jeremygrant.com

You may simply send an email with your comments by November 6, 2009

or

attend the last city meeting:

Northeast Los Angeles NELA
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Location: Ramona Hall
Address: 4580 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Time: 6:00pm-8:00pm

meet at Bike Oven at 5pm and ride to Ramona Hall

1. Demand an EXTENSION. The public comment period for revisions to the LA Bike Plan ends this Friday, November 6, 2009. Did you have time to read it all? Do you have a lot of questions about it and how it will impact your streets? Do you think cyclists belong on the sidewalk? Los Angeles is far too big a city to have such a short public review period. Other cities competing for the “Greenest City” title have far longer periods of review and it makes for a happier city — motorists and cyclists alike. How are we going to win the title if we rush through the planning part? Demand an EXTENSION until January 8th, 2010.

2. Demand the plan be ALL CITY. As it stands the current bike plan does not support an uninterrupted border-to-border path across the city. Some areas have a lot of bike facilities while others don’t. A Backbone Bikeway network will make traversing across Los Angeles safer for all levels of riders. Safe streets make for a calmer attitude and that means more retail spending. Why should one neighborhood be a “better part of town” than the other? Consider every street as a street that cyclists will ride. Demand the plan be ALL CITY and a Backbone Bikeway network will be the engineering focus in the immediate future.

3. Demand ACTION in the next two years. So far in the past 13 years the plan has resulted in 1 mile of bike path per year, 4 miles of bike lanes per year and only 1 mile of bike route. Los Angeles has 7,000 miles of streets. If Los Angeles considers the bicycle to be a viable transportation solution by writing a bike plan it should be backed up with building actual facilities and not just some pie in the sky. Demand ACTION LA must commit to the implementation of key measures within 2 years.

4. Demand JUSTICE for those driving for the city of LA. As it stands the City and it’s professional drivers (LAPD, MTA, etc.) are misinformed of what rights the cyclist has to the road. This ignorance can sometimes result in as much as death or just a mild inconvenience; but, the negative message it sends to other motorists perpetuates bad driving behavior. This needs to be stopped. Demand JUSTICE — Mandatory training in cyclists rights, laws concerning cyclists, and practical bike training for all city motorists.

Where did these demands come from? The LA Bike Working Group (BWG) has held multiple open workshops around the city to discuss and formulate a response to the LA Bike Plan. It’s response? A better bike plan, in fact the BEST. In the last meeting held in Downtown the BWG voted on the principles that will frame LA’s Best Bike Plan – the plan created by cyclists, for cyclists. They are:

1. Genesis: Every street is a street that cyclists will ride.
2. Action: LA must commit to the implementation of key measures within 2 years.
3. All City: A Backbone Bikeway network will be the engineering focus in the immediate future.
4. Transformation: Neighborhood pilots projects to create pockets of ultra bike friendliness, including bike boulevards.
5. Strength: Any new plan should go through a full programmatic EIR.
6. Intelligence: Evaluate success by measuring progress against goals, timelines, bike counts, and collision data.
7. A Generation: Get em’ young – building a car-free army from LA’s youngest generation – beginning at the school level.
8. Justice: LAPD will under go mandatory 8 hour training in cyclists’ rights, laws concerning cyclists, and practical bike training.
9. Execution: Move Bikeways out of LADOT.
10. Democracy: The plan must be approved by cyclists, or the NCs.
11. Total: The six Es – Equality, Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation – give the structure of the plan.
12. Equality: The Cyclists’ Bill of Rights is the foundation for the plan.

Would you like to attend a BWG meeting in your area and help create LA’S Best Bike Plan? Are you in favor of a plan by cyclists for cyclists? Just visit www.labikeplan.com to keep up to date on the latest meetings and actions.

for more information refer to:
LA’s DIY Bike Plan and 12 Principles for LA’s Best Bike Plan