March 3, 2008
In late February-early March, the City of LA held a series of meetings to discuss the 2008 Bicycle Master Plan update.
The meetings were very informative and it appears that the City of L.A. is doing things the right way. One great thing we learned is that the new plan will include off-road bicycling and two meetings in June and August (dates TBA) will be held for feedback on off-road access and issues on City properties.
A brief introduction was followed by a fairly thorough Powerpoint presentation outlining some of the challenges and options the City is facing/considering. Alta Design is the group doing the plan. Their staff includes riders and bike commuters, cyclocross racers, and urban planners, with some big city planning projects already under their belt.
The room was lined with easels outlining the major goals of the plan, along with excerpts from other successful city bicycling plans from around the world that are being considered for inclusion. There was also a map outlining the current draft proposals, which looked promising. Many of the existing bike paths to nowhere are shown as being linked to other arterial routes and bike paths, along with many new class II (bike lane) routes, and class I (bike path) routes.
The maps and all the information are available at http://www.labikeplan.org. Please take the Bicycle survey to provide input ASAP. They also link through to bikely.com and suggest people create routes and submit them with comments and suggestions for improvements. If there’s a route you ride or would like to ride, go ahead and get it considered. They’re taking feedback for the next six weeks or so, and will then be out in the field taking measurements and doing traffic studies.
The plan is due for completion early next year, but of course, then it all comes down to funding. So if you live in, ride in, or commute in L.A., it’s worth seeing the proposals and making sure your needs are covered.
We’ll definitely be attending the off-road meetings in June and August where we’ll likely face a barrage of opposition from Griffith Park equestrians…so a show of numbers is going to be helfpul.
