Happytime

Question of the Weekend (March 1-2)

How bicycle-friendly is your neighborhood/community?

(Presuming you ride without breaking the law, of course.....)

Happytime

South Bay/Palos Verdes = Good to Excellent.

I've never had major issues, but tourists in the summer can be a pain. My only complaint as a cyclist is there's so many stop signs/lights. But going through some densely packed areas, it would be unsafe for resident/pedestrians otherwise. I find most motorists pleasantly accommodating to cyclists, as long as we're following the law.

herbm

Things are ok...but Burbank has made some dumb decisions at times....but Griffith Park is right here!!

merider1

Sherman Oaks completely blows. No matter what, I have to cross Ventura Blvd at some point to do just about any ride and that road is so narrow, tons of cars, huge cracks in the pavement, truck warps (don't know what else to call those big pavement mounds that heavy trucks cause in the pavement) and potholes. The drivers are rude and will buzz you (I've been buzzed on more than one occassion). I hate that part of any ride that I do out of SO. In the morning, it's doable, but upon the return, I dread that last two miles home.

mkadam68

Santa Clarita is good for the most part. Unfortunately, it's mostly because they keep cyclists and motorists apart. There is more than 40+ miles of dedicated MUPs that get mostly bike traffic, the remaining roads have very large shoulders --OR-- are out in the countryside so there's (usually) little traffic. We do have idiots, too, that like to buzz you, or shout out rude comments like any other area (usually testosterone pumped teenagers or pick-up/SUV driving hicks).

spingineer

I can't really complain. Santa Clara has a lot of bike lanes built on the heaviest streets (Lawrence Expressway is almost like a freeway, but they clearly have a lane for bikes to travel on). My only complaint is it's 3 or 4 miles of flatland before I reach any hills. Once I get to some hills, it's heavenly.

pv0463

The Conejo Valley is a great place to ride. However, with the huge increase in the number of large / huge SUVs in the area, along with newly licensed, cell phone toting teenagers (and their affluent parents), things can get 'hairy' at times.
With a lot of concentration, careful, defensive, law-abiding riding it truly is a great place to live and ride in

Mr. Beanz

I don't understand #3, 'Driver Education Cold Help'. What is that, freeze the crotch when they goof up?


Road conditions are good but drivers are the problem. 40 mph roads, 70 mph drivers.

BillyB

There have been a few times, when I've been in a passenger a car, and the driver did not know how to handle a cyclist in the road. Not all drivers who buzz cyclists, or cut them off are deliberately trying to be malicious

It's seems pretty simple to you and me, but it wasn't to them and it created a dangerous situation.

I think Driver Education would do wonders to increase cycling safety.

Back on topic:

In Mar Vista, we have a lot of streets with parking on both sides. There's barely enough room for two cars to squeeze by in the middle and people can't see you when entering the street from a driveway.

We do however, have the Venice Blvd bike lane, and the Culver Blvd bike path which leads to the Ballona Creek Bike path. So it's not ideal, but it's doable.

iamtim

Aside of the lady who admittedly thwapped me with her Excursion's passenger mirror (that was big enough to act as a sail) on purpose to "teach me a lesson", which sent me sprawling to the ground (thankfully, minor injuries only; had to get a new helmet, though), most of northern Orange County (La Habra, Brea, Yorba Linda) and some of southern LA County (La Mirada, Whittier) seems to host a group of fairly amicable drivers.

Road conditions could be better, though.

Dunwood

PV - nuf said

LCI_Brian

"Bicycle friendly" means many different things to many types of cyclists, so it makes it hard to answer a poll. Most of my riding ends up being in or near Irvine, which most consider "bicycle friendly" because of all the bike lanes and paths. I'm not as bullish as others on that point, because there's other areas where they are bicyclist unfriendly, such as left turn signals that are not optimally designed to detect bicyclists.

