Westside BikeSIDE!

This Wednesday at 6:00pm cyclists will gather to ride to the LA Bicycle Master Plan meeting at the Felicia Mahood Multi Purpose Center (11338 Santa Monica Blvd, LA). Attending this meeting gives cyclists a chance to pro actively set the agenda for bike planning in Los Angeles. Afterward we’ll head back to Bikerowave to watch a movie, possibly The Goonies.

The LA Bicycle Master Plan is a lot like the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights in that, alone, it doesn’t have much teeth. Instead, it serves more as a statement of intent. In the case of the current Bike Master Plan, it’s a statement of intent which city officials never had any intention of living up to (the map at right is 6 years old, and almost nothing has changed.) Now, in order to update the plan, the city is holding only four meetings, two hours a piece, for a city of four million.

If it’s so bad what’s the point of getting involved? You will make a difference. Cyclists who attend these meeting to speak forcefully for cyclists’ rights will have enormous impacts:

Give us teeth: At these meetings we can lobby for, and most likely be granted, a more engaging process which gives the community control over the plan. The cycling community, by reasserting ownership of the Bicycle Master Plan, introduces the prospect of the cycling community as a political force. That prospect alone begins the process of reorienting civil servants toward serving us, their community.

Give the plan teeth: Making space for bikes on the road is not going to be popular with motorists. Some city officials would love to build a truly multi modal transportation system, but they feel it would be career suicide to support that. Vocal, organized cyclists provide officials a political motivation for change, so that when motorists complain, officials can point to cyclists as a constituency they were forced to compromise with.

Focus the plan on cyclists’ real needs: Currently the city is consulting with planners in Portland to update the plan. Hence the result will be developed by people who don’t live here (consultants) and people who don’t ride bikes (LA DOT & Planning.) They don’t know what we need but we, collectively, do. Let’s tell them, so that we can steer the plan towards our most crucial need.

The Cyclists’ Bill of Rights reminds us that “Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the organization and administration of our communities.” Let’s fight for that right!

Also, let’s watch movies at Bikerowave!

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