Westside BikeSIDE!

Seventy five cyclists attended the LA Bike Master Plan community input meeting in a building with no bike parking, off of the bike un-friendly Santa Monica Blvd.

The meeting was tense, as a rift was revealed between cyclists, who felt excluded and neglected, and officials and consultants who declared most suggestions infeasible and endeavored to lower cyclists’ expectations. On the other hand, the afterparty potluck “Goonies” screening at Bikerowave and subsequent dance party DJed by Kieron was off the hook and allll positive.

Damien Newton at StreetHeat wrote a nice recap of the event, I recommend reading it. My good friend David Pulsipher, Bikerowave volunteer and CICLE board member, wrote this criticism of cyclists comments. He’s my bud, but I don’t agree, and I’ll publish a counterpoint to his article soon.

The meeting began with a powerpoint presentation, which was paused for longer and longer bursts of criticism, until eventually consultants shut down comments for long stretches. Cyclists were particularly irritated that of the 300 miles of “bikeways” in Los Angeles, HALF are bike routes. Bike routes are normal streets that have little tiny signs that say “Bike Route”. One example is Sepulveda, one of the worst streets to ride in West LA. In short, bike routes are useless.

In a way the meeting was like group therapy. LADOT and Planning haven’t responded to cyclist criticism, so these meetings are the first opportunity in ages for cyclists to publicly criticize these departments. Cyclists began sharing their grievances and suddenly everyone was reminded of the routine humiliations while riding in LA. Spontaneously separate cliques merged and a community was born.  Everyone jumped in to express their frustration with DOT and Planning’s failures.  Cyclists found this commonality across the pro/anti Critical Mass, pro/anti bike lanes, roadie, mountain and messenger ideologies: “Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the organization and administration of our communities”, as it says in the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights.

I was unimpressed with how department staff handled the outcry, essentially avoiding the substance of the criticism and often opting out of the discussion. Although they were defensive, the consultants did a better job, at least staying to discuss all the complaints.A show of hands at the end of the meeting revealed that the vast majority of cyclists want the Planning Department to schedule additional meetings, but Planning staff refused to commit. Hopefully Planning will make room for more meetings soon.

When the meeting finished everyone was energized and relieved, freed of our cyclist angst (for a minute) by way of expressing it. We zoomed to Bikerowave where we wistfully watched the “Goonies” find the pirate “One Eyed Willy”s gold. Hey you guys! Then there was a dance party, courtesy Kieron!

If you think the LA Planning Department should hold more meetings for community input please email Planning [at] lacity.org and CC your Councilperson. If you like CC me, or send me your comments on the meeting to alexcthompson [at] gmail.com (or share them below by making a comment) and I can put together a community recap.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS