Today’s Morning Links have been cancelled in favor of an unbridled rant regarding the sheer recalcitrant idiocy demonstrated by the Culver City Council Tuesday night.
Or make that early Wednesday morning, since treachery usually occurs in the early morning hours, long after most people with any common sense have gone to bed.
Which leaves out three-fifths of Culver City’s elected leadership.
We’ll be back tomorrow with our regularly scheduled programming.
Yet they still voted 3 to 2 to remove the protected bike lanes in favor of a shared bus and bike lane, in order to add another traffic lane so more drivers can go zoom, zoom to their hearts content.
thank you to everyone who showed up and spoke out, and to the advocates who did everything they could. You are heard and appreciated by your community. No matter the temporary setbacks, we know the future is on our side, and we will get there together.
In reality, it’s likely to result in more congestion, as the added lane will just encourage more drivers to clog the city’s downtown area, with the added noise, smog and safety risks they’ll bring with them.
It will also mean reduced bike traffic, as fewer riders will be willing to use the newly shared bus and bike lanes, with the risk of an inattentive or impatient bus driver running up their ass.
Then again, that appears to be purely intentional.
And it means slower bus traffic, as buses will now have to follow behind people on bicycles, making it a less attractive transportation option and resulting reduced ridership.
Because the city is giving a big FU to anyone not safely ensconced in a couple tons of dangerous, polluting glass and steel.
And you can add another lose to that, since the move to rip out the project will inevitably result in a CEQA violation unless the city manages to conduct an environmental impact study that somehow miraculously shows little or no environmental damage from the project’s removal.
Sure, that will happen.
In reality, the city will likely try to rip out the bike lanes without conducting the required study, resulting in a CEQA lawsuit, followed by a likely court judgement requiring them to put them back.
Making the entire effort a performative exercise designed to placate the angry conservative voters who elected the new reactionary councilmembers.
While everyone else who lives, works or moves through the city just gets shafted.
Pitiful.
Needless to say, the condemnation following the vote was fast and furious.
With their vote, they showed they valued a motorist’s ability to speed through a neighborhood more than anyone else’s right to safely enjoy a neighborhood. 2/3
Also thinking a lot today about Culver City families who finally felt safe walking and biking to school — and woke up to the news that their elected officials don't think their lives are worth saving https://t.co/5q2hUULFWR
the vibe from our 3 conservatives all night: if you can’t afford Culver City’s average rent of $3200 a month, buddy we don’t really care about you https://t.co/DHt2r5hg3j
— Bubba for Culver City Council! (@vote4bubba) April 25, 2023
I CANNOT BELIEVE CULVER CITY IS DESTROYING ITS BIKE LANES. this is genuinely madness. i can't tell you how much safer we felt walking our toddler on those sidewalks because the bike&bus lane is MUCH NICER to walk next to than cars https://t.co/pxVk8OapFF
The man, identified as 73-year old Marietta resident Josef Pinter, slammed into the back of the stopped SUV. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the local police, it wasn’t clear if the driver’s brake lights were on or if she had turned on her flashers, and Pinter may not have seen her stopped in front of him.
There’s also no word on whether she even had her lights on in the growing evening darkness, or if Pinter had a light on his bike that could have illuminated the vehicle.
April 25, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Stop as yield passes Assembly committee, MOVE Culver City debate goes late, and bike-riding teens shot in Florence drive-by
The state Assembly’s Transportation Committee has once again passed a version of the Idaho Stop Law.
San Diego Assemblymember Tasha Boerner tweets that AB 73 would allow bike riders 18 and over to treat stop signs as yields, but only when it’s safe to do so.
She also notes that “9 other states already allow policies like these because the data shows it’s safer for cyclists & other drivers.”
The city council meeting discussing a proposal to rip out the successful MOVE Culver City mobility project is still ongoing as I write this; delaying discussion of controversial issues like this is a time-tested method of waiting out the opposition in hopes they’ll leave before the proposal comes up.
However, as the following tweet suggests, opposition to the project is firmly entrenched, wrong though it may be.
Councilmember Dan O’Brein says comments tonight were overwhelmingly for keeping/expanding move. But still wants to remove the protected bike lane for more cars. He cites the survey of just Culver City residents “because that’s who votes”
Meanwhile, the list of elected officials coming out in favor of the project continues to grow.
