Insightful Dialog at County Bicycle Plan Workshop in Altadena

April 6, 2011 at 5:41 pm | Posted in Bike News, Get Involved | 1 Comment
Tags: LA County Bike Plan, San Gabriel Valley

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and Alta Planning hosted the sixth meeting (in a series of eleven) to collect feedback on the Draft Bicycle Master Plan for Los Angeles County, Tuesday night in Altadena. The County Plan, which hasn’t been revised since 1975, covers all the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and is divided into 10 large planning areas. Once completed, the plan will be part of the County’s General Plan with implementation to begin in 2012.

Community members review a map of proposed bikeways for Altadena

The purpose of the meeting was to present the Draft Plan to community members, give them an opportunity to respond, and potentially incorporate the comments into the Plan. It was encouraging to see that roughly 20 community members attended the meeting at the Altadena Public Library. Included in the diverse group were self-identified recreational and commuter cyclists, long-time Arroyo Seco Activist Tim Brick, Southern California Cyclocross promoter and racer Dorothy Wong, and Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association (CORBA) board member Steve Messer.

Following a period to review maps and information sheets posted around the room and a short presentation by County staff, the meeting was open for questions and comments. The group proved to be a savvy bunch as they expressed a range of concerns including:

• A need for language in the Plan that recognizes experimental facilities (such as protected bike lanes), encourages their consideration for implementation, and assures their implementation in the event such facilities become part of state recognized standards.
• Policies that will emphasize more robust incentives for people who bike to work instead of driving such as allowing employers in the County to unbundle parking for employees who would prefer to bike to work and cash out.
• Language to ensure that developers are required to include bicycle infrastructure as they develop new areas of the County in the future.
• The philosophy behind the proposed routes chosen in Altadena coupled with a request to designate more non-arterial roadways that provide the same connectivity, but with much less traffic.

At the end of the two-hour meeting, the attendees were assured that their comments were recorded and were further encouraged to submit additional comments using cards that were provided, or by going to the County’s website for the Bicycle Master Plan update.

Now it’s your turn! It’s not too late to attend one of the remaining community meetings or to submit your comments via the website at http://lacountybikeplan.com/. The deadline for submitting comments is Friday, May 20, 2011.

As mentioned in a previous post, here’s a schedule of the remaining meetings (maps):

Monday – April 11, 2011 – Calabasas, CA – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Las Virgenes Water District
4232 Las Virgenes Road
Calabasas, CA 91302

Tuesday – April 12, 2011 – Los Angeles, CA – 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Ladera Park Senior Center
4750 West 62nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90056

Wednesday – April 13, 2011 – Marina del Rey, CA – 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Marina del Rey Library
4533 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292

Thursday – April 14, 2011 – Rowland Heights, CA – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Pathfinder Park
18150 East Pathfinder Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

We hope to see you out there!

- Colin Bogart

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