(Update: The location of the Planning Commission meeting for the Bike Plan has been changed to City Council Chambers in City Hall)
It’s been a long road, hasn’t it? It’s the beginning of the end for a planning process that began back in 2008: The draft 2010 LA Bike Plan comes before the Planning Commission in City Hall Room 1010 this Thursday, November 4th, at 8:30 AM. If passed, the plan will move on to a hearing before the City Council.
If you need a last minute refresher, you can always bone up at labikeplan.org.
A Long, Public Process
Although at times fraught with controversy and contention, the draft bike plan has worked its way through a number of incarnations to get where it is today. Through public meetings, webinars, and communication with advocacy groups, City staff have done their best to incorporate the feedback of the bicycle community into the plan’s most current draft.
While LADOT Bike Blog isn’t 100% thrilled with everything in the plan, we also understand that the plan is the culmination of a long effort to balance vision and pragmatism. A bike plan that cannot be implemented is worth less than the paper it’s printed on. At the end of the day, the new plan gives the LADOT Bike Program a broader toolkit and a stronger mandate to implement bicycle infrastructure throughout the city. That’s what it’s all about, really: building more bike lanes, more bike paths, more bicycle friendly streets, and everything in between. We believe the 2010 draft LA Bike Plan will help facilitate that goal.
Play Your Part
Whether you agree or disagree with the plan, we encourage you to come to the Planning Commission meeting in Room 1010 on Thursday at 8:30 AM to make your voice heard. Increased involvement in the public process can only improve the final product. Were Room 1010 in City Hall overflowing with passionate bicyclists Thursday morning -be they for or against the plan- it would be the strongest of statements, in and of itself, that bicyclists deserve both the attention of the City and a safe place on LA’s streets.
Love to be there to see the plan sail through the committee (hopefully), but I’ll be at the Beverly Hills Transportation Commission to hear a 1st report from the city’s first ever ad hoc bicycle planning committee. That’s the committee that nobody’s ever heard about because it wasn’t announced when formed back in August. And it’s the committee that has no representation from anybody but the 3 (of 7) Transportation Commission members themselves – one short of the prohibited quorum, for those who keep count. And it’s the committee tasked with bike planning not quite a after after City Council adopted the city’s 5-page (!) bike ‘master’ plan. So I’d love to be there to see LA take real steps, but I’ll be keeping an eye on our city’s machinery as it takes its first baby steps.
Fight the good fight, PlebisPower.
City of Beverly Hills is a black whole for bicyclist. Fight on PlebisPower.
[…] Bike Plan Goes Before Planning Commission Thursday (LADOT Bike Blog) […]
[…] with the plan, and one shared by Thompson, is that a lot of the plan exists on paper. At the LADOT Bike Blog, they opine that: A bike plan that cannot be implemented is worth less than the paper it’s […]
The vision and scope of the plan is enormous but LA is enormous. In the long run it’s a good fit for everyone who rides a bike; commuters, recreation riders, communities and children.
Except for mountain bike riders who are banned on ALL parks in the City of Los Angeles??!! Don’t get it.
I’ve voiced by ideas through the entire outreach/webinar process and some were added to the plan. Way cool!
As bicyclist we are almost at the finish line seeing the NEW plan bike in Los Angeles being adopted…. Well done.
Then on to the next worry….money.
The treatment of mountain bikers are one of the areas in which we feel the bike plan could have done more, although we understand that the views of other park user constituent groups, and the pressure on Parks & Rec to navigate it all, must also be taken under consideration. Hopefully the MB community will be able to leverage the park-trail study called for in the new plan into some new and meaningful change.
So much of the bike plan is what we make of it. Hopefully, the 5 year Implementation Strategy will help to get everyone on the same page to push for individual projects and changes.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Whskey and Wheels, Metro Los Angeles. Metro Los Angeles said: The 2010 Draft LA Bike Plan goes before the Planning Commission this Thursday: http://fb.me/FBhp3swX […]
Notice that the bicyclist on the cover of the above report is leaving the City of Los Angeles and about to enter the City of Santa Monica!
Oh, it’s good to be a bicyclist in Los Angeles, new plan, Ciclavia, etc…change is happening, now.
Remember if you don’t have a plan you can’t build for the future.
Thanks for the information on the MB….poor mountain bikers. Everyone who rides a bike should get the same consideration and not be banned in Los Angeles.
Can’t wait for the new plan to be implemented!
[…] Bike Blog says the long process is finally coming to an end. Damien Newton says TranspoComm chair Bill Rosendahl promises that he won’t let the plan leave […]