Electeds who have publicly urged council to not add cars to Move:
– Asm. Isaac Bryan – Sen. Ben Allen – Asm. Laura Friedman – Sup. Lindsey Horvath – Sup. Holly Mitchell – LA Councilmember Katy Young Yaroslavsky – SaMo Councilmember Jesse Zwick – WeHo Councilmember John Erickson
Move Culver City has been a transformative project for street safety in LA county. Across the border in CD5, we’re working hard to bring similar safety interventions to Venice Blvd. I hope we can work with Culver City to create a truly connected network between our cities.
— Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky (@CD5LosAngeles) April 24, 2023
Finally, it’s hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like a good turnout for the protest ride in favor of retaining the project.
Seriously, why the hell isn’t this bigger news when a pair of teenagers get shot riding a bike in LA’s Florence neighborhood?
Accordingto the Daily Breeze, a 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old girl apparently sharing a bicycle when they were critically injured in a drive-by shooting.
So is the problem that we just take shootings for granted now? Or just shootings “down there”?
Or do bike riders — or communities of color — just not matter anymore?
Or maybe all of the above.
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Tragic news from Newport Beach, where bike shop owner Don Feuer was struck by a driver while riding a scooter.
The page has raised just over $8,600 of the $50,000 goal in five days, though word of his injuries is just getting out.
Given the extent of his injuries, however, even the full $50,000 is likely to be just a drop in the bucket for his future medical expenses.
Thanks to Psmith for the heads-up.
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Guerrilla DIY infrastructure group Crosswalk Collective demonstrates LA’s firm commitment to whatever is the opposite of Vision Zero, in which the death of a pedestrian results in a memorial sign and the removal of the group’s DIY crosswalks.
And shamefully, no other action in the seven years since.
Gabriela Futsi was killed crossing here in 2016.
After 7 years, LADOT took action: They installed a memorial sign. We painted two crosswalks on April 10 and within days, they removed them.
No bias here, either. A Minnesota letter writer says it’s time to stop giving carte blanche to bike path developers, accusing proponents of being divided between absolutists and “rational people.” As if developers of any bike path, anywhere, have ever been given carte blanche.
An Indiana man was sentenced to up to forty years behind bars — or as little as three — for the hit-and-run crash that killed a man riding a bicycle four years ago; he also got a whole eight-day sentence for driving without a license — suspended, of course.
That’s more like it. An Israeli driver will spend the next ten years behind bars for the drunken Yom Kippur death of a 12-year old boy riding his bike in Jerusalem two years ago, as well as being banned from driving for 20 years.
April 25, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Man killed crossing street on bicycle in City of Orange crash Saturday; first OC bicycling death in nearly three months
Nothing lasts forever.
Remarkably, Orange County went nearly three months without a bicycling death, ever since Dr. Michael Mammone was murdered by a man reportedly suffering from mental illness February 1st.
Sadly, that ended on Saturday night, when a man was killed riding his bike in Orange.
The driver, identified only as a man from Yorba Linda, remained after the collision. Police don’t believe drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash.
Raw video from the scene shows a flat handlebar bike next to the victim’s tarp-covered body, with a baseball cap and a carton of milk lying in the street nearby.
However, I can’t recommend watching it, but I am including the link so you can use your own judgement.
Anyone with information is urged to call Orange Police Det. Rocha at 714/744-7342.
This is at least the 14th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third that I’m aware of in Orange County.
Hopefully we can go at least another two months before we have another one.
Let’s start with news of yet another bike rider injured by a heartless hit-and-run driver.
Steve Messer forwards news that a friend of his was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood.
It’s hard to read the small type, but the victim, a former cop and board member with the high school mountain biking league, was riding on Catalina Blvd when he was run down by the driver around 4:50 pm.
The suspect, described as a white male 35-45 years old, wearing a lighter colored baseball cap, was driving a smaller white pickup truck with a regular cab and non-tinted windows.
If you live or ride in San Diego, try to get the word out to get more eyes out on the street looking for the suspect. And if you know anyone who works in the news media, give them a push to cover this story.
