Mar 25 '08 - 1111 W, 6 I - Vote Good + 6 :: Bad - 6 Does A Bikeway Access gate Closing Alone In Los Angeles Make Any Sound?
Published March 25, 2008 by C.I.C.L.E.
Contributed by Will Campbell
Maybe not, but this cyclist makes some noise about it.
My friend Stephen Box, tireless cyclists and cycling advocate and founder of the Bike Writers Collective (BWC), attended what he related the next day on the LAist blog to be something of a contentious March 18 meeting of the L.A. Transportation Committee regarding Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s motion to close a Ballona Creek Bikeway access gate at Culver Drive west of Sawtelle. Rosendahl put for the request in response to residents’ complaints that it made their adjacent neighborhood more vulnerable to crime.
When BWC member Eric Richardson brought the proprosal to the BWC’s attention the day before the meeting, its members, including myself, were decidedly put out by what we considered to be a short-sighted and ineffective solution that will remove the bikeway from its community more than it will reduce crime. At the same time it was also understood that one gate is something of a little battle to pick. But as one gate’s closure can lead to another and another, I took immediate action the evening of March 17 to scope out the section of bikeway in question, with an eye towards identifying the various access points available and distances in between them.
Entering the bikeway eastbound at the entrance from Inglewood Avenue the first access I found was a third of a mile away at Coolidge Avenue pictured, where Culver Slauson Park is located. I then traveled under the 405 Freeway overpass to the gate Rosendahl wants closed at the meeting of Culver Drive and Purdue Avenue.
The distance from Coolidge Avenue to Purdue Avenue is a fifth of a mile. In other words, even if one subscribes to the belief that locking a gate will successfully eliminate any criminal element present from accessing or escaping the adjacent area, it is readily negated by the fact that there’s another opening just 1,000 feet away.
Next, let’s take a look at the Culver Drive gate and immediate fencing and see why even Rosendahl’s motion succeeds and the gate is shackled it will have little of its intended effect.
As pictured, the material is simple chain link. On top of that the gate is about five feet all. The fencing that extends east and west of the gate is just as short but its built up from a concrete footing to give it a total height of about six feet. As a barrier this offers little in the way of security. Not only can the chain link be cut but with the concrete base serving as a boost step the fence is basically ready to be climbed over and quickly by any properly motivated hoodlums.
So what’s the solution? Do we close the Coolidge Avenue gate, too? Or perhaps do we spend money the city doesn’t have to increase the Culver Drive gate’s height? Surprisingly enough in the next picture you can see this has already happened another fifth of a mile upstream beyond Sawtelle Boulevard at Beloit Avenue.
Beyond the noticeable difference in height between this fencing and gate along Culver Drive east of Sawtelle and the one seen in the previous image, it’s also very important to note that the gate is already closed and locked. This was not just a one-day occurrence. It was shackled shut when this picture was taken March 17, as well as when I rode by it on the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st. While I’m not privy to the circumstances regarding its closure, it’s not hard to imagine the residents of these streets perhaps lobbying for it for the same reason as their neighbors on the other side of Sawtelle are doing now.
But wait, there’s more! A tenth of a mile eastward and one comes to the inexplicably locked gates of the bikeway exit into the southbound lanes of Sepulveda Boulevard.
Entering and exiting has been denied every day this week as well. So unless one is willing to risk clambering over the upended shopping cart seen at the left of the frame (placed there perhaps by some enterprising cyclist or pedestrian or gangmember), in order to exit the bikeway you’ll have to travel under the Sepulveda Boulevard overpass and double back to the street an additional third of a mile.
For the healthy walker, jogger or bike rider this is no big deal. But let’s take a look at the potential of a worst-case scenario that involves someone injured on the bikeway in the vicinity of Sawtelle. Whereas there should be two methods of egress available to the injured person – at Beloit Avenue and Purdue Avenue – Beloit isn’t and now an exit at Purdue is in danger of disappearing. Furthermore, the only options are for the injured person to somehow get all the way under Sepulveda, go under the overpass and double back to the entrance, or make it the other direction to Coolidge Avenue.
And what if it’s a matter of emergency personnel trying to assist an incapacitated person at that point on the bikeway. It isn’t hard to imagine the potential delays that could occur if paramedics are prevented from coming to someone’s aid because locked gates block there way and force them in further directions to find an entry point.
While that might seem overdramatic or an exaggeration, it all goes to the matter of accessibility and whether we want to allow this important resource to be further separated from the community it serves.
I certainly can empathize with the citizens that Stephen reported on who at the meeting expressed fear over the present conditions, and I think Councilman Rosendahl should explore proactive opportunities that can be used to reduce the level of crime purported to exist there.
With two access points already locked down, closing what would be a third in a row to the Ballona Creek Bikeway is not one of those opportunities.
Would you like to contribute to C.I.C.L.E.? Do you a have bike-related article, news story, event, idea, suggestion, etc...? Check out our submissions page.
If we’re to use the same logic as Rosendahl and the neighbors who want to close off the path gates, then we’d better close the onramps to the 405! I hear that bad guys often get in cars and escape by taking the freeway. The notion that closing the gates will solve crime problems is ridiculous.
Colin (Email) - March 25 '08 - 13:43
thanks for writing this article will. it is sad that people can be so myopic to think that closing gates will actually make their neighborhood safer.kind of like putting up a fence along your border will make our country safer.
david p. (Email) (URL) - March 27 '08 - 10:39
We have the same cycle path crime problem in the UK. Cycle routes are full to bursting with villains, thugs, thieves and other lowlifes breaking into houses and legging it with plasma screens, computers, TVs, microwaves, etc., strapped to the back of their BMXs and MTBs.Perhaps the residents should consider asking the local police to wait at each exit from the bikepath and nab these miscreants, since their nefarious habits will be all to obvious to the observant cop.
My own opinion is that it is an enormous pity that bikepaths were ever invented, since vehicle-assisted criime was unknown in the US or the UK, before these highways to crime were created. Apart from anything else, bike riders are fitter than drivers (who are tradionally too obese to commit any act of a criminal or dishonest nature), and so are more able to evade the forces of lawnorder (most of whom spend their time driving and are thus too unfit to chase these deviants.
Why is not the simple solution of preventing the sale of all two-wheeled, self-propelled monstrosities put into law, thereby wiping out crime at a stroke?
Atbman - April 01 '08 - 14:51