Feb 12 '10 - 530 W, 2 I - Vote Good + 2 :: Bad - 8 Northeast Los Angeles Campaign pushes for Bike Lanes and Bike Parking
Published Feburary 12, 2010 by C.I.C.L.E.
By Joe Linton
Last Tuesday night, more than twenty intrepid bicyclists braved a cold rainy evening to attend the first meeting of C.I.C.L.E.'s Northeast Los Angeles campaign. C.I.C.L.E. plans to work with various allies to implement bike facilities and to get more people bicycling more of the time.
We brainstormed various possible campaigns - from bike boulevards, to sharrows, to safe routes to school, to converting parking meter poles to bike hitching posts, to surveying large retailers about their bike parking... By the end of the meeting two campaigns emerged as our initial priorities:
1. Bike Corral - innovative on-street bike parking
It's easier to show you this video than to spend a thousand words describing what a bike corral is. It's basically taking away one on-street parking space and converting to parking for 10+ bicycles. These corrals been successful in other cities including Portland and Long Beach. They're great for businesses, because they increase foot traffic. They're great for walkability, because they get parked bikes off the sidewalk. They're great for bicyclists because they're very clear visible places to park.
There's interest from NELA businesses, especially Cafe de Leche at the corner of York Blvd and Avenue 50 to implement L.A.'s first bike corral. City Councilmember Jose Huizar supports the project, too; he introduced City Council motion #09-1710 to get the city on board.
The NELA Campaign will be pushing the city to get the city's first bike corral implemented soon, and to set up a process where these facilities can built wherever they're appropriate throughout L.A.
2. Four Corners - bike lanes on York, Figueroa, Colorado and Eagle Rock
Various city bike plans have approved, designated or proposed bike lanes on portions of York Boulevard, North Figueroa Street, Colorado Boulevard, and Eagle Rock Boulevard, but, so far, only a short portion of the Eagle Rock Blvd lanes have been implemented.
Implementing bike lanes on these four streets will form an excellent network that will encourage safe and convenient bicycling to most major destinations. It may not happen overnight, but the NELA Campaign will be pushing for the city to implement and expand its bike lane plans in the area. Kudos to Ramon Martinez, now working for the LACBC, for naming this campaign "Four Corners"!
If you're interested in getting involved in these and other Northeast L.A. bike campaigns, join C.I.C.L.E.'s NELA campaign google group, and plan to come to an upcoming meeting.NELA campaign google group, and plan to come to an upcoming meeting.
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The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the 4 corners plan should be based on some already existing bike lanes. By not including the Eagle Rock/Cypress route, we disassociate ourselves from nearly half of the NE. I think we should define the 4 corners concept by including Cypress Park, after all, it’s nearly all there NOW! Extending the ideal of a Figueroa bike lane all the way from Colorado to Cypress would then help York becomes a center divider. We can focus on York, but as a center dividing route that connects everything together. Then we do really cover the 4 corners.
Steve I. (Email) - February 14 '10 - 01:09
Excellent detailed NELA campaign write-up at the LACBC blog: http://lacbc.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/no..Yay – Ramon Martinez is in the house!
Joe Linton (Email) (URL) - February 16 '10 - 17:35
Steve I. is right – the focus of this is the Eagle Rock area, not all of NELA. I’m totally in support of it, but I’ll be honest when I say that I was a little hurt about not including the area bounded by Cypress Park and the rest of North Figueroa St. – where the road widths and traffic volumes are conducive to traffic calming.Antigua Coffee in Cypress Park is ready to work on something like this, as are the Bike Oven and Flying Pigeon people.
ubrayj02 (Email) (URL) - March 02 '10 - 16:03