Tag Archive for Big Jump Project

Morning Links: Los Angeles selected for bike riding boost, and carfree plan moves forward for Mt. Hollywood Drive

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In case you missed yesterday’s big news, PeopleForBikes has selected ten cities for their inaugural Big Jump Project intended to double or triple ridership in select neighborhoods in just the next three years.

Surprisingly, Los Angeles made the cut, with efforts to focus on Downtown LA and adjacent University Park.

This was my take on it when the news broke around noon yesterday.

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In what could be the final step in a long, drawn-out battle to keep cars off Mt. Hollywood Drive in Griffith Park, the LA City Council’s Arts, Parks and River Committee approved plans for a shuttle system to take people up to the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign; the proposal goes before the full council today for final approval.

BikinginLA sponsor Josh Cohen wrote an open letter to the council in support of the plan.

Dear Lovers of Griffith Park:

I have been a CD 4 resident and homeowner, employee and employer in one capacity or another since the late 1960’s. I have a wife and a five year-old girl. We all use Griffith Park at least once a week. I live in Franklin Hills. My parents are elderly and they live in Beachwood Canyon, right under the Hollywood Sign. They too use Griffith Park.

Many other users of Griffith Park and I have watched as the City has struggled with traffic problems and the issue of motor vehicle traffic on Mt. Hollywood Drive.

Griffith Park is and must remain a place for people, not cars. Colonel Griffith J. Griffith bestowed the Park to the people of Los Angeles as, “[…] a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people […] to make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city.”

The absence of motor vehicles in the Park is a prerequisite to Colonel Griffith’s mandate. Car-free, natural and unspoiled venues in Los Angeles are rare and precious. The absence of motor vehicles makes the Park a safe haven from the hectic, break-neck pace of life in metropolitan Los Angeles. Families like mine can escape to its confines and breathe unspoiled air. Children can run free without fear of getting hit by motor vehicles.

These truths impart an inherent value that supersedes the need for vehicular access to touristic vistas. Tourists’ desires for photo opportunities cannot outweigh Angelenos’ need for an escape from the mechanized dangers of city life. Los Angeles and its amenities must first be a place for its own residents.

Many Angelenos struggle in their daily lives because they cannot afford cars. Commuting and navigating the City unfairly burden them with logistical difficulties. Merely crossing the street threatens them with becoming another of Los Angeles’ 20,000 annual hit-and-run victims. They often lack recourse because the choices that shaped our great City’s landscape failed to account for anything but cars. Pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities are implicitly considered the cost of doing business.

For these reasons and more, Griffith Park must remain car-free to the fullest extent practicable. The Griffith Observatory Circulation and Parking Enhancement Plan keeps it so. It provides unprecedented transit access to the Park for those unable to afford a car, or for those who decide that one less car in the park is a good thing. Car-free policy lifestyle benefits the environment and Angelenos, and fulfills Colonel Griffith’s vision and mandate. And frankly, the tourists enjoy car-free Griffith Park more too.

The thousands who have signed petitions and attended meetings are pleased and grateful to know that Mt. Hollywood Dr. will remain motor vehicle free.

Thank you for protecting the Park’s wild interior and for improving the lives of Angelenos.

Joshua C. Cohen

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If you want to see the new documentary on Russia’s systematic doping program, you’ll have to get Netflix.

The four-stage Tour of Abu Dhabi will roll next month after moving from its previous October date.

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Local

LA-based battery maker Immotor plans to bring an ebike to market later this year as proof-of-concept for their advanced batteries.

Pasadena will host a public workshop tomorrow to get input on the city’s draft Street Design Guide.

ASSOS will be the title sponsor of the Malibu Gran Fondo for the next two years.

Violent crime may be up in Long Beach, but bike theft has dropped over 26%. Maybe they could tell LA how they did it.

Speaking of Long Beach, work has begun on completing the Ocean Blvd road diet, which should have bike lanes by Friday.

CiclaValley tackles the famed Gibraltar climb above Santa Barbara.

 

State

Fifteen San Bernardino students got new bikes and helmets for maintaining perfect attendance records.

A Morro Bay mother who lead the fight for a BMX bike park has been honored as the Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year.

A San Francisco cyclist was injured in a fall on a bikeway that’s been taken over by a homeless encampment, despite promises from the city to clean it up.

Davis is looking for input on new wayfinding strategies.

Not content with smashing windows at a Davis mosque and draping bacon over door handles, a woman was caught on security cameras slashing tires on bikes that were parked outside it.

A writer says bike riding is an opportunity for Calaveras County, but streets remain a major obstacle. Sort of like nearly everywhere else.

Instead of getting rid of rumble strips that pose a risk to Northern California cyclists, Caltrans just paints a wedge on the pavement to warn riders about them.

 

National

Soap opera star Martha Madison is one of us, as she recovers from a broken elbow after falling of her bike.