A review of the project after a year found an 18% increase in people walking and 32% more people biking through the area. At the intersection of Culver Boulevard and Main Street, the number of bikes counted nearly doubled. Bus travel became faster and ridership increased more on the corridor compared with citywide.People said they were biking, walking and taking transit more often in the area, according to the review. They felt safer, more comfortable and noticed fewer speeding cars.
As for traffic? It moved faster in the morning hours, and in the evening it took drivers about two minutes longer to pass through the area. Two minutes. That’s a minor inconvenience. It certainly seems like a fair trade-off to make the corridor safer and more convenient for alternative modes of transportation — which was the purpose of the project.
Yet remarkably, but perhaps unsurprisingly, MOVE Culver City is in danger of being unceremoniously ripped out by the new conservative majority on the council in response to the windshield bias of some motorists, many of whom may only pass through the city without stopping, on their way to somewhere else.
Yet somehow demand that the city cater to their needs, rather than that of people walking shopping, dining and biking in the downtown area, as well as those riding buses.
According to the paper,
Yet even the modest encroachment of Move Culver City may be too much for opponents of the project, who seem particularly offended by the bus lane. There is a proposal to add back a car lane and make buses and bicyclists share a lane, which would dissuade all but the most confident cyclists and slow the buses, thus making alternative modes of transportation a lot less appealing. And for what? So some drivers can get to their destination two minutes faster…
Like most communities across California, Culver City has plenty of plans detailing its commitment to bike lanes, public transit and sustainable city design as strategies to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicle pollution to help fight climate change. But those plans are meaningless if elected leaders don’t have the political backbone to see them through.
As the paper’s editorial bard makes clear, we will never have safe streets and more livable communities if elected leaders lack the backbone to stand up to opposition from motorists, which is virtually inevitable with any project.
Meanwhile, local elected leaders, both current and former, are adding their voices in support of the project.
Assembly transportation chair @LauraFriedmanCA joins Sen. @BenAllenCA and Asm @ib2_real in publicly supporting Move Culver City’s protected bike lane and bus lane … not removing them for more cars. That’s a lot of state muscle— hope our council doesn’t ignore them! https://t.co/Ku3ZlKFd1H
— Bubba for Culver City Council! (@vote4bubba) April 24, 2023
Asm Bryan saying what some of our local leaders are still afraid to. Lets hope Culver City Mayor @AlbertVeraJr meets this moment tomorrow and makes Move permanent without adding more cars. https://t.co/ILKZeoAzNl
Streets For All is asking you to call for more funding for LADOT at tomorrow’s LA City Council Budget Committee, and support bike and walk-friendly motions at Wednesday’s Transportation Committee.
Budget Committee (6:00pm, Tuesday 4/25)
The committee will take up the Mayor’s proposed budget for next fiscal year. We are asking you to:
– Advocate for 18 more positions for LADOT’s activate transportation team which is sorely under resourced and stymying our efforts
– Advocate for 4 litigation support positions for LADOT so they can focus on getting bus and bike lanes in the ground and not on lawsuits – Public comment can be made virtually in real time or in advance
Transportation Committee (2pm, Wednesday 4/26)
– Advocate that the committee approve LADOT’s plan to revisit peak hour lanes
– Support new protected bike lanes on Lincoln over Ballona Creek
– Support a new dedicated speed hump program around schools – Public comment can be made in advance or in person (no virtual option)We’ve put together a toolkit to help you make public comment in the easiest way possible:
This is how you design a hospital for people, not cars.
Ottawa's new hospital will have an impressive 630 bicycle parking spaces, including 186 in a secure room outside the staff entrance. Visitors will be able to ride on a dedicated cycle track *right up to the front entrance* where they will be greeted with U-racks. pic.twitter.com/qJF653Fl0w
British police used deadly force to bust a fleeing ebike rider, intentionally hitting the suspect head-on to end a “high-speed” chase before swarming him as he lay writhing in pain; he was charged with possessing a fake weapon and a “bladed article,” as well as weed. Although it’s questionable how high speed the chase could have been on an ebike.
A California appeals court concluded that drivers don’t have a first amendment right to honk their horns, ruling that the law “prohibits all driver-initiated horn use except when such use is ‘reasonably necessary to [e]nsure safe operation’ of the vehicle.” Now if we can just find someone to enforce that.
