Tag Archive for Chase Street

Morning Links: More on efforts to undo Chase Street, bike riding family shot in WI, and apparently only dopes dope

May 5, 2015 / / One comment

Good commentary from Mr. CiclaValley (who apparently has no idea how hard it is not to type CicLAvia by mistake) on the ridiculous efforts to undo a road diet on Chase Street in Panorama City.

As he points out, the argument comes down, as it usually does, to the convenience of pass-through motorists versus the safety of people who live, work and attend school along the street, which was never intended to be the arterial people seem to use it for.

Or that the local neighborhood councils want it to be, at least.

Battles like this are best seen as the violent death throws of LA’s overdependence on motor vehicles. Simply put, the city has no choice but to change; as he points out, increasing capacity on our streets does nothing to reduce congestion in the long run.

The only choice we have is to provide viable alternatives to driving. Which means, not just providing transit options, but making our streets safe to bike and walk.

As an added benefit, improving safety also makes our neighborhoods more livable, resulting in increased property values and greater profitability for local businesses.

Which seems to be more than worth a small increase in congestion — which usually only lasts until drivers adjust to the changes, anyway.

But hey, that’s just me.

………

This one’s just too sad for words.

A Wisconsin father and daughter were killed, and the mother injured, when a stranger opened fire on a family out for a bike ride before killing himself. Just because he was pissed off after a fight with his girlfriend, and they happened to be there.

There are no words.

………

Give Lance his yellow jerseys back.

A new study says doping not only doesn’t improve performance, but it can actually have the opposite effect.

So Armstrong may have won in spite of cheating, not because of it.

Yeah, good luck with that one.

………

Local

The WeHo Bicycle Coalition posts candidate questionnaires for all the candidates in next months West Hollywood election, while the city’s City Council considers jacking up fines for parking in bike lanes.

Malibu is hosting a free bike rodeo for kids ages 4 – 13 this Friday afternoon, along with the premier of a new video promoting safety on PCH.

Look ma, no hands! Actor Orlando Bloom impresses the impressionable Brit press by riding his mountain bike hands-free through the ‘Bu.

A Long Beach rider walks away from a collision in Belmont Shore.

 

State

All-diabetic Team Novo Nordisk will compete in this year’s Amgen Tour of California, while former non-diabetic Astana rider Evan Huffman struggles to come back with an entry-level team competing in the tour.

A a meth-fueled Santa Barbara woman attempts to make her getaway by stolen bike after attacking an elderly woman with a pitchfork.

San Mateo County can afford to widen the freeway, but can’t seem to scape up enough funds for a safe way for bikes and pedestrians to cross it.

Bay Area-based Google gets a patent for how driverless cars can detect bike riders and recognize hand signals. But can it recognize the one we give to too many human drivers? Yes, that one.

Chico bicyclists smartly adapt the tweed ride for the California climate with an annual seersucker ride.

 

National

Advice on how to choose a lock and effectively secure your bike.

A $100,000 grant from REI helps fund protected bike lanes in six cities. And no, Los Angeles is not one of them.

A Mac website says the non-Apple-made Stromer ST2 e-bike is such a blast to ride it shouldn’t be street legal.

A Honolulu protected bike lane increased bike traffic by 70% in just one year, while cutting sidewalk riding from 66% to just 14%.

Oregon begins a new campaign to increase bike tourism in the state.

My hometown offers an alternative to bike share, with a bike library that lends out bicycles to anyone who needs one. Note to the Coloradoan newspaper: Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes. Fort Collins wasn’t a cow town; it was all about the sheep. Which explains why my high school team was called the Lambkins, something I’m still trying to live down.

Yesterday we mentioned a cyclist with pancreatic cancer who spent the last three years touring the US. Now another rider pauses in Texas on a cross country ride to raise funds to fight pancreatic cancer; his wife, who suffers from the disease, is following in the support van. My mother died of pancreatic cancer, as did Steve Jobs and Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. And as a relatively newly minted Type 2 diabetic, I face an increased risk, as well. I fucking hate cancer.