How is it that Los Angeles, where year-round riding is easy, doesn’t have a winter bike week, but Denver, where it isn’t, does?

It’s a win for Montana bike riders, as a bill that would have banned bicycles from most two-lane roadways has been withdrawn, and will be redrafted with bicyclists’ input; the lawmaker responsible for the bill says the new version won’t contain restrictions on walking or bicycling.

A new Colorado study shows, just like with anything else, familiarity breeds acceptance when it comes to ebikes on trails; once people try them, their resistance melts away.

Another salvo in the war on bikes, as a bike rider barely escapes injury when someone strung fishing line across a Wichita, Kansas bike trail.

Detroit breaks ground on a $4 million sports complex that will include a new velodrome.

The Bike League’s annual National Bike Summit will take place in Washington DC the first week of March.

A coalition of Virginia lawmakers proposes getting tough on distracted driving.

 

International

Bike Radar examines 12 cycling nutrition myths.

A new study says bikewear that promises to dissipate heat doesn’t actually work, and could prove harmful to older riders.

A pair of Vancouver bike riders will spend a week in jail and face a five year ban from US public lands after riding off-trail through environmentally sensitive lands in Yellowstone, as well as other US parks.

The war on bikes continues, as a British woman was pushed of her bicycle by the passenger of a passing car; fortunately, she was not seriously injured.

A kindhearted woman in the UK starts a fundraising campaign to buy a new bike for a woman who had hers stolen, after reading the note the victim left for the thief.

Several stars of Britain’s Tottenham Spurs go for a bike ride in Barcelona. Although those look more like scooters to me.

Road.cc asks what Brexit and the Trump presidency will mean for British bicycling, the short answer is, prepare for a major hit to the pocketbook.

Where to go on your next bicycling vacation to Denmark.

Caught on video: An Aussie cyclist swerves to avoid getting hit after he’s cut off by a U-turning driver, then gets a milkshake thrown at him by way of thanks; fortunately, the driver had really bad aim.

Now that’s love. A Chinese man rode over 1,200 miles in 15 days just to see his girlfriend on her 21st birthday. Although whether he loves her or bicycling — or both — remains to be explained.

The Chinese maker of Apple iPhones invests some of its profits in a bikeshare company.

 

Finally…

Now you can dress to match your new bamboo bike. Unless you’d prefer a paper bike to go with your paper helmet.

And if you can’t decide whether to dress for warmth or visibility on a cold winter’s night, there’s always the option of nothing.

 

Breaking News: Los Angeles selected as part of new PeopleForBikes initiative to boost bike ridership

News has just come in that Los Angeles has been selected as one of ten cities to participate in the Big Jump Project.

The new initiative from PeopleForBikes is aimed at doubling or tripling bike ridership in specific neighborhoods by improving bike infrastructure.

As part of the Big Jump Project, Los Angeles will focus on improving bike infrastructure in downtown LA and University Park, the city’s business core. As a participant in the program, Los Angeles will annually receive the equivalent of $200,000 in technical support from PeopleForBikes, as well as an additional $50,000 in matching funds or financial commitments from local organizations….

Over the course of the next three years, the Big Jump Project cities will be laboratories for innovation, ultimately illustrating the ways in which U.S. cities and towns can tap into bicycles to radically improve the health and vitality of their communities.

The project is part of PeopleForBikes’ new PlacesForBikes program, a three-part plan including an easy-to-understand, data-driven system for rating bike-friendly cities; how-to resources for communities and businesses; and an annual conference for city and business leaders.

Los Angeles was selected along with New York City, Baltimore MD, Portland OR, Memphis TN, Providence RI, New Orleans LA,  Austin TX, Tucson AZ and my hometown of Fort Collins, CO.

While it’s great that Los Angeles has been selected as one of the initial cities, it’s unfortunate that it is limited to the Downtown area, which has already seen a jump in ridership, and the area north of USC, which could definitely use the help.

It would have been nice to see infrastructure-starved areas like South LA, Highland Park and Hollywood included in the program, as well as other often ignored regions of the city.

However, as always, the problem in Los Angeles is political will, and the courage of local councilmembers to stand up to the inevitable NIMBY anti-bike backlash.

Or more precisely, the lack thereof.

Hopefully, when people see what can be done to make our streets safer and more inviting for everyone, they’ll demand improvements in their own neighborhoods, as well. And elect representatives who will respond to that demand.

The other concern is whether LA will finally provide adequate staffing and funding for LADOT to meet the requirements of our streets, so this doesn’t result in ignoring the urgent needs of other areas while attention is focused on just two neighborhoods.

As former NYDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan stresses in her book Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, cities must be able to respond quickly to needs and opportunities on the streets, rather than taking years to design — and redesign in response to local opposition and lack of leadership backbone — before even thinking about implementation.

Something Los Angeles sadly lacks, and seems unlikely to change.

Maybe this will be the kick in the ass the city so desperately needs.

You can see the full press release here.