Accused killer Kaitlin Armstrong appeared in an Austin, Texas courtroom, charged with the murder of gravel cycling star Moriah “Mo” Wilson, as the press focused on her new face after undergoing plastic surgery in a failed effort to hide her identity before her arrest.
Surprisingly, a sizable majority of New Yorkers want the city to make streets safer for kids to bike and walk, even if it means removing parking or making it harder to drive; a new poll shows two-thirds of New Yorkers think the city should prioritize pedestrian safety over driver convenience, while nearly six in 10 support doing it even if it means removing parking, adding to traffic congestion or closing down streets.
If only there was some sort of sustainable, non-polluting form of transportation that could improve the health of the planet, as well as those who use it.
Better yet, something that had been successfully proven to work for more than a century.
And was safe and simple enough it could even kids could use it. Or nearly anyone else, for that matter.
It's referred to here as the Mead Ranger "Motorbike" model, but it just looks like a motorbike, and does not actually have a motor. The cylinder on the top of the top tube is a battery for the light, and under it is a toolbox.https://t.co/K1SLIdm2kHpic.twitter.com/fgoldjw8yF
The new bikeway will finally provide a seamless connection from San Pedro to Downtown Long Beach, while offering sweeping views of the harbor from both the Gateway and Vincent Thomas bridges.
Correction: While the article promises a seamless connection, commenters below clarify that there is no safe bikeway over the Vincent Thomas bridge, and not likely to be anytime soon.
The City Council will discuss the project at the Monday, April 24, 2023 City Council Meeting. This item is agendized as A-1. Please visit https://t.co/8iiZqq8VmY for more information on the project. pic.twitter.com/I3nHvRdmid
Eco-Village is talking with the Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, tonight about their plans to improve transportation and livability in the region.
We are hosting an event tomorrow evening to discuss SCAG's visionary plans for our region and then following Mark Lakeman for an inspiring talk on Community Building and Placemaking. Hope you can make it! pic.twitter.com/Q8RGUo1Z6d
The Argonautprofiles Santa Monica’s Thömus USA, the only location outside of Switzerland to sell the ebike brand, which is built by hand on site at the Santa Monica location.
Good news from Maine, where a community organization is working to house a homeless woman living out her car, after she spent the last of her money to buy a new bike and helmet for a three-year old boy when his bike was stolen; meanwhile, community members have raised over $9,000 to pay off the loan on her car.
A stoned, wrong way driver will spend the next six years behind bars for the head-on crash that killed a man riding a bicycle, and will be prohibited from driving for 12 years; he had five drugs in his system at the time of the crash, including morphine and “street valium,” as well as several previous traffic convictions, including two for drugged driving. Just one more example of officials keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.
Bicycling journalist Caley Fretz remembers reporter Chris Baldwin, the former press officer for all-diabetic cycling team Team Type 1, followed by a stint with Astana before returning to Team Type 1 successor Novo Nordisk; Baldwin passed away in his sleep from a heart attack last week. He was just 52.
I came within inches of getting run down by a driver last night.
I was walking the dog across the street, at a red light, in a crosswalk, with the crossing light, and had waited until all the cars were stopped before walking into the street.
Then just as we stepped into the turn lane, an overly aggressive driver sped through the red light to make a left turn, barely missing us.
Seriously, I don’t know we’re supposed to keep people safe on our streets if none of that works to keep drivers from killing people.
On the other hand, at least he wasn’t driving like this.
Pedestrians dive for cover as a driver fleeing police goes off the road and into an outdoor dining area. The wild scene unfolding on a busy Manhattan street. Eyewitness News with the condition of an officer injured in the chaos. Tonight at 11 from ABC7 https://t.co/wEQkq04nhepic.twitter.com/eY25nPgZ7g
As a Culver City resident, mom, cyclist and enthusiastic supporter of public transit in my private and professional life, my position on the mobility project is not detached. I’m one of the many people enjoying the benefits highlighted in Move Culver City’s mid-pilot report (literally — that’s me on the cover, the mom on the cargo bike with my daughter, her friend and their stuffed animal friend Marley).
Drivers complain that the bus and bike lanes slow down traffic on the street. But the lanes don’t do so by much: According to the report, during peak afternoon traffic, travel time in a car has increased by a maximum of two minutes compared with a 2019 baseline. Meanwhile, overall traffic on the corridor has diversified and increased, with marked gains in bus ridership, cycling and pedestrian activity. Also important, the bus and bike lanes protect bikers, pedestrians and even other drivers from traffic violence that occurs with increased speeds.
