Oct 23 '09 - 520 W, 2 I - Vote Good + 1 :: Bad - 5 Recapping Last Night's L.A. City Bike Plan Meeting
Published October 23, 2009 by C.I.C.L.E.
By Joe Linton
Yesterday, C.I.C.L.E. took the Metro Blue Line and biked over to Peck Park in San Pedro to attend the first of the L.A. city's five public input meetings on its draft Bike Plan update. The meetings continue this weekend, next week and the following week:
Saturday 10/24 - 10am - South L.A.
Monday 10/26 - 5pm - San Fernando Valley
Wednesday 10/28 - 5pm - West L.A.
Wednesday 11/4 - 6pm - Northeast L.A.
Click here for complete listing with addresses.
The meetings are all drop-in stations, with no presentation, talk, or slideshow - so you can arrive pretty much any time during the two hour window. There are board displays showing various aspects of the plan: policies, bikeway maps, prioritization, etc. Attendees work their way from station to station, asking questions of and giving input to city staff or consultants at each table.
There were about 20-25 attendees last night. The most popular station was the one with large sized maps showing the draft bikeways. Attendees asked about specific streets and why they were or weren't included and if they could be added. Staff noted suggestions.
The most heated discussion I heard was about changes being made to the draft documents, which are on-line here. The initial documents posted on-line in September had some typos, some omissions (street names were missing on some maps), some bikeways shown incorrectly on maps, some listings were sorted incorrectly... The original on-line documents have now been updated. The intentions appear to be good - if there are errors they should be corrected at some point - unfortunately these mid-stream revisions have had the effect of frustrating cyclists who are trying to review the plan and give meaningful input. The changes, which have occurred with no notice and no documentation, have had the effect of arousing suspicion. How can we tell what has changed and what hasn't? How do we trust that what we've already looked over is still there? At last night's meeting, it was suggested that the city should, at a minimum, openly and transparently document what changes they are making and should leave prior versions on-line - as is the protocol for many internet-based documents.
C.I.C.L.E. encourages anyone who lives, works, shops, bikes, and/or breathes in Los Angeles to attend one of the remaining upcoming bike plan workshops. Familiarize yourself with the draft plan, what's shown and not shown in your neighborhood, and give input on what you'd like to see. The more bicyclists that attend these meetings, the more the city knows that there's an interested public that supports safer and more convenient bicycling in L.A.
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I also attended the session in San Pedro and enjoyed interacting with the LADOT bike planning staff. But it was sobering to understand how they’ve been beaten down by the reality of what can actually be accomplished within today’s larger transportation and government cultures. Paradoxically, though staff seemed rather unimpressed with attendees’ input during the session, they assured us that the current bike plan will certainly be drastically changed before it’s approved.
Michael - October 26 '09 - 08:02
I have attended the west/central meeting the other day. I didn’t know what to expect nor did I know how it was set up. If I had known, I may have been better prepared. But I’m not a urban planner, traffic engineer etc, I’m just a guy who rides. Wadding through the 200 plus pages of the Bike Plan gave me headaches! I don’t understand a lot of what is presented, it’s like legal/technical gobbledygook… what I did figure out is that between 1996 and 2009, who ever is in charge has only managed in 13 years to accomplish less than 50% of the goals due in 2005! And now they want to scale back? Something is VERY wrong down at DOT… If I preformed at that level, I would have been fired 10 years ago. I plan to go to the NELA meeting and I hope a lot of people show up. Someone needs to essplain whatz going on too me…Steve I. (Email) - October 29 '09 - 16:56