Tag Archive for Santa Monica Bike Action Plan

Urge SaMo council to expand bike network, LA’s bad drivers nowhere near worst, and Measure HLA tops the news

Just 308 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we face walking and biking on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. Just 6 signatures to go to reach 1,000! 

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BikeLA Chapter Santa Monica Spoke is calling on you to reach out to the Santa Monica City Council before their meeting tonight, to urge them to support safer streets and Vision Zero.

Tuesday Feb 27th Santa Monica City Council will hear the City Manager Report – on the Bike Action Plan and a Vision Zero Update — Special Item 3B on the Agenda.

Please join us with an email to Council TODAY voicing your support for more protected bike lanes (support the Bike Action Plan Amendment) and to support our city’s commitment to Vision Zero — to protect vulnerable road users, like people walking and biking, with streets designed to be safer for everyone.

Easy one click email please do add your comments and personal stories if you can!

Or use this “copy and paste / template” send to:

Re: Item 3B City Manager Report – Bike Action Plan and Vision Zero Update.

Dear Santa Monica Mayor, City Council and City Manager:

I support the City’s commitment to safer streets and more protected bike lanes. Please prioritize improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure and Vision Zero. The City must continue the overwhelming community supported commitment to prioritize and protect vulnerable road users, like people walking and biking, with more protected bike lanes and streets designed to be safer for everyone.

Please support and prioritize safer streets!

Then if you’re not doing anything tonight, show up at the meeting to show your support.

Or if you are, even.

https://twitter.com/MobilityForWho/status/1762275772419768650

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Shockingly, Los Angeles barely makes the American Top 40 of the nation’s worst drivers, a list topped by Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Clearly, the experts at Forbes have never driven the streets of LA.

In fact, nowhere in California ranked near the top, despite the state’s notoriously bad drivers.

  • 22. Fresno
  • 34. Long Beach
  • 37. Los Angeles
  • 42. San Diego
  • 49. San Francisco

No, really.

Clearly, we all need to email them to demand a recount, or send in a fake slate of electors. Or something.

Because on any list of America’s worst drivers, Los Angeles should be #1 with a bullet.

Literally, sometimes.

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Measure HLA continues to dominate Los Angeles news, as LA Times Letter’s Editor Paul Thornton says the hysteria over bike lanes shows exactly why Measure HLA is needed.

But a letter writer in the Times insists that if you build it, they won’t come, because she somehow doesn’t see any bike riders or buses on the newly expanded Venice Blvd bus and bikeways.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles-based composer bizarrely urges a vote against HLA because it would “only” implement 300 miles of bus lanes, even though the mobility plan it’s based on features bus lanes on nearly every major street.

And a writer for LA Progressive insists HLA somehow won’t work because of US military spending in Ukraine and Gaza, and because HLA ignores connectivity — even though it’s based on LA’s nine-year old Mobility Plan 2035, which contains three separate but interconnected bike networks, which the city would be forced to build out as streets are resurfaced.

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I want to be like them when I grow up.

Used bike retailer The Pro’s Closet talks with soon-to-be 80-year old Wendy Skean, who raced wheel-to-wheel against much younger riders at the “outrageously cold and muddy” Old Man Winter Rally, where she finished 50th out of 237 women in the 50K event. And in her first-ever race, no less.

Cycling Weekly talks with 76-year old Brit Geoff Nelder, who still averages riding 100 miles a week in winter and 200 in summer, helping him overcome three coronary stents ten years ago.

Or maybe not, as a 73-year old man was killed while riding his bike in a Thai hit-and-run.

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It’s now 69 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 31 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Good question. Escape Collective takes up the burning question of how to get drivers to finally recognize that people on bicycles are human, too.

Someone working with the Department of DIY took matters into their own hands, and added traffic diverters to finally fulfill the New York mayor’s promise to finish work on the street.

A UK sociologist considers why so many people are so triggered by the simple act of riding a bicycle.

After a British bike rider reported a driver for using his cellphone behind the wheel, police took immediate action — threatening to charge the guy on the bicycle after incorrectly concluding the helmet cam video he submitted to them showed him riding on the wrong side of the road.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Wisconsin petition calls off-trail mountain biking a threat to the red headed woodpecker population.

A New York thief took advantage of the added mobility of the city’s Citi Bike bikeshare to rob four people in Central Park in just under an hour, telling one victim “I rob people for a living.” I mean, you’d hate to see an amateur who doesn’t know what he’s doing attempting a feat like that.