She goes on to argue that the project’s perceived flaws aren’t reasons to remove it, but make it better, instead.
A common argument coming from some council members and opponents of the project is that because bus service is currently inadequate, prioritizing buses over cars with a dedicated lane does not maximize use of the road. They argue the infrastructure lacks support and utilization because of our car-centric culture and low ridership.
Those are not reasons to remove bus and bike infrastructure — those are reasons to double down. Council members are the decision makers. If bus service is not up to par to maximize the protected lane, then it is on them to make it better. If the project lacks support, then they need to invest in the service frequency, reliability and connectivity to strengthen the ridership and thus the buy-in.
Take a few minutes to read the full thing.
Then do something about it. Because if they can remove this, no street improvements will ever be safe from reactionary motorheads.
Seamus Garrity tweeted that ticket is actually nearly $500 — about what it costs if a driver gets caught running a red light, which poses far more risk for everyone else around them.
Having ridden that path hundreds of times myself, I can attest that riding through there poses virtually no risk to anyone crossing from the parking lot to the pier, as long as you slow down and show a little basic courtesy to others.
I could possibly see a $50 fine, though I’d still object to getting one. But $485 is far out of proportion for the risk posed by such a minor violation.
Should have I suppressed being startled when they yelled at me? Should I have not avoided eye contact? Should I have said “Home to my kids” instead of just “Home,” and said it more meekly? But it wouldn’t have made a difference… (2/7)
Santa Monica Lookout offers more information on the upcoming Vision Zero improvements to Wilshire Blvd in the city. Although if 89 percent of severe injuries to bicyclists and pedestrians happen at unsignalized intersections, and approximately one out of five collisions at those intersections occurs when drivers make a left turn or continue straight, that means 80% of crashes come from cross traffic or drivers turning right. So shouldn’t they be working on that?
The Brooklyn Academy of Music may have “whimsical” bike racks designed by famed former Talking Heads lead singer and folding bike rider David Byrne, but it’s still fighting plans for a nearby protected bike lane, citing vague concerns over safety. Apparently deciding it’s safer to leave the people who already use the busy bike lane unprotected, because something.
A machete-wielding teenaged robber will spend the next six months behind bars, and another six months on probation for a series of violent bikejackings, including using a moped to knock British pro Alexandar Richardson off his bike and drag him the length of a football field before making off with his bike.
A science website celebrates the 80th anniversary of Bicycle Day, which marks the date Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann sampled the new drug he had developed before setting off for home on his bike — and experiencing the world’s first psychedelic LSD trip on the way.
Photo shows a bike dismount sign in Manhattan Beach, because I don’t have one from Redondo.
………
I’ll let someone else start things off today.
Daryll Strauss writes that the Redondo Beach City Council was hearing a recommendation from city staffers last night about the long-standing requirement to walk your bike on the beachfront bike path as it passes the city pier.
Not to mention the ridiculous 5 mph speed limit as the bike path snakes through the pier parking garage, which makes it a challenge to keep your bike upright while getting anywhere close to it.
Redondo Beach Pier has a bike path that travels through the pier parking garage. The RBPD has begun a maximum enforcement ($300 ticket) policy requiring bicyclists to walk their bike through the garage through the south end of the pier. A distance of about 300 yards.
The laws in the city allow police to enforce a walk your bike requirement anywhere signs are posted, and signs can be posted anywhere city staff wants. There are signs and flashing lights that say walk your bike when flashing, but they flash all the time.
The South Bay Bicycle Coalition and the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission have recommended loosening the restrictions, but the recommendations from city staff is to keep the status quo.
The staff recommendations are ludicrous. They don’t provide any data to justify their recommendations and make specious arguments. It basically comes down to the fact the police can’t legally enforce a speed limit so they’ll make it “walk your bike”. Their safety concerns for bicycles riding through turns, at an arbitrary 5mpg, are outright ludicrous and can be mitigated with textured pavement. It’s also ironic that they just installed a skate park on the pier which would have much larger safety issues.
I ride this route regularly. I completely understand walking my bike where the bike path crosses the main entrance of the pier when there is significant pedestrian traffic, but the majority of the restrictions are ridiculous.
