The draft LA Bike Master Plan was released today, 6 months late:
The public can submit comments at the public workshops, via the project website [www.labikeplan.org] or by mail on or before November 6, 2009
The plan is 6 months late, and we only have six weeks to submit comments? That may seem like a lot of time, but consider that the plan is 212 pages, with 351 pages of appendices.
More importantly, even if a individual with a day job can somehow analyze the plan in that time period, there is almost no chance that Neighborhood Councils can react. For instance for the Mar Vista Community Council in my neighborhood to comment is almost impossible. It meets on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Therefore their November meeting occurs after the comment deadline. Any motion commenting on the plan will have to be voted on at the October 13th meeting. However, to bring a motion to the general body you must either pass it through a committee, or the Chair must place it on the agenda. The appropriate committee meetings – the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting – already took place. The only way through is to exercise the Chair’s power – an unlikely and undesireable option. Now multiply that by 89 NCs citywide.
In essence, this ridiculous deadline undermines the participation of Neighborhood Councils. Email West LA Councilman and City Council Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl and express displeasure with this situation – Councilman.Rosendahl@lacity.org. I recommend asking for amendment of the deadline to January 4th, 2010.
September 24th, 2009 → 10:35 pm
[...] comment; Bike Girl calls the deadline for comments “infeasible,” while Dr. Alex notes that it excludes input from Neighborhood Councils. Pasadena has a meeting scheduled to discuss its new Bicycle Master [...]
September 27th, 2009 → 12:29 pm
[...] the problem already? Alex Thompson at Westside Bikeside’s pissed that public comments on the plan must be turned in by Nov. 6 — which gives cyclists just 6 [...]
September 27th, 2009 → 3:13 pm
[...] Westside BikeSIDE: . . . there is almost no chance that Neighborhood Councils can react. For instance for the Mar [...]
September 27th, 2009 → 10:30 pm
[...] a single weekend to make heads or tails out of this. And that’s exactly the point Bike Girl and Alex were trying to [...]
September 29th, 2009 → 10:13 am
[...] of very pretty, shelf-ready Bike Plan, destined to collect dust. PROCESS: Dr. Alex Thompson of WestsideBikeSIDE wasted no time, calling the LADOT out for the short comment period that prevented Neighborhood [...]
October 9th, 2009 → 10:50 am
[...] blogosphere has quite a few critiques of the plan including those by Stephen Box, Alex Thompson, Green LA Girl, and Dan Gutierrez. L.A. StreetsBlog has run various reviews (including one by this [...]
October 15th, 2009 → 11:19 am
[...] at the moment, neighborhood councils seem to lack the time even to comment on the master plan, as Alex Thompson at Westside Bikeside’s pointed out, perhaps having a greater focus on neighborhood based bike plans — headed up by individual [...]