Bekologist

Staggeringly inspirational article about the efforts made by LONG BEACH CA to become the most bicycle friendly city in America from theatlanticcities.com - the online, urban focused website from the Atlantic Magazine.

great article.


Long Beach - the most bicycle friendly city in America

genec

I have to go check it out... according to the article, it sure sounds as though they are making considerable effort to do more than just "share the road." The comment about encouraging women, casually dressed, to feel comfortable on the streets IS the key to getting more people overall on bikes... rather than the racer-like mode that some would have us believe is the only way to ride bikes.

When people can casually ride a bike down to the corner store as easily as they can drive (or better yet, easier than they can drive) then the right goals are being met. When one has to act like an auto and hope to be treated as one... well, good luck with that.

DX-MAN

Yup, the "de-glamorizing" of bikes will go a long way to making them more acceptable. Divorcing the mental image of bicycling from LYCRA will be a watershed moment in cycling acceptance across this country.

Right along with divorcing the mental image of 'success' with car ownership.

CB HI

A city that illegally confiscates bicycles is bike friendly?
https://pedalmovement.com/hello-world/

dynodonn

I guess it depends on the locale, here in my area the "glamorizing" of bikes will be a boon to cycling since a number of the local population consider transportation cycling as a mode for the down trodden or lunatic fringe.

genec

Illegally? Not to support either critical mass or the actions of the police... but the article states:
Now this is something of an issue:
But ultimately:
And one has to ask, just how legal critical mass is in the first place...

genec

Well I doubt the down trodden wear lycra. The deglamorizing that is spoken of is in regard to street cycling being largely the domain of lycra clad racer wanna-bees like these guys.


While this method of riding does work for strong cyclists... it also promotes cycling as a venue for those that get all "gussied up" to bike, and totally ignores the casual cyclist... the person that may only be going a couple of miles and wants to do so at a pace that does not promote perspiration nor require a change of clothing. Simple utility cycling, like the people in the images below are doing.





For most of the rest of the world, the above images are typical cyclists... whereas in America, cycling is often associated with lycra clad Lance wannabees.

John Forester

A noticeable number of Americans have decided that they like the exercise and enjoyment provided by fast cycling. They have provided the growth in American cycling. Those American groups who cycled slowly have not grown much, presumably because they did not find cycling useful for their purposes, whatever those purposes are. It is silly to argue that the fast cyclists have inhibited the slow cyclists, prevented them from continuing on their useful way, whatever that is.

genec

Fast cyclists have not inhibited slower cyclists... the perception that one has to be lycra clad and fast, along with the negative appeal of sharing the road with the automobile are part of what has inhibited those that might cycle but do not due to those perceptions.

When people see "cycling training videos" showing lycra clad cyclists riding in traffic, they tend to think "that's not for me." Even me showing up to a Road 1 class in lycra and jersey can send the wrong message to those that have come far enough along to desire to take a cycling class.

The perception of the American cyclist is that cycling is done as a sport by young fit males. As the article points out when casually dressed women feel comfortable cycling, they are seen as a good indicator of the general acceptability of cycling.

CB HI

I am no fan of many critical masses, but yes, many of the bicycles were confiscated illegally. Several of the riders were not Long Beach residents, and therefore were not required to have Long Beach registrations. Those bicycles were illegally seized. If you disagree, I hope you have registered everyone of your bicycles in every CA city that has a bicycle registration to avoid it being confiscated.

dynodonn

When I speak of "glamorizing", the above picture is what constitutes my definition, for some reason I don't consider lycra as glamorous, others may, but I certainly do not.

genec

Since I don't ride CM rides, I doubt I will have a problem... I have ridden my bike through many CA cities without issue, including Long Beach. I suspect it was the CM issue that was the real problem. As I stated just how legal are CM rides in the first place? Could that have been the real reason for bike confiscation? Or do you just want to ignore that aspect?

genec

Well certainly the use of the "glamor" that DX-man first mentioned was in association with Lycra... see post 3

dynodonn

Locally, "kitted lycra riders make up an extremely small minority of our cyclists, with the majority of local cyclists wearing casual clothing. Local adult transportation cyclists are viewed as either poor or on the lunatic fringe by many of our local residents.

I'll agree with DX man on divorcing the thought process made by a large number of the population in the US of one's success level status based on the car ownership and the car's absolute necessity for transportation

Bekologist

In looking at the five "E"s which make up effective planning for bicyclists,

engineering is separate from enforcement.

I predict more acceptance of last friday night rides in Long Beach.

complaining about one heavy handed enforcement on a bicycle ride is parsing hairs in light of the incredible on the ground progress being made towards making Long Beach a most amenable place for people to ride bikes.

Making a SoCal city comfortable enough for a boom in casual bike riding is quite the feat.

Kudos to Long Beach, and its continued efforts towards greater on-the-ground bikeability.

genec

Where is "locally?" And yeah, I have to agree with DX too... and add to that some truth in advertising vice the Zoom Zoom mentality.... which has lead to such idiotic commercials as this:

#t=14s

Bekologist

STUPID!

How about a video about, I don't know,

CYCLING IN LONG BEACH!

CB HI

You seem to want to ignore that there were bicycles confiscated solely for not having a Long Beach registration for cyclist that did not live in Long Beach. That was flat out an illegal action by the Long Beach police. Any other traffic violations by the cyclist should have been solely handled with a tickets as required by CA law. So what if you did not get your bike confiscated yet, just takes one ass cop to turn that around.

I have ridden in the first several critical mass rides in Honolulu. In fact, when they were getting started in Honolulu, my sole purpose for riding in them was to provide the influence to keep them within the traffic laws. A fairly new cop stopped one ride and the scared college kid that got CM going, started caving to the cops demand that the ride should have a parade permit. I stepped in and asked the cop how many weekend motorcycle club rides or Corvette club drives had he stopped and demanded they get a parade permit? Answer none - then he said that some of the cyclist were making a lot of noise and were riding in all the traffic lanes. I pointed out that those cyclist were making less noise than any of the tourist buses or the motorcyclist that just drove by and the cyclist in every lane were riding at the same speed as the backed up motor traffic which made their using those lanes legal, so why did he not pull over ALL of the slow moving traffic. He then said 2 or 3 of the cyclist in the back went through the light as it turned red and I noted that 2 or 3 cars went through the same light late. When I asked him how many cars he had pulled over during the day for going through the light late, he had to say NONE. I then asked him why he pulled over all the cyclist for what he saw as a traffic violation of just 2-3 cyclist and 2-3 motorist. Cop had no answer.

During the ride, a couple of skate boarders and a roller bladder joined in riding in the roadway. The cop tried to lay that on the cyclist and was also why he pulled use over. I agreed with him that their behavior was illegal and asked why he had pulled over the legal riding cyclist while letting the illegal skate boarders and a roller bladder run away. At this point the cop agreed that he should not have pulled us over and we left.

Several cops followed us for the next full loop through Waikiki. Pretty cool watching all those cyclist riding strict VC, signaling every lane change and turn, and the cops frustration at not being able to do a dame thing.

CB HI

Is that based on the same crystal ball that you use to make all your other odd predictions trying to support your many baseless claims?

Bekologist

ONE thing is obvious as a result of CBHI's posting about Critical Mass -

sour grapes makes for lousy wine. Maybe they need your tutelage on how to ride legally, cb?

the whine, it tastes like RAISINS!

And Long Beach continues to make itself into a biking mecca in SoCal.

The first bicycle boulevards in southern California. Impressive. The first protected bikelanes.

long beach goes biking

CB HI

Really bek, or are you just whining again.

dynodonn

The commercial you've listed would be considered way over the top by many, but GM's version tries to evoke seriousness via nostalgia and driving styles that only belong on closed courses.

Bekologist

No, I posted an Atlantic Cities article on the efforts Long Beach CA has made in designing its city to be much more bicycle friendly, and a video of the enhancements and inducements made there to win the streets back from the automobile and become more bicycle friendly.


It looks like they are succeeding and continue to build in greater bikeability for everyone. People that live there are getting more comfortable with the idea of riding bikes for everyday transportation.

honolulu could take a few cues from Long Beach.

the whine about CM is quite sour grapes. Unfair and unjust, true - but quite the acrid sidetrack.

genec

That really gets the old "bikes are allowed" thing going too when motorists see you doing just the right thing and the cops are right there... "acknowledging" as it were. 'Course it might be a bit more difficult to do on a high speed arterial road, eh?

Bekologist

I sincerely doubt CM rides in Honolulu are peppered solely with riders signaling every turn and lane change, and stopping at every light!



from one of the local television affiliates "In Waikiki, police said they confiscated some bikes and cited riders for unregistered bicycles."

Read more: https://www.kitv.com/news/15929779/de...#ixzz1ku7uvedV

ohmigosh, police crackdowns on critical mass, it happens.

Long Beach is continuing to become more bicycle friendly despite the police crackdowns on CM rides in Waikiki! some sour wine fermenting in paradise apparently.