Apparently, bike theft is just an “oopsie” now, after a Korean high school student admitted to “mistakenly” stealing a bicycle to support his siblings, after his mother’s illness.

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Local 

This is who we share the road with. Wealthy socialite and Grossman Burn Center co-founder Rebecca Grossman faces 34 to life after she was convicted of murder in the high-speed hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers crossing a Westlake Village street with their family in 2020.

LADOT is teaming with CicLAvia to highlight the new protected bike lanes and safety features on Reseda Blvd for four short hours on St. Paddy’s Day. And to prove just how well they work, they’ll still let drivers and their cars use the street.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers his typically great photos capturing the essence of Sunday’s Melrose CicLAvia.

 

State

More on Costa Mesa’s $7.9 million grant from the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Complete Streets program, which will fund Class I bike trail, and two Class IV fully separated bike lanes. Thanks to Richard Duquette for the heads-up. 

San Diego belatedly begins work on a two-way protected bikeway on Balboa Park’s Pershing Drive, nearly three years after noted architect Laura Shinn was killed by a stoned driver.

The Toronto Star tours Santa Barbara’s American Riviera, where everything is a “quick walk, bike or public transit ride” away.

Bakersfield residents get new ebikes through the city’s loan-to-own ebike program.

Velo examines why everyone is freaking out about San Francisco’s center-running Valencia Street bike lane.

A Redwood City site compares university towns Davis and Palo Alto, proclaiming there can only be self-proclaimed California “Bicycle Capital.” Although fellow university city Long Beach would like to have a word.

 

National

A Portland man faces charges for the alleged DUI death of a homeless man on a bicycle; the driver ran away on foot, but was detained by community members after someone fired a shot.

Bicyclists in Goodyear, Arizona turned out for a rally to remember the victims of last year’s crash that killed two people and hospitalized 17 others when a pickup driver plowed into — or rather, through — a group ride; no charges have been filed after the local DA said it was just an “oopsie.”

Elderly Denver residents say a new protected bike lane is an accident waiting to happen, after an 82-year old man broke his hip tripping over a bike lane bumper getting out of a friend’s truck.

That’s more like it. Wichita, Kansas will host a bike ride for city council members to examine the condition of the city’s bikeways, after complaints they have become unrideable due to homeless encampments and broken glass.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole $5,000 worth of ebike and gear from an Oklahoma City bike nonprofit.

Just because you’re a disgraced, seven-times ex-Tour de France champ doesn’t mean you can’t get honored by a bikeway in your Austin, Texas hometown.

A Tallahassee, Florida man is back on his bike and filing suit against the city cop who hit him last year, leaving him with a broken femur and jaw, and multiple fractured ribs and vertebrae.

 

International

The Robb Report highlights luxury biking tours where you can ride alongside your favorite cycling stars. Before they drop you like Freshman English, that is.

A Vancouver Lime Bike only appears to roll on water.

That’s more like it. A British driver will spend the next 12 and a half years behind bars, after he was convicted of hitting a bike rider head-on while racing another driver.

Momentum offers a look at Europe’s best spring cycling destinations for nature-loving bicyclists. Which is not the same as naturist-loving bicyclists.

In other case of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, an unlicensed driver in Ghent, Belgium faces charges for the alleged drunken crash that killed two people riding their bikes and injured three others, when he plowed into a group riding together; the driver had the equivalent of 14 cocktails in his blood, despite two previous drunk driving bans.

The Netherlands has ordered a recall of Babboe cargo bikes, alleging the company has not provided the necessary safety information.

In a surprise to no one, China’s Xinhua says access to bicycles improves the lives of women and girls in rural Zambia.

The Philippines’ Bike Scouts are pushing the nation towards a bottom-up approach to natural disasters.

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo says Jonas Vingegaard Hansen could win this year’s Tour de France, after the Danish two-time Tour champ added his wife’s surname, sans hyphen; Vingegaard swept all three stages of Spain’s O Gran Camino to win the GC.

The magazine also celebrates Butch Martin, who became the first Black American Olympic cyclist in both road cycling and track at the Tokyo and Mexico City Olympic Games.

In a Velo trifecta, the magazine relates the “most insane bike change in pro cycling history” when Aussie Michael Rogers swapped his bike for a fan’s nearly identical bike after his derailleur broke off midrace in the Tour Down Under.