UmneyDurak

Well said. Around Irvine area roads are ok, and most have wide shoulder. So I guess thats bicycle friendly. There are bunch of paths, but since I don't use them and think they are more dangerous then roads that doesn't factor in to my friendliness factor. Drivers here are for the most part ignorant, and aside from some basic rules of the road like "stop on red" have no clue about California law. Specially the parts that are applied to cyclists. As the result I had several conversations where people were thinking I was doing something illegal by merging in to a left turn lane, instead of using crosswalk and walking my bike.

mateo44

I'm no attorney, but...

nekohime

The area on the border of West Covina to around Diamond Bar is great for cycling. We have awesome bike lanes (can ride two abreast in some places, three if you squish), signals that pick up cyclists, bike crossing buttons for the stoplights that don't pick up cyclists, and not that may stop signs even if it's mostly a residential area. Drivers are ok too--I've never gotten buzzed or honked at in an unfriendly manner, but that's probably because I'm a girl.

Unfortunately, I don't see too many people taking advantage of the awesome bike facilities we have. It gets lonely sometimes when I'm the only one on the bike lanes.

iamtim

Yeah, it was f*cked up. She said it only to my (at the time) wife and I, and denied it when the cops came. It didn't get in the report, and several lawyers indicated I'd have to prove *intent*, which is uber hard in a case like this. You know, she'd get up on the stand and express how she didn't know and it was an accident and she's so sorry it happened and I'd lose and be out a bunch of lawyer's fees.

*shrug*

tblendell

i thought hollywood sucked until i rode with a friend in sherman oaks. HORRIBLE to echo the ventura blvd complaint above. at least on parts of sunset there's a bike lane and you can almost always get on a sidewalk in times of desperation which i frequently do until i can get to the Hollywood Hills, which, aside from blind corners, rough roads, and middle of the road drivers (there isn't often a choice), is actually not too bad. you just have to really love riding UP HILL. Mulholland drive is pretty good, too. i've found drivers to be pretty good (knock on wood).

IF there were just a little more infrastructure and incentive i think this place would be crawling with bikes. people LOVE riding their bikes. its the traffic. that scares them (and me)

nesdog

As mentioned, Conejo Valley is pretty good. Agoura Hills has decent bike lanes where I live. Lots of cyclists here and unfortunately, many run the lights so that causes some occasional letters to the editors of our local papers.

Santa Monica's just minutes from my door, decent array of LBS's and bright blue skies. Word is that we're going to have lots more pro teams training here next winter.

Sheldon

DavidWhiting

Cool question. Given what's going on in Orange County, I'm amazed at the reponses. Maybe it's worse here?

LCI_Brian

I certainly think it could be better in OC, but a lot of times when we focus on the bad things it can make things seem worse than they really are.

But I think a lot of it is that different cyclists may get different impressions of the same cycling environment due to differing riding styles and experiences. Take the example of a cyclist on a bike laned street approaching the intersection, with a motorist coming up from behind and wanting to make a right turn. Cyclist #1 holds his line in the bike lane through the intersection, and the motorist passes the cyclist on the left and turns across the bike lane, not realizing that he almost "hooked" the cyclist (because he didn't realize that the cyclist was traveling fast enough to intersect his path when making the turn). Cyclist #2 looks back and sees that a motorist wants to make a right turn, the cyclist signals and merges out of the bike lane before the intersection, the motorist merges right, passes to the right of the cyclist and completes the right turn safely.

Cyclist #1 and cyclist #2 are both experiencing the same drivers - but cyclist #1 is going to have a different opinion of these drivers than cyclist #2.

Terror_in_pink

la crescenta is great. the roads are smooth. decent climbs/ grades and the drivers are so afraid they pass with huge gaps.

pv0463

Great! more opportunities to find out how slow I am and how bad I suck!

Extort

I stated 'Good - but Drivers Ed could help' only because I did not see an option for both Drivers and Cyclist Ed...

If all bicyclists acted according the the law (stop signs, signaling, etc.) then the streets would be much safer. However, there would still be some ignorant / malicious drivers out there because of the tons rule.

roadfix

I voted excellent as I live in the fixed gear capital of the world, Echo Park.

magicant

The folks in my area aren't purposely a problem with cyclists, but Glendale has some of the worst drivers I've ever seen.