA on a scale from 0 to 10? This is a classic question, although no one seems to be able to decide if it should be 0 to 10, 1 to 10, 1 to 5, or 9 to 5. At UCLA they use 1 to 9 for teacher evaluations . . . go figure.

The average answer (mean) was 4.25, with 3, 4 and 5 being most common. Some survey respondents gave LA a 9, and one respondent gave LA a 10. I think his mouse slipped. Anyway, in this case a picture really is worth a thousand words:

From 0 to 10, how bike friendly is LA? The response average was 4.25, and one person even gave LA a 10.

Closing thoughts:

Some argued that the survey questions were too simple and did not offer enough freedom. Others thought that Bikeside made an error in not clearly defining bike friendliness; they thought we were not specific enough and left too much room for interpretation.

It was intentional. I believe that the ultimate measure of bike friendliness is how the people feel about biking. If the people of LA feel LA is bike friendly, LA is bike friendly. If they feel it is not, it is not.  The ultimate measure of bike friendliness is not some carefully calculated “bike score”, but the collective sense that a place is hostile toward or supportive of cyclists. Hence, we asked the simple question, and let each person choose their own criteria for evaluation.

The beauty of this is that in asking a simple question, we ended up with a complex and interesting answer.  The question squeeze’s each person’s opinion into a corner (which many found frustrating), and in that sense is reductive.  But when we aggregate the answers, we get something remarkable – a nuanced picture of where LA stands on bike friendliness.   Unlike a “bike score”, which takes complexity and reduces it to one simple number, we start with simplicity and end up with complexity.  That’s life – simple questions have complex answers, and I’m stoked that the results bear that out.

We encourage all candidates to participate in the October 9th CicLAvia!  Thousands of cyclists, runners, walkers and skaters will descend upon the new 10.5-mile route from all areas of Southern California.  In April, CicLAvia attracted over 100,000 participants.  This October 9th, the expanded 10.5-mile route is expected to generate a record turnout!

LA City Council District 15 Candidates from Left to Right: Justin I Brimmer (D), LAPD Officer Joe Buscaino (D), DeWayne Stark (D), Gordon Teuber (R), Jayme Wilson, Assemblymember Warren Furutani (D), Rebecca Chambliss, Robert Farrell (D), John Delgado, UFLA President Pat McOsker (D), Walter Tayes (R), Mark Contreras, John Mavar, Kambiz Mostofi (D), Rudy Svorinich, Jr. (R), John Pereyda (R). We were unable to find photos for: M. "Candice" Graham, James T. Law, Emery D. Soos, Timothy "Dream" Weaver.

If you are wondering why there is a City Council race during a non-election year, Janice Hahn (D-CA), the former Councilmember for Council District 15, was recently elected to the 36th Congressional District seat.  This left her seat open, so a special election must be held to fill her seat.

Council District 15 encompasses the communities of San Pedro, Watts, Wilmington, North and South Harbor Gateway and the Port of Los Angeles.  The 20 candidates listed below are running for the open Los Angeles City Council seat.  If more than 50% of the vote does not go to any one candidate, the top two vote-getters of any political party, will advance to the January 17, 2012 runoff.  Among those seeking the seat are ten Democrats, five Republicans, and five candidates with no identified party preference. We have included the names and background of each candidate below along with a link to the survey. The survey includes questions on bicycle infrastructure, safety, enforcement, and education.

If you’d like to see the full version of the survey that candidates are taking, download the LA Council District 15 survey (pdf.)  Otherwise, you can see the questions (though not the multiple choice answers for some questions) at the end of this post.

We will be inviting the winner(s) of the November 8, 2011 Special Primary to participate in a follow-up survey if there is a January 2012 runoff.  If you would like to recommend questions for the January survey, please submit your comments and questions to Bikeside at Contact@BikesideLA.org or in the comments.

Candidates for the Council District 15 Seat

DEMOCRATS (10)
Justin Brimmer, Former Legislative and Policy Deputy to former CD 15 Councilmember Janice Hahn
Joe Buscaino, Harbor Area LAPD Senior Lead Officer
Robert Farrell, Former CD 8 Councilmember and West LA College Professor
Warren Furutani, California State Assemblymember for the 55th District
M. “Candice” Graham, Community Activist and Businesswoman
James T. Law, Minister and Disability Advocate
Pat McOsker, President of United Firefighters of LA
Kambiz Mostofi, Education Activist and Entrepreneur
DeWayne Stark, Retired Businessman
Timothy Weaver, Actor and Director

REPUBLICANS (5)
Frank Pereyda, Businessman
Emery Soos, Businessman
Rudy Svorinich, Jr., Former CD 15 Councilmember and Owner of Government Relations Firm
Walter Tayes, Truck Driver for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
Gordon Teuber, Former Economic Advisor to CD 15 Councilmember Janice Hahn

DECLINED TO STATE (5)
Rebecca Chambliss, Penninsula Sotheby’s International Realtor
Mark Contreras, Laborer and Youth Advocate
John Delgado, Businessman
John Mavar, Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council Activist
Jayme Wilson, Former President of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce and
Honorary LA Fire Chief

Survey Questions

1) Please enter your name.