US women’s cycling team Cynisca was suspended for illegally dressing a bike mechanic in the team kit to pose as a cyclist, because they didn’t have enough riders to complete in Belgium’s Argenta Classic last year.

Retired major league baseball All Star Carlos Gómez is on track to become the first indoor track cyclist to represent the Dominican Republic in the summer Olympics.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you have no idea you just crashed a Belgian bike race. Or when a winter bike ride means coming home sheathed in ice.

And Finish the Ride is finally getting serious, adding a corgi-endorsed puppy run to April’s two-day Griffith Park event.

Our corg sez she’s all in, as long as there are treats involved. And she doesn’t actually have to, you know, run.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

A Thanksgiving thank you, editing Google bike maps, and Zev says back to the drawing board

I’ll be honest.

This has been yet another rough year, in a string of rough years that has gone on way too long.

And yet, I have a lot to be thankful for. Not the least of which is the simple fact that I’m here, and have a loving home and family waiting for me at the end of a ride.

That’s a lot more than some people have.

I’m also very thankful for you. Because it doesn’t matter what I have to say if no one bothers to read it.

So much for that question about a tree falling in the forest.

Thank you for coming by, whether this is your first visit or you’ve been with me from the beginning.

Please accept my best wishes for a very happy Thanksgiving for you and your loved ones. And my hope that we’ll all have more to be thankful for next year.

But if you want to read some heartfelt thanks from someone who clearly means it, try this one.

And People for Bikes says be thankful for biking.

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Another thing I’m thankful for is all the people who send me links and contributions, and help me put this blog together on a regular basis.

Such as frequent contributor Eric Weinstein, who offers his thoughts on Santa Monica’s newly adopted Bike Action Plan.

The Santa Monica Bike Action Plan was enacted by the City Council last night. This means that Santa Monica will budget the expenditure of 2.5 Million dollars for the next two years, and has grants to bring the total up to about 8 Million dollars. That’s a big bunch of money to improve cycling!  I think this will change the entire experience of biking in Santa Monica to a level greater than Portland. Santa Monica is on it’s way to increasing the bike mode share – aiming for 30%!

Some of the items: lots of bike lanes, sharrows, bike boxes, and green lanes for major east-west and north south signature corridors. The largest bike garage in the country – oops it’s already here! Some bike education/encouragement for students, and a bunch of other useful items – some signage to improve the overcrowded beach bike path. And a bike share. There’s a 5- year and a 20 year wish plan for better facilities. These will include: taking some parking for wide (passing lane) bike lanes, even more lanes and sharrows, bike parking at the coming Expo stations, and my favorite: a recreational cycletrack around the Santa Monica Airport. Bring on the Tour of California.

Hooray for progress! This is a major milestone in getting people out of cars and on bikes!

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County supervisor — and widely anticipated yet currently unannounced mayoral candidate — Zev Yaroslavsky says L.A. County should send the proposed county bike plan back to the drawing board.

The motion by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky calls on the county Department of Public Works to create a bike plan that “will not just move us out of the 1970’s, but move Los Angeles County forward as a leader in 21st Century bicyclist safety and comfort.”

Specifically, the motion says that the plan should “promote the use of leading-edge designs such as those found in the Model Design Manual for Living Streets that was prepared by the Department of Public Health.” Those include “cycle tracks” that separate bike lanes from traffic with dividers such as a lane of parked cars, and experimental street design approaches—including the possibility of varied lane and sidewalk widths in some areas—that do not fall within current Caltrans standards.

The motion urges the county to take the lead in helping such street layouts receive state approval for broader implementation.

A longtime leader in L.A. politics, Yaroslavsky offers a surprisingly strong and influential voice in support of safer cycling in the county. And could soon join Austin Beutner and outgoing City Council President Eric Garcetti in a bike-friendly mayoral field.

Things are getting very interesting.

Thanks to Streetsblog’s Damien Newton for the heads-up.

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George Wolfberg, who I frequently rely on for some of our best links — as well as his incomparable behind the scenes contributions in reaching the right people and getting things — sends word of a rash of bike burglaries in the Brentwood area. He sends the following report from LAPD Senior Lead Officer Kirk.