This is the beginning of the process, so there may be an opportunity to change these rules if the city council doesn’t rubber stamp the staff recommendation tonight.
I always thought the requirement was absurd when I used to ride through there on a semi-regular basis.
Unfortunately, I received this too late to get the word out for last night’s meeting. But hopefully we’ll let you know if they reconsider it at a future meeting.
It will take someone with more financial acuity than I possess to dig into it and see what she’s budgeted for alternative transportation, bikes and Vision Zero, and how it compares to previous years.
But a cursory examination didn’t reveal any mention of it in the budget, or in LAist’s detailed look at the budget. Which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
This is what she had to say on the subject when she was campaigning for mayor. We’ll see how much actually made it into the budget.
8. Prevent Traffic Fatalities and Champion Walking and Biking
Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the nation 11 – and those deaths disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. 1213 That is unacceptable. Traffic safety is a public health issue.
Meanwhile, survey after survey shows that Angelenos don’t feel safe getting around their neighborhood on foot and by bike – even though they want to. 1415 Angelenos shouldn’t have to worry about being struck by a car when they’re trying to bike to work or walk their children to school. Bass will stand up for safe streets, and prioritize accessibility for the most vulnerable members of our community.
As Mayor, Bass will:
Treat street safety as the public health crisis it is, and leverage all available city resources to address unsafe speeds and save lives.
Prioritize first and last-mile access to transit so that all Angelenos can use the region’s growing rail and bus network.
Invest in street safety infrastructure that saves lives.
Create family-friendly bicycle and pedestrian routes to connect neighborhood destinations and transit stops.
Support and expand monthly open streets events across L.A. like CicLAvia that bring communities together.
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Metro Bike is offering free rides for Earth Day this Saturday.
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BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, supports a more equitable distribution of street space on Eagle Rock Blvd.
BikeLA is supporting our friends at @EquitableER to advocate for a transformative vision for a stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard between Colorado Bl and York Blvd. We urge you to join us and vote Option 2 on the survey: https://t.co/viXeWAPLLHpic.twitter.com/LipVypRXTZ
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Illinois man faces up to 30 years behind bars for riding his bicycle over a homeless man sleeping in a parking garage, then attacking the victim with both ends of an axe; the horrific assault only ended when the victim was able to reach an emergency phone.
Bills to authorize speed cams and camera enforcement of bike lanes passed their first committee hearings in the state legislature; unfortunately, a bill that would rip out the bike lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and replace them with another lane for motor vehicles did, too.
Heartbreaking news from Florida, where an 83-year old man was murdered by a heartless hit-and-run driver, after he was struck by a motorcyclist while trying to ride his bike across the street; the motorcycle rider was critically injured, as well. Seriously, anyone who can still ride a bike at that age deserves a hell of a lot better. Then again, so does anyone else.
More bad Florida news, as Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens had his leg amputated, as well as suffering spinal injuries, as a result of last month’s collision while he was riding his bike home from a restaurant; police naturally blamed him for the crash, and never bothered to test the uninsured driver for drug or alcohol use.
Remarkable news from France, where the 50-year old man who received the first double arm and shoulder transplant two years ago was able to ride a bicycle for the first time after losing both arms when he was electrocuted by power lines 25 years earlier.
The project is under fire from the newly auto-centric conservative majority on the Culver City council, which wants to rip it out so cars can once again go zoom, zoom without having to make room for anyone else.
Here’s just a part of what Rubin has to say.
A recent analysis of the corridor shows MOVE Culer City has delivered substantial benefits with few tradeoffs.
A 52% increase in bus ridership
A 32% increase in cycling activity
A 18% increase in pedestrian activity
Only a 2 minute increase in average peak period travel time for people in cars
Hard-won progress deserves defending. So this week, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sent a letter to the City Council expressing our support for the MOVE Culver City initiative. In doing so, we joined over 20 other organizations that advocate for sustainable, safe, healthy and equitable transportation.
He also notes that removing the project could violate state environmental laws, as well as federal civil rights requirements.
In our letter, we make the case that any action by the city to increase the number of lane-miles available for mixed-flow vehicle traffic would require analysis, disclosure, and mitigation of potential environmental impacts pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The City must comply with CEQA before making any final decision on a project that changes conditions on the ground today.