2) How often do you bike?

3) What’s the best part of your bike rides? What’s the worst? How can we cultivate more of the good and less of the bad?

4) In Bikeside’s recent survey, 70% of respondents (386 out of 552) say that Los Angeles is not bike friendly. Generally speaking, what do you see as the obstacles to CD 15 becoming bike friendly?

5) Which components of the 2010 LA Bike Plan do you plan to implement in CD 15 to make streets safer and more inviting for cyclists?

6) Are there areas of your district that are bike friendly?

7) What aspects of those bike friendly streets can you cultivate in other areas?

8) What will you do to ensure that the City of Los Angeles coordinates with Carson, Compton, Torrance, LA County, and other adjoining jurisdictions to improve bike friendliness?

9) As Councilmember, will you direct LADOT to expeditiously implement the Bike Plan’s Backbone Bikeways Network (BBN) in CD 15, including bike facilities on Vermont Avenue, the Pacific Coast Highway, Anaheim Street, Gaffey Street, Del Amo Boulevard, Imperial Highway and Manchester Avenue? Please visit http://labikeplan.com/maps.html to view these BBN segments.

10) Will you direct the LADOT General Manager and Bikeways staff to report back to City Council on a monthly basis with Bike Plan implementation status reports, including the number of miles installed, cost per mile and funding sources?

11) Do you think that bike lanes should require environmental review?

12) In your view, what are the pros and cons of Caltrans’ current methodology for setting speed limits?

13) LAPD staff assigned to bicycle safety and traffic enforcement are stretched very thin. Will you support allocating more resources for LAPD to improve traffic safety conditions for cyclists?

14) What have you done or worked on in the past that shows your record of being involved in Safe Streets campaigns? Please elaborate.

15) What do you think should be the role of Neighborhood Councils in transportation policy?

16) Do you support expanding CicLAvia’s 10.5-mile route to 15 or 20 miles?

17) Will you join Bikeside at the October 9th CicLAvia?

18) After taking this survey, what do you think about LA and cycling? Does it seem like a more challenging question or easier? Has your perspective changed?

When you live in a large city, it’s easy to forget that much of the rest of the country (let alone the world) lives under very different circumstances. I’m here in the land of the large American pickup truck, which often haul bed-filling water tanks to self-supply remote homes with this basic necessity. These are not the vanity trucks common in large cities; they are scarred, with cracked windscreens and patinas of thick dust and mud due to use on washboard dirt roads where the heavy, gas-guzzling cab-on-chassis construction provides a sturdiness that better survives marginal roads.

Many of my fellow employees commute from larger towns 25 to 55 miles away, and these are one-way figures, not round trip. I’m trying to avoid this kind of commute, but the town where I’m teaching has no rental property whatsoever. None. So not only will I be driving to Los Angeles periodically; I might end up being forced into a long commute as well. For the short term, I’ve been commuting by bike since I have a temporary housing arrangement close to campus, but when this is over, I’m not sure what I’ll do.

Ship Rock, New Mexico, July 2011, copyright Alex C Thompson

And yet even here, there are reasons for wanting bicycles to find at least some use. The diabetes rate on the above 20 year olds here is 23 percent and over 40 percent among the over 45 population. Along with–a contributing cause–of the diabetes is poor diet, itself related to poverty, unemployment and lack of economic opportunity. Is it a foolish dream to hope that bicycle use could help overcome some of these issues? Bicycles are cheap to run compared to even the most marginal automobile; they provide excercise when you use them, and are simple enough to be maintained locally, keeping money in the community rather than siphoning it off to distant towns. But bicycles do not provide a reasonable way for families or the aged to cover the long distances that travel here involves.

I don’t know how foolish this dream is; but as I split time between Los Angeles and rural New Mexico, I enjoy the widening of my horizons, both literally and figuratively. This is truly the country of big, even immense, sky and views; and in teaching here I hope to gain a broader perspective on issues of sustainable economies and ecological and cultural health.