  • 11/14/11 1500 Hrs – 11/21/11 1000 Hrs, 1300 Block of Wellesley Ave, Susp removed window to residence and entered the loc. Susp removed property and fled loc. Property taken was a bicycle.
  • 11/04/11 1800 Hrs – 11/08/11 0930 Hrs, 1800 Block of Stoner Ave, Susp cut bike lock and removed bicycle from parking lot.
  • 11/18/11 0400 – 0600 Hrs, 1400 Block of Barry Ave, Susp removed bicycles from apartment balcony.
  • 11/19/11 1200 Hrs – 11/21/11 0800 Hrs, Susp cut off lock and removed the bicycle from property.
  • 11/19/11 0900 Hrs- 11/21/11 0600 Hrs, 11300 Block of Wellesley Ave, Susp cut off lock and removed bicycle from carport area.
  • 11/20/11 1330 – 2130 Hrs, 1600 Block of Granville Ave, Susp cut cable lock off and removed bicycle from apartment courtyard.
  • 11/21/11 0645 – 0830 Hrs, 2000 Block of Colby Ave, Susp cut off lock and removed bicycle from property.

Officer Kirk suggests keeping your bike inside your residence, and writing down the serial number. I’d add that you should keep a current photo of your bike, register it, and lock it with a secure U-lock any time you have to leave it outside or in your garage.

Remember, weight doesn’t matter if you don’t have to carry it with you, so go for the biggest, strongest lock you can find to protect your bike at home.

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Another contribution comes from Alejandro Merulo, who calls our attention to Google Maps feature I was unaware of.

I wanted to let you know of a feature that readers of your blog may find useful. As you know in Los Angeles, a large number of bike lanes and sharrows have been added to our streets recently. These bike lanes should be added to Google Maps so that more people ride on them. Google has made it possible to do this for any user using Google Map Maker. It would be great to have other cyclists adding/reviewing these features. For example, today I added the Spring Street and 1st street bike lanes. But these additions need approval. There aren’t that many cyclists reviewing other people’s submission to Google Map Maker.

Sharing the ability of cyclists to add our routes to the roads will make them safer. If you could share this feature through your blog, many cyclists would appreciate it.

Not being familiar with this feature — and a little to dense to figure it out on my own — I asked Alejandro to explain the process.

The link for Google map maker is http://www.google.com/mapmaker. If you are in normal Google maps with the biking layers on, there is some small text on the bottom right that says “Edit in Google Map Maker.” Using a Google account, you can then draw lines along roads. Clicking next, you can then edit road attributes and add bike lanes. Once you have gotten this far, I found it intuitive to figure out other features. However, if you try these steps and still have trouble, let me know and I’ll be happy to assist you. You can see some of the work I’ve added if you type in “Spring Street and 9th Street, Los Angeles, CA” in the text box at the top. You can also see Community Edits like mine by clicking on “Community Edits.”

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Santa Monica’s Bike Effect hosts a trunk show of women’s cycling apparel from New York designer Nona Varnado this Saturday. L.A. wants your ideas on how to keep the city moving, including a suggestion to make motorists pay the true cost of driving. KCET Departures features Flying Pigeon’s always informative, entertaining and elucidating Josef Bray-Ali. Damien Newton unveils this year’s Streetsie Award winners, including a much deserved nod to the LACBC’s Colin Bogart as Advocate of the Year. Curbed takes you on a ride down the new Spring Street bike lane, which has bike parking, too. The Beverly Hills Bicycle Ad Hoc Committee considers the biking black hole’s first pilot projects. Cyclists make their case for a safer PCH while Malibu officials consider becoming bike friendly. Former Burbank city council candidate Garen Yegparian offers a spot-on look at the state of cycling in the Los Angeles area, and finds drivers in his own Armenian community among the worst offenders; definitely worth reading. This is what 10 years of L.A. traffic fatalities looks like, based on the Guardian’s map of U.S. casualties from the last decade; thanks to Simon for the link.

A San Diego cyclist thanks the life guards who saved his life. A San Francisco cyclist pleads not guilty in the death of a pedestrian; he’s accused of running a red light and hitting the 68-year old woman as she walked in the crosswalk with her husband. In a heartwarming story, an S.F. cyclist rescues a puppy while riding. San Jose cyclists pitch in to fix up a derelict bike path. A new bike rack keeps a Los Altos bike safe on a public street for four months. San Rafael cyclists celebrate Cranksgiving. A San Anselmo cyclist is in a coma after being found unconscious on the side of a fire road.

New Mexico cyclists install a ghost bike for a six-year old boy killed 21 years ago. In a classic chicken or egg equation, St. Louis County doesn’t build bikeways because not enough people bike; the current leadership in Ohio doesn’t seem much better. A Huntsville radio station helps ensure 2800 children will receive a new bike for Christmas. A Florida cyclist was drunk when he was hit and killed by an unmarked police car while carrying a case of beer in each hand. Dunedin FL officials turn down nearly $450,000 in Safe Routes to School funding because they’re afraid residents might object.