Full removal of MOVE Culver City would entail adding approximately 2.6 lane miles of vehicular lanes to principal arterial highways, which is likely to significantly increase vehicle miles traveled, according to the state’s official CEQA guidance. That increase in VMT would contribute to additional greenhouse gas emissions impacts, as well as criteria air pollution, including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and PM10 and PM2.5, from tailpipe exhaust and brake, tire, and roadway wear.
Further, we note that the City is required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to analyze changes to transit service that might disproportionately affect people of color, immigrants and other protected communities who ride transit.
Celebrate Earth Day this Saturday on your bike! We’ll do the usual group ride to get some coffee — this time aiming for Belmont Heights. Then back to Pedal Movement.
For EXTRA CREDIT, keep rolling with us and climb Signal Hill for a chat with the Sierra Club about the threat of future oil drilling in our community.
Hard to tell just where this is, but it looks like it might be the Santa Monica Civic Center complex.
Or maybe SaMo High.
For how long were you going to keep this thing a secret @santamonicacity ? This is PROPER infrastructure; now that you’ve shown you know how to do it right, gimme some more! pic.twitter.com/ABWwXwlLbN
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. Officials in a Massachusetts town are up in arms after state officials begin work to remove a traffic lane and install bike lanes on a local bridge, insisting no one told them about the plans; one city councilmember actually insists there’s not enough bike traffic on the bridge to justify a bike lane, apparently forgetting that most people don’t enjoy risking their lives in traffic with safe infrastructure.
A New Orleans driver faces up to 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a “beloved” local butcher as he was riding his bike six years ago; no word on why it took so long to bring the man’s killer to justice.
L39ion of Los Angeles founders Justin and Cory Williams announced the launch of their third co-ed, multi-racial city-based cycling team in Austin, Texas, following the launch of another team in Miami. They may be single-handedly — okay, double handedly — doing more to ensure the survival, growth and spread of cycling in this country than anyone else.
April 17, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA Planning’s “vacuous” and misleading report, tell Bass to focus on safer streets, and another successful CicLAvia
Especially since a Freudian slip by LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto seems to recognize just how little vision the city has when it comes to traffic safety.
“Because we had put out Zero Vision… we were held liable.”
Listen to this scary clip of @CityAttorneyLA try and describe Vision Zero and the High Injury Network and then go on to say the city shouldn’t be liable for crashes even if they know certain streets are extra dangerous. https://t.co/pRuBEkeExZ
But that may not be not all she should focus on, according to the paper.
Michael Schneider, CEO of Streets For All, which advocates for street improvements such as additional bike or bus lanes and other pedestrian improvements, said he doesn’t expect Bass to increase funding to the city’s transportation department – but that she should.
In L.A., traffic fatalities surpassed 300 last year, the first time in two decades the city had reached that grim milestone, according to a report this year. From 2021 to 2022, pedestrian fatalities increased by more than 19% while cyclist deaths rose 24%.
“I understand why the mayor is so laser-focused on homelessness … but we are a big, multi-faceted city,” Schneider said. “We need to be able to do multiple things at the same time. And right now, we’re not. The mayor’s office is paying almost zero attention to transportation. Angelenos are paying a price for that.”
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By all reports, Sunday’s Mid-City Meets Pico Union CicLAvia was another typical success, with a good time had by all.
Or nearly all, anyway.
Unfortunately, though, there’s not a lot of information available yet.
The next CicLAvia will be considerably shorter, as the event moves to Watts with the first-ever CicLAmini.
The next @CicLAvia is only 35 days away, on May 21! It'll be the first #CicLAmini variant of #CicLAvia – a 1-mi route in #Watts. Don't bother biking – it's too short for that. Just walk it or take a scooter/skateboard. The @metrolosangeles A Line 103rd St Station is right there. pic.twitter.com/SF0uiCJOz9
Biking down Venice Bl’s new protected bike lane that we helped make happen en route to a @streetsforall fundraiser is pure happiness. pic.twitter.com/8j3bZ3xjc0
L39ion of Los Angeles swept both crits in stage four of the Tour of Redlands, with Skylar Schneider winning the women’s race and Cory Williams taking the men’s race; Schneider’s sister Samantha also made the podium after sprinting for third.