Tres shock! The editor-in-chief of Vogue is nearly flattened by a bike rider on her way to a New York red carpet event; the rider was reportedly led away by police.

Bono falls off his bike once again. But this time it was just a stunt for Jimmy Fallon.

West Virginia tells drivers to give bike riders three feet.

A South Carolina motorist faces an attempted murder charge for jumping out of his car and attacking a woman riding her bike; the victim was seriously injured in the assault.

 

International

Good for them. A UK appeals court tells a hit-and-run driver who killed a cyclist and tried to cover up his crime that he deserves every day of his eight-and-a-half year sentence.

A bicyclist is beaten to death by a motorcycle rider attending a wedding in India, after he lost his balance and broke a turn signal on the motorbike. A mob responded by trashing the wedding site, yet the couple still managed to exchange vows under heavy police protection.

Adult cyclists may soon be allowed to ride on the sidewalks in one Down Under state.

The LA Times looks at the problems besetting Giant’s giant Taiwan bike manufacturing plant.

Not surprisingly, the speeding Thai driver who plowed into a group of cyclists, killing three and injuring six, was under the influence.

 

Finally…

It often seems like spandex and those who wear it are under attack these days, but bike shorts still come in handy for smuggling a half kilo of coke jammed into your nether regions. When you’re claiming to be the victim in a road rage incident, it helps if you don’t head butt and bite the cops when they respond; it also helps if the Kiwi press can manage to keep the damn parties in the story straight.

And caught on video: A Brit bike rider flips through the air along with his mangled bike after he’s hit by a car, and catches the whole thing on his helmet cam.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , ,

Guest post: BAC Vice Chair Glenn Bailey reports on efforts to undo the Chase Street road diet and bike lanes

April 28, 2015 / / 4 comments

Last week we alerted you to an attempt by the Panorama City Neighborhood Council to sneak in a last minute vote on removing the road diet and bike lanes on Chase Street through the San Fernando Valley neighborhood.

Despite the late notice, a number of bicyclists emailed to protest the blatant attempt to bypass legitimate discussion of the issue, and a handful of riders were able to attend the meeting.

Glenn Bailey, Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee, offers his report on the matter.

………

Existing bicycle lanes in Panorama City were under attack last week as both the Arleta and Panorama City Neighborhood Councils voted to support efforts to “restore” two additional lanes of motor vehicle traffic along a one-mile stretch of Chase Street between Van Nuys Boulevard and Woodman Avenue. The bicycle lanes, installed a year ago, link a major commercial district in Panorama City with the existing bicycle lanes on Woodman Avenue, and will provide a future connection for the proposed bicycle lanes on Parthenia Street, which will extend west to Canoga Park. The Chase lanes also serve the adjoining Chase Street Elementary School and nearby Panorama Recreation Center.

The removal of the bicycle lanes has been spearheaded by the Arleta “Looky Loo” Neighborhood Watch group, even though the lanes are located in Panorama City and not in Arleta. They claim traffic is delayed “up to fifteen minutes during rush hour.” (Alternatively, bicycling the route at any time of the day only takes four to five minutes.)

The Panorama City Neighborhood Council (PCNC) held its regular fourth Thursday monthly meeting last week but the Chase Street bicycle lanes item was not listed on the agenda distributed three days earlier. Instead, the PCNC issued a second agenda for a special meeting that was not publicly distributed via the City’s Early Notification System until less than 11 hours before the meeting start time.

Generally, these “special” sessions are only called pursuant to State’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, to consider items that become known within two to three days before a regular meeting. However, public records indicate that the Chase Street bicycle lanes have been agendized by the PCNC at least twice over the last two years: in April 2013 and in October 2014. The issue was most recently considered by the PCNC Public Safety Committee at a meeting held on March 11, 2015 and yet the item was not included on the agenda for the next full Board meeting held on March 26, 2015. Instead, it mysteriously appeared six weeks later with virtually no advance notice for the public.