Nine-and-a-half years for on Oxford driver who deliberately ran down a cyclist; turns out he knew the rider if that makes it any better. A video guide to wearing tweed while you ride. Then again, if you really want to be seen, this should do the trick. Seven people face up to 2 years in prison each in the Operation Puerto bike doping scandal. A New Zealand driver is found guilty of killing a cyclist, despite claiming she just didn’t see him — which is usually the universal Get Out of Jail Free card for careless drivers.

Finally, North Carolina police kill a disabled, partially deaf cyclist by shooting him with a stun gun while he was riding. For any law enforcement personnel unclear on the concept, never, ever knock anyone off a bike while their riding unless you actually intend to kill them.

Because you just might.

A report on Monday’s Santa Monica Bike Action Plan open house

These past few weeks have featured a lot of meetings and events I’ve had to — or will have to — pass on, from Metro’s discussion of the Wilshire BRT to tomorrow’s reconsideration of the draft bike plan by L.A. Planning Commission.

One of the meetings I most wanted to attend, and most regret missing, was Monday night’s open house to discuss the Santa Monica Bicycle Action Plan. Fortunately, Eric Weinstein, an actively involved rider I’ve frequently met at various bike-related meetings, was there to fill us all in with a guest post on what we missed.

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Bicycle Action Plan meeting Dec 13th 2010

Desired locations for bike parking, bike corrals and bike share stations; photo by Eric Weinstein.

The City of Santa Monica held the Public Input meeting for a bicycle plan Monday night.  Hope you were there, with the 100 (or so) other bike activists.

The meeting was organized by Jeff Tumlin. That was kind of a surprise, since rumor had it that the outside consultant was not a bike person, but Jeff is an extremely well spoken bike planner, and familiar from the LUCE (Land Use and Circulation Elements) process. Many of the City’s departments were represented, including the bike-oriented Planning commissioners and City council members. Santa Monica Spoke was there in its entirety, and several other bike interested parties were there, including school staff and SMPD.

The 1st question in the Q&A dismissed bikes and suggested we all “get along” by sharing the road – which was immediately followed by a Spoke member with a call for a more visionary future. Bad start, snappy reply. The meeting soon moved ahead to the input phase – much better than this sort of debate. The endless debate of cars or parking vs cycling is not part my vision of how to implement better transportation. Bikes are vehicles and deserve safe accommodation on the roads. Period.

Most of the items for discussion are laid out in the LUCE, with several areas set up to gather public input, including:

  • A map to mark frequent destinations to aid in planning the bike network
  • A map to mark priorities for “bike street” improvements such as lanes, bikeways and sharrows
  • An aerial photograph to mark where cyclists might get on the forthcoming Expo Line bikeway, to help integrate with the city’s bike network
  • A chart and map to note where the access needed the most improvement in getting to the beach bikeway, along with notes on route and challenges to getting there
  • One I still don’t understand about work sites
  • A place for additional notes on the LUCE bike parking and business section – where else to add bike valets, how to encourage employees to bike to work and customers to bike to shop.
  • A place to note where to put the next bike-improved street for North-South and East-West travel
  • A small section on metrics, with a survey on how optimistic you are that improvements will be made in mode share by 2030 (20% to 50%)
  • And last (my favorite with the most dots) where to put more bike racks, more corrals and bike share stations

These are the elements of the Panning Departments thinking on bike improvements. And from what was put forward, it looks like the next improvements will include at least some of the following: more bikes lanes and sharrows to close the gaps in the bike network, some more (possibly permanent) bike corrals, more bike racks, a bike station at the Santa Monica Place mall downtown, and some better bike-sensing at traffic signals.

All this sounds like great stuff – the more the better. Better cycling roads and much more parking are very important elements to successful bike infrastructure; however, I do feel that there are quite a few areas where other ideas should be put forward.

My take on the most important missing element is the need to educate returning (adult) cyclists for riding again in urban traffic. If we bicycled like we are traffic, we would be traffic, and most of these car/bike conflicts would disappear.

I’m sure that there are many other ideas that are missing. The Santa Monica planning department is very interested in getting more input, so please send them some. Everyone is invited to send in written suggestions or additions to the Bike Action Plan; you can learn more and link to a survey at www.smgov.net/bikesm.