The study also shows there’s no apparent correlation between higher rates of ticketing people on bicycles and improvements in safety. The study also shows that most traffic tickets are written on major streets, but 85% fewer bicyclists are ticketed on streets with bike lanes. Except few communities populated primarily by people of color have bike lanes. And three times more in majority Latinx neighborhoods. Then again, there is something he could do to show he really is serious.Įvidently, the problem isn’t just biking where Black or Brown, but biking where Black or Brown.Ī new study from a UC Davis researcher shows that eight times more traffic tickets were issued to bike riders in majority Black neighborhoods, compared to majority white areas. Or if he’s just staking out a position for what promises to be a bruising mayoral campaign. So we’ll have to see if anything actually comes of de León’s motions. Los Angeles has a long and unproductive history of studying problems to death, without ever taking any real action. The bigger problem is the motions don’t call for actually doing anything other than conducting yet another a study. Which wouldn’t exactly be comfortable, or safe.
However, a far better option would be to pedestrianize the full length of Broadway, from City Hall south to at least 8th Street.Īnd while placing bike lanes on the uphill side of some streets and sharrows on the downhill side has some promise, the question becomes whether it would work in practice, since drivers tend to pick up speed going downhill, often far in excess of the speed limit. The most interesting motion calls for closing one block segments of some Downtown Streets to car traffic, including The fifth motion not mentioned above calls for studying the purchase of more electric mini-street sweepers to keep protected bike lanes clean, as well as the possibility of buying hybrid electric street sweepers.Īlthough a street sweeper that could keep cars out would help a lot more.
Thanks to Brian Addison for the heads-up.ĬD14 Councilmember and 2022 mayoral candidate Kevin de León has fired a shot across the bow for next year’s campaign, staking out a transit, bike and pedestrian friendly position with a series of motions introduced in the LA city council on Wednesday. Anyone wanting more information can contact the Public Works Department at or 56. For those using phones, you may also call 21 and enter the meeting using the following ID: 998 6180 2751. To register for the Zoom meeting, click here. The virtual meeting-set to be presented in English with interpreters for Khmer, Spanish, and Tagalog speakers on hand-begins at 6PM on Thursday, Oct. If you walk or ride in the area, or would like to if it was safer, you owe it to yourself to attend tonight’s virtual meeting. It’s up to you to tell Long Beach that’s not good enough. Not to mention keeping it dangerous, if not deadly, for anyone who isn’t in a motor vehicle. These bike lanes are typically Class I bike paths: They do not share, in any capacity, their space with cars.Īnd yet, for reasons known only to city planners, this ostensibly bike and pedestrian friendly city is going out of their way to maintain the automotive hegemony on this corridor. Santa Fe Avenue, according to our own city’s Master Bicycle Plan (Appendix E), is such a facility. It basically goes as such: Would you feel comfortable letting an eight-year-old ride down the street with an 80-year-old as their guide? If your answer is even a remote hesitation, planners feel that road requires “8-80 facilities,” or fully protected bike lanes with bollards and parking as buffers before aligning directly with traffic. West Long Beach is no exception as this type of lack of safety, particularly along bicycle corridors, has been addressed by urban planners and traffic engineers nationwide through the use of the “8-80 rule.” Which is a pretty major downgrade to a bunch of signs and maybe a few sharrows. Yet those facilities have been downgraded to lowest class in $3.7M project in an area continually dismissed. Santa Fe Ave in West LB was to get protected bike/ped facilities (it's the #8 worst corridor for bike/ped injuries). Yesterday, we mentioned that Long Beach will hold a virtual meeting tonight to discuss a $3.7 million infrastructure improvement project on Santa Fe Avenue in West Long Beach, which includes a new bike route.īut what they failed to mention is that original plans called for a protected bike lane. Long Beach may be one of the most bike-friendly cities in Southern California.īut that doesn’t mean they always get it right.