Despite the lack of public notice, the PCNC President, Viviano Montes, reported that the Board had received about twenty emails that afternoon supporting the bicycle lanes.   Two bicyclists who live in Panorama City and who use the Chase Street bicycle lanes on a daily basis did attend and spoke passionately in favor of keeping the lanes.

Two persons spoke against the bike lanes and apparently neither live in Panorama City, but rather in neighboring Arleta.  One speaker said the bicycle lanes should be “shared” with motor vehicles, apparently unaware that a five-foot lane width is too narrow to accommodate cars and that such use is a violation of the State Vehicle Code. She claimed to have petitions with 250 signatures to remove the lanes, but apparently a copy was not provided to the Neighborhood Council so the Board doesn’t know if the signers are actually from Panorama City or not.

But that was enough to influence some of the PCNC Board members who said they would vote to represent the wishes of the “majority.”  The vote was 10-1-3 (yes-no-abstain) to “ask the city to restore Chase Street to four traffic lanes between Woodman Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard” which would necessitate the removal of the bicycle lanes. (A similar motion was passed the previous Tuesday by the Arleta NC on a 7-1-1 vote.)

According to the U.S. Census, the current population of Panorama City is 70,749 so if the Neighborhood Council wants to represent a true majority, they will need to hear from at least 35,250 more of their constituents.

Instead of undoing the road diet and removing the bicycle lanes, the City’s Department of Transportation should conduct a traffic and safety study and make recommendations to improve the flow of traffic, if necessary.  For example, the complaints about delays at the four-way stop signs could be addressed by installing roundabouts at those intersections.

The bicycle lane opponents vowed to submit their petition signatures to the local City Councilmember Nury Martinez (6th District) so stayed tuned as this story unfolds.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Action Alert: Panorama City NC sneaks in agenda item to remove bike lanes on Chase Street at tonight’s meeting

April 23, 2015 / / 3 comments

I just received news that the Panorama City Neighborhood Council will discuss removal of a recently installed road diet and bike lanes on Chase Street.

The group has already requested removal of the lanes in one section; now they’re planning to ask for removal of the entire road diet.

Worse, they’re trying to sneak this past the public without any real discussion by inserting a last-minute “special agenda” at the end of the previously published agenda. And allowing only eight minutes to consider the matter, effectively eliminating any possibility of legitimate discussion.

5. Consideration and possible action on the recommendation of the Public Safety committee that the Board ask the city to restore Chase Street to four traffic lanes between Woodman Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard. The Board has already taken action to request a return to four lanes between Wakefield Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard. The council had opposed lane elimination in that area when the street restriping was still in the proposal stage. Now that the restriping has occurred, a dangerous condition has also arisen at the Woodman end, where parent traffic blocks the street while waiting to turn into the alley behind Valor Academy Middle School to pick up children. The through-street’s traffic capacity reduction is also causing huge backups along the street during rush hours, and a dangerous diversion of cut-through traffic to Parthenia Street between Woodman Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard. That section of Parthenia has now changed from a quiet residential street to an arterial street. For all of these traffic disruptions, very few bicycles are ever seen occupying the two bike lanes that replaced the two traffic lanes. [8m]

If you live, work or ride in the area, you’re urged to attend tonight’s meeting:

PANORAMA CITY NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING AGENDA

Thursday, April 23, 2015, 6:30 PM
Mission Community Hospital, Medical Office Building, 2nd Floor, Room 208 14860 Roscoe Boulevard, Panorama City, CA 91402

If you can’t make it, email your comments — and your outrage at the sneak attack — to PCNC@EmpowerLA.org; blind copy (Bcc) LA BAC Vice Chair Glenn Bailey at glennbicyclela@gmail.com.

Demand that they allow legitimate public discussion before taking any action.

And that they allow the bike lanes to remain until people in cars and on bikes both have a chance to adjust to the new road design — and give up this ill-advised attempt to revert the roadway back to a more dangerous state.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , ,
 
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