Transportation Committee Meeting Update

December 11, 2009 at 12:48 am | Posted in Bike News | 1 Comment
Tags: Anti-Harassment, LA Bike Plan, lapd

About 50 cyclists attended Wednesdays Transportation Committee meeting dedicated to bikes. Unfortunately, a few of the anticipated agenda items were cut due to the hour and a half late start. The Sharrow and bike sharing update will be heard at January’s T-Committee meeting.

Here is an update on the issues that were discussed:

1) Bike Plan:
Jordann Turner and Michelle Mowery presented a powerpoint presentation of the Bike Plan. They tried to project a better picture by lumping in the proposed and potential lanes in one number, 529 miles, thus giving a false sense of the numbers. Cyclists were quick to correct this and as C.I.C.L.E highlights, there are actually only 28 miles of new proposed lanes. These are the lanes that are considered ready-to-go without any further road reconfigurations required. The rest of the bike lanes would need either parking or lane removal in order to implement the bike lane.

LACBC made specific asks to increase the planned total mileage for each type of bikeway facility (especially bike paths and bike lanes) in comparison to the current (1996) city bicycle master plan. We also asked that they set implementation benchmarks for each type of bike improvement. We stated that to exclude one user group (mountain bikers) from all parks is discriminatory and that mountain biking should be kept in the plan. LACBC also commented that the plan should support low-income areas by putting in more bike facilities.

2) LAPD relationships with cyclists
Commander Jeff Greer, assigned to work on cycling issues, was still unable to present council with a report on the Hummer incident which had been previously requested months ago. Rosendahl requested the report at the next hearing.

Greer did say that they were working with LACBC on developing an officer bike education video that would be ready at roll-call. LACBC let Council know that since our initial meeting with them in August, there has been no follow through. We requested more accountability that they would actually work on this educational video.

We also commented that policies and bike-auto conflicts shouldn’t be under an officer’s discretion, that there should be set guidelines and a focus on motorist violations during conflicts instead of just on putting cyclists at fault

LACBC also requested that LAPD needs to investigate cases when cyclists call after being harassed even if a cyclist was not injured. Commander Greer did mention that they are also working on a policy to better handle group rides. This was met with alot of controversy by cyclists.

3) Anti-Harassment Bike Ordinance
LACBC requested that motorists should be held accountable for harassing cyclists and pedestrians through the implementation of anti-harassment ordinance similar to the one enacted in Missouri where harassing bikes and pedestrians is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by $1,000 fine or a year in jail.

Rosendahl supported LACBCs addition that there be a mandatory training for motorists on how to effectively share the road with cyclists.  Council supported the idea of having an anti-harassment bike ordinance but the motion must go through Public Safety Committee first and will be further discussed at the January T-Committee meeting.

For more details and info on the meeting read the recap at Streetsblog LA or listen to the meeting online here (the meeting starts around 20:20).

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