LA Bike Plan: LACBC Letter and Comments

July 16, 2009 at 7:21 pm | Posted in Bike News, Get Involved | 2 Comments
Tags: Campaigns, LA Bike Plan, sharrows

Dear Jordann,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft bikeway network maps and for the work that has gone into this ambitious project thus far.  We recognize that for a city the size of Los Angeles, this is a daunting undertaking.  Nonetheless, we are encouraged by the high level of expertise in the team working on this and the volume of constructive public input.  This bodes well for a strong Bike Plan that can play an important role in addressing the transportation, health and environmental challenges we face.

Los Angeles has the potential to become one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the nation, but we strongly believe the draft bikeway maps do not do enough to move us forward.  Relegating so many streets to the Proposed but Currently Infeasible category is disheartening and, we believe, unnecessary.

The 2009 Bicycle Plan should not be a step backwards from the 1996/2002 Bicycle Master Plan.   The 1996 plan called for far more bike lane mileage than the new draft bikeway maps propose.

To address this, we recommend the following:

1) Change the “Proposed but Currently Infeasible” Street (PCI) designation to “Possibility Streets”, “Potential Bikeway Streets,” “Desirable Streets,” or similar wording.  “Infeasible” implies that those streets will not become bike lanes, when the associated definition stipulates that, in fact, bikeways could be installed if the roadway is reconfigured. Such reconfigurations have occurred in Los Angeles, so they are not impossible. The description of this category is satisfactory, but a name change is significant for cyclists and should encourage more optimistic policy decisions as well.

2) Revise the draft bikeways map to propose bike lanes for additional roads currently designated “Proposed But Currently Infeasible” (see Attachment 1).  The roads we have identified in this list have fewer challenges than other PCI roads and we believe they should be in the proposed bike lane category. *

3) Revise the draft map to include streets for bikeway designations that are not currently indicated on the map (see Attachment 2).  This list identifies needed bikeways and improvements that were apparently overlooked. *

4) The Plan should set a goal for creating bicycle lanes on select PCI road corridors so that cyclists have access to direct cross-town bike routes without having to travel far out of their way. For instance, there needs to be an additional, direct east-west road with bike lanes from the Westside to Downtown (Venice is the only one now).  This will also give cyclists direct, convenient access to the many destinations that lie along major roads.

5)  The Plan needs to articulate a concerted strategy with specific steps and timelines for identifying these cross-town bike lanes and implementing them.

6)  The Plan should mandate that no new modifications are made for motor vehicles on the PCI-designated roads that would hinder future bikeway implementation on these roads.

Thank you for your consideration of our input.  We anxiously await the release of the full Bike Plan draft and strongly encourage that sufficient time be provided for public review of it.  Obviously, the Bike Plan Update is behind schedule, but that should not mean compromising the public input process.  The new Plan gives us a rare opportunity to plan an ambitious vision for cycling in Los Angeles at a critical time of increasing need.

We look forward to ongoing, collaborative participation in this exciting process!

Sincerely,

Jennifer Klausner

Executive Director

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

*To see a list of streets we submitted please email:  dorothy@la-bike.org or aurisha@la-bike.org