LA County Bicycle Coalition www.la-bike.org

LACBC Talking Points for the City Planning Commission Meeting 11/4/10

Here are some brief talking points for tomorrow’s Planning Commission Meeting. Feel free to personalize.

Include a Needs Based Measurement

• The five-year strategy needs to take into account the needs of low income and transit dependent communities by adding a measurement to the current grading system that has an equity criteria.
• Prioritizing low-income and transit dependent communities will ensure bikeways are implemented in communities with the most need for quality bicycle infrastructure

Define Bicycle Friendly Streets

• We are asking that Planning stipulate that every Bicycle Friendly Street will incorporate signage, on-street pavement markings, and traffic calming features; a minimum of 3 treatments.
• For a Bicycle Friendly street to actually prioritize bicycle travel it must always incorporate traffic calming features in addition to signage and on-street markings, thus differentiating it from a bike route.

Make a Commitment to Bicycle Lanes

• Currently there are just over 50 miles of “proposed” or “designated” bike lane projects in the plan. The plan still lists over 511 miles of bike lanes projects in the potential/further study category.
• Make it clear that bicycle lanes do not all need Environmental Review

• • Recently, we have seen the city stripe bike lanes on Wilbur Ave., San Pedro Street, and do road diets on streets such as James M. Wood without conducting CEQA review
  • Calling out almost all bike lanes projects in the plan as needing CEQA review is a falsehood and shows a lack of commitment from the city to the vision of a more bike-able Los Angeles.

Update the Technical Design Guidelines

• The Street Sections need to be updated so they do not hinder bike lane projects.
• If a standard is to be established through the guidelines, we ask that Planning set the minimum vehicle travel lane width at 10′ not at 11′ unless the road has heavy bus traffic.