During May 3rd’s Bike Plan Implmentation Team’s meeting, officials from LADOT laid out their plan to delay implementation of many parts of the city’s new bike plan in order to perform expensive, lengthly, and unneeded environmental impact reviews.
Joe Linton reports:
the city is proposing to spend 500 thousand dollars to spend “12-18 months*” to decide whether it will implement 100-200 thousand dollars worth of bike lane projects. The main issue is whether the city has to spend huge amounts of money studying environmental impacts before proceeding with implementing approved bike lanes.
It appears that LADOT has begun to revert back to their standard operating procedure of delaying progress and hiding from public scrutiny their decision making processes and criteria.
Many of you worked long and hard to see that the city designed and passed a real bike plan with potential to actually impact the role of bicycles as transportation in Los Angeles. But we knew the fight wasn’t over. Call and write the Mayor, your city councilman, and DOT officials to let them know that you insist that Los Angeles follow through on its promises and plans.
Write the Mayor
Write your council representative
Contact the Department of Transportation
Tweet to @villaraigosa and @mobilitymaven
Sunday February 27th, 11:00am-1:00pm
Join C.I.C.L.E. and the Bike Oven for a class that will help you improve your safety awareness, bike handling skills, and bicycle maintenance ability. Following the class there will be a a short bike ride to practice some of the skills taught in the workshop.
Where: Milagro Allegro Community Garden
115 S. Avenue 56, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Space is limited, pre-registration is required.
Send an email to contact@cicle.org.
Wednesday Feb. 9th
The Bike Oven is hosting a FREE maintenance workshop. This workshop will review the basic steps to thoroughly check a bike for safety prior to a ride, to check for necessary repair or maintenance, or to inspect a bicycle prior to purchase.
The class is open to all levels and no prior mechanical experience or tools are needed.
If you have a bike, bring it with you so you can learn to evaluate it. If you do not have a bike, shop bikes will be available to learn on.
RSVP is required. Please email workshops@bikeoven.com
Made possible by funding from the Department of Health and Human Services through the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
On Saturday, Oct. 16, REI Arcadia will hold a bike corral to collect donations of bicycles that will be donated to the Bike Oven to further our mission. People who donate a bike will receive a 15% off REI coupon towards bike accessories (exclusions apply) and will also be entered to win a raffle prize valued at $100 retail. The first 15 people who donates a usable bike will receive a $15 REI Gift Card. Kid’s bikes will not be accepted.
More details are available here: REI – Arcadia
Of course, the Bike Oven always accepts direct donations of bikes, parts, tools, and supplies. But if you like shopping at REI, this is a great chance to help the Oven and get something for yourself.
We’re big proponents fixing up that old bike and getting it back on the road. But sometimes there’s nothing to do but start fresh. If you’re in the market for a new ride and you’ve got an old one sitting around, here’s a way you can help out cycling in Los Angeles while getting a discount.
Pasadena Cyclery
1670 E Walnut St
Pasadena, CA 91106
626 584-6391
Looking for a chance to help Los Angeles become more bike friendly and get paid to do it? The County Cycling Collaborative is hiring a “Bike Wrangler” who will scour the County’s universities, police departments, Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other sources to find used bikes, recover them, and redistribute them.
More information and a full job description are available on the LA County Bicycle Coalition blog.
Deadline for applications is June 7th.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl will chair a meeting of the council’s Transportation Committee that will focus exclusively on bicycling issues on Wednesday, December 9, 2 pm – 5 pm.
Subjects on the agenda are:
- An update from the Planning Department and DOT on outreach efforts for the Draft Bicycle Master Plan
- Report from LAPD on bicycle incidents and conflicts between bicyclists and motorists
- The Sharrows pilot program
- A bicycle sharing program for the City of Los Angeles
- Bicyclist anti-harassment ordinance
- Revising the Zoning Code that would improve bicycle parking requirements for new development
LAPD issues promise to be especially heated given the recent incident at Critical Mass. It is unlikely that anything related to that incident will be resolved at this meeting, but it is important for the cycling community to continue pressure on the LAPD to rethink the way they interact with the cycling community and live up to the promises they have made to improve.
Even if you don’t have anything to say, attending these meetings lets the City Council, LAPD, and city departments know that these issues are important to a broad group of LA citizens.
The meeting is here:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring Street, Room 1010
Los Angeles , CA 90012
The offical agenda is here.
And there’s some commentary here.
Measure R raised the local sales tax rate to pay for transportation improvements. Cycling and pedestrain projects should get some share of this money, but the amount is still under debate. Please come out to Wednesday’s Transportation Committee meeting at 2pm to continue to support 10% for bikes and peds so that it becomes officially approved. A strong showing at the meeting will make a big difference in getting 10% for bikes and peds!
10% for bikes and peds will directly affect the funding available for bike projects.
When: Wednesday, November 18, 2pm
Where: City Hall, 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, Ca 90012. Room 1010
Announcement via Aurisha Smolarski of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.
SoapBoxLA also has some information on the weird math being used to calculate that 10% number.
Please take the following survey to assist collecting the “experience and knowledge of cyclists in the City of Los Angeles.”
The survey will also support a “white paper” that will be released in February on behalf of the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative (www.lasustainability.org).
Click Here to take survey
We will revisit the art and science of wheel building. Topics covered will include basic theory of wheel design, lacing, tensioning, and truing. A brief lecture will be followed by all students building wheels. Shop spokes, hubs, and rims will be provided, but if you have a project you are working on, feel free to bring it in.
There are no prerequisites for this session but familiarity with basic truing techniques will be highly beneficial.
Class size is limited to 6 students. Secure your spot by emailing: info@bikeoven.com
Sorry – class is completely full – please let us know if you would like to be added to the list for future class announcements.
Tutorials are free for active volunteers, $10 donation requested from all others.