Local Cyclists Unite Against Proposed Los Angeles Bicycle Master Plan
11-08-10, 02:42 PM
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Local Cyclists Unite Against Proposed Los Angeles Bicycle Master Plan
It isn't often you have most all facets of L.A.'s cycling community in agreement, but today they are coming together to protest the City of Los Angeles' bike plan, which goes up for a vote at Thursday's Planning Commission meeting.
Much of the disagreement with the plan comes down to three points: a commitment to bike lanes, defining bicycle friendly streets, and updating the Technical Design Manual.
"The draft [bike plan] is like glass ornament - shiny, beautiful and utterly fragile. The Mayor and City Planning have touted it as including 1600 miles of bikeways, but you would have to walk between the raindrops to make that a reality," said Alex Thompson at BikesideLA. " Sure, the draft has hundreds of miles of bike lanes 'designated.' But when you get down in the details you find out 511 of those miles fall in the 'further study' category - a category that has previously gone by the name 'potential' and 'infeasible.' Only 56 miles of bike lane are left."
Much of the disagreement with the plan comes down to three points: a commitment to bike lanes, defining bicycle friendly streets, and updating the Technical Design Manual.
"The draft [bike plan] is like glass ornament - shiny, beautiful and utterly fragile. The Mayor and City Planning have touted it as including 1600 miles of bikeways, but you would have to walk between the raindrops to make that a reality," said Alex Thompson at BikesideLA. " Sure, the draft has hundreds of miles of bike lanes 'designated.' But when you get down in the details you find out 511 of those miles fall in the 'further study' category - a category that has previously gone by the name 'potential' and 'infeasible.' Only 56 miles of bike lane are left."
https://laist.com/2010/11/03/cyclists...s_bike_pla.php
11-08-10, 02:47 PM
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Gee and all this time I thought the LA master plan was simply to run all cyclists over.
11-08-10, 11:14 PM
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protesting it for being inadequate right?
I think bicyclists protesting bike master plans seems quite aberrant. Is it because there wasn't enough time to provide feedback, that the classification of some bikeways as needing further study? It's common for bike master plans to be implemented in several stages, having some bikelanes under 'further study' wouldn't be a dealbreaker in my book.
Let's hope this protest doesn't completely derail the Bike Master Planning process for LA, ANY improvements are merited and the momentum can only grow once cities in the 21st century begin to plan better for roadway bike traffic.
I think bicyclists protesting bike master plans seems quite aberrant. Is it because there wasn't enough time to provide feedback, that the classification of some bikeways as needing further study? It's common for bike master plans to be implemented in several stages, having some bikelanes under 'further study' wouldn't be a dealbreaker in my book.
Let's hope this protest doesn't completely derail the Bike Master Planning process for LA, ANY improvements are merited and the momentum can only grow once cities in the 21st century begin to plan better for roadway bike traffic.
11-09-10, 10:03 AM
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I don't know, sounds like Baltimore's bike master plan, so you get a lot of sharrows out of the deal and personally I like them better then bike lanes, things could be worse IMHO.
11-09-10, 10:07 AM
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things are worse, i mean, pretty deplorable currently. fixing pinch points along routes like highway underpasses and bridges and bridges across the LA river is going to help.
Its going to be a long, drawnout process that will by necessity have stumbles and roadblocks unless something really kickstarts attaining greater bikeability quickly in LA. ANY bike master plan Los Angeles enacts isn't going to do that by itself.
Its going to be a long, drawnout process that will by necessity have stumbles and roadblocks unless something really kickstarts attaining greater bikeability quickly in LA. ANY bike master plan Los Angeles enacts isn't going to do that by itself.
11-09-10, 10:44 AM
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Seems like yet another likely case of the letting the perfect be the enemy of the good...
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