Feb 25 '10 - 672 W, 2 I - Vote Good + 4 :: Bad - 1 What the County Bike Plan Is and Is Not
Published February 25, 2010 by C.I.C.L.E.
By Joe Linton : Image courtesy of LACountyBikePlan.org
These days it's hard to keep track of all the bike planning being done - the cities of Burbank and Hermosa Beach recently adopted bike plans. The cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena have plans underway. Pasadena's draft bike plan was released online a couple weeks ago. The new draft of the L.A. City plan is due out this week (per the city website, "The next draft of the Bicycle Plan and maps are tentatively schedule to be released by the end of February" ) It's generally a good thing - these plans are sowing the seeds for a future network of bikeways all over the place.
Now the County of Los Angeles is in tha house - they're doing a County Bicycle Master Plan.
When one reads "Los Angeles County Bicycle Master Plan" one might think "Wow! One plan to rule them all!" but that's not actually the case. The county plan has a somewhat limited scope. Facility-wise, the plan doesn't cover the entire county, but only focuses on the areas that Los Angeles County Public Works has direct jurisdiction over. This boils down to two places for bikeways:
1. Unincorporated Areas: There are 137 non-contiguous areas that comprise L.A. County's unincorporated areas, making up about two-thirds of the county land-wise, but only about one tenth of the county's population. These include East L.A., Altadena, Ladera Heights, Hacienda Heights, and a whole bunch of relatively small communities that you may or may not have heard of. The county will be planning bikeways - lanes, paths, routes, etc. on the streets and other rights-of-way in these unincorporated areas.
2. Waterways: The county's Flood Control District (now more-or-less part of their Public Works Department) has jurisdiction over nearly all the creeks, streams, arroyos, washes and rivers throughout the county. The county plan includes what improvements can be made to existing waterway bike paths - including the San Gabriel River, Ballona Creek, Compton Creek, etc. They'll also plan new paths along waterways that don't have them yet - such as the Tujunga Wash, Eaton Wash, etc.
The county hired their consultants, Alta Planning and Design, which began work on the plan June 2009. A draft plan is targeted to be released in July 2010. Depending on environmental review, it would be finalized and adopted by the supervisors some time after August 2010.
There's a series of public meeting that the county is hosting, starting this week and running through March 25th. If you're interested in giving input on the county's plans, attend a meeting near you:
February 23, 2010 6:30pm - 8pm
Castaic Regional Sports Complex
31230 Castaic Road, Castaic, CA 91384
February 24, 2010 6pm - 7:30pm
Baldwin Park Library
4181 Baldwin Park Blvd., Baldwin Park, CA 91706
March 1, 2010 6pm - 7:30pm
Topanga Elementary School
141 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290
March 3, 2010 6pm - 7:30pm
Long Beach Polytechnic High School
1600 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90813
March 4, 2010 6:30pm - 8pm
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District
4232 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, CA 91302
March 8, 2010 6pm - 7:30pm
A.C. Bilbrew Library
150 E. El Segundo Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90061
March 10, 2010 6pm - 7:30pm
Marina del Rey Library
4533 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292
March 24, 2010 6pm - 7:30pm
East Los Angeles Library
4837 E. Third Street, Los Angeles, CA 90022
March 25, 2010 7pm - 9pm
Fire Station 129 (Association of Rural Town Councils Meeting)
42110 6th Street West, Lancaster, CA 93534
If you can't make the meetings in person, then give your input electronically, use the input form on the county website. There will be other rounds of county bike plan meetings, and meetings of the county's Bicycle Advisory Committee - check the county website meeting page and/or keep your RSS tuned to CICLE.org!
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