Notes from the April 2nd BPIT Meeting

The Bicycle Plan Implementation Team convened at City Hall for the second quarterly meeting of 2013.

Twenty-seven advocates, stakeholders, and City staff were present at the last BPIT meeting on April the 2^nd. Discussion topics included the update to the General Plan’s Mobility Element, recently implemented bikeways, prioritizing plan programs, and Bicycle Friendly Streets.

Mobility Element Update

Claire Bowin of the Department of City Planning opened the meeting by presenting on the Mobility Element update. Currently in the Environmental Impact Report scoping phase, the update includes plans for a Bicycle Enhanced Network (BEN) in which a 180-mile subset of the City-wide bikeway system is identified for enhancements. The intensity of the enhancements will vary, with features such as right-of-way infrastructure improvements, signal timing improvements, and end of trip facilities. The bikeway inclusion criteria emphasize 1) connectivity between regional centers and major destinations; 2) locations with a higher presence of bicyclists and 3) bicyclist-involved collisions; and 4) designation within the backbone or Neighborhood Networks.

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January 8th BPIT Meeting Summary

We had another quarterly Bicycle Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meeting on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013  with approximately 40 in attendance. Discussion topics included bikeways implementation updates, the First Year EIR priority package hearing schedule, Bicycle Friendly Streets (BFS) prioritization, grant funding updates, and general questions and feedback from BPIT participants.

Implementation Updates

The meeting began with Sr. Bicycle Coordinator, Michelle Mowery, providing a general update on bike plan implementation progress. This fiscal year, LADOT has installed over 25 miles of bikeways and continues to move forward with a number of on street projects, including Bicycle Wayfinding; Safe Routes to Schools funded Bike Friendly Streets; and the expansion of the Bicycle Corral Pilot Project.

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Notes from the October 2nd Bicycle Plan Implementation Team Meeting

BPIT participants discussing Neighborhood Council communication.

This past October 2nd, the Los Angeles Departments of City Planning (LADCP) and Transportation (LADOT) held their quarterly Bicycle Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meeting. Over 20 people were in attendance, ranging from city employees from various departments, representatives from city council offices and several bicycling organizations, to many bicyclists and residents intrigued to see where bike infrastructure in Los Angeles is heading.

(Check out the meeting’s agenda to better follow along with these notes.)

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Introducing “Bicycle Friendly Street” (BFS) name signs

Yucca St. BFS High Level Street Name Sign being fabricated at the LADOT Sign Shop

We’ve got some exciting news we’d like to share about new street name signage coming to Los Angeles’s Bicycle Friendly Street (BFS) facilities. LADOT is debuting brand new BFS street name signs on Yucca St. – a local street that parallels Hollywood Blvd. When designing our new street name signs (SNS), we specifically wanted to highlight the BFS facility’s designation to roadway users. The signs will come in two types; standard street name signs (signs attached to poles) and high level signs (hanging or attached to traffic signals). Our hope is that the new signs will draw attention to BFS streets, while still maintaining the familiar look of our signature blue street signs. These new signs will function as both general identifiers for BFS facilities, in addition to confirmation purposes for our [coming] wayfinding signage efforts.

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Mapping Out What MAP-21 Will Mean for Local Bicycling

The newest stretch of Los Angeles River bike path, in Elysian Valley, was funded by federal transportation dollars allocated via the Metro Call For Projects.

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) is the newly- passed Federal Transportation Bill, signed into law last month. This bipartisan piece of legislation was passed under a quickly-approaching deadline due to the expiring former bill: Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). The new bill is an attempt by Congress to reduce federal spending, as MAP-21 is estimated to cut costs by $16.3 billion over the next ten years. The Act included part of the America Fast Forward program initiated by Mayor Villaraigosa in an effort to accelerate thirty years of infrastructure projects into a ten-year period. Senator Boxer spearheaded the addition of this component of the bill. Federal funding will be provided via the Transportation Infrastructure Financial and Innovation Act (TIFIA) to channel funds toward public transit options, in particular light rail and subway lines. The inclusion of America Fast Forward will help provide both significant economic and environmental benefits.

Despite the praises accumulated for attempting to cut federal expenditures and improving the financing options for transit development, many have deemed MAP-21 a step backwards in transportation policy for bicyclists and pedestrians. Even Ray LaHood, the US Secretary of Transportation, has called this new bill “highway-centric.”  Partisan politics had a big factor in the final formation of the bill, as  portions of the Act regarding environmental protection and bicycle safety were removed via a mutually null-ing trade with Republicans, who had wanted the Keystone XL oil pipeline approved via the bill.

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What’s up with wayfinding?

Mapping out destinations in GIS

The LADOT team is hard at work designing a user-friendly wayfinding system for bicycling in Los Angeles. Because L.A. isn’t the first city to do wayfinding, staff members are reviewing wayfinding signage standards from a variety of other municipalities, including Oakland and Seattle.  Ultimately, City of L.A.’s signage will need to follow the California MUTCD, be standardized to look similar to the signs below, and include up to three destinations on each individual sign.

Examples of bicycle wayfinding signage from the MUTCD

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Yucca Street BFS Construction Update

Construction of new traffic diverters at Yucca St. and Cherokee Ave.

We are excited to report that construction has begun on Yucca St.’s new traffic diverters. When the project is complete, there will be three new traffic diverters (at Las Palmas Ave., Cherokee Ave., and Whitley Ave.) designed to prohibit vehicle through movements, while allowing for bicycles to pass through. The new bicycle friendly traffic diverters are part of the Yucca St. Bicycle Friendly Street (BFS) project, that aims to create an attractive, calm, and safe street for bicyclists. Yucca St. is slated to become one of the city’s first Bicycle Friendly Street (BFS) facilities when it receives its full slate of treatments including sharrows (SLMs), wayfinding signage, in addition to  the aforementioned traffic diverters. The project’s boundaries stretch for two-thirds of a mile from Highland Ave. to Cahuenga Blvd. Construction is on-going and is expected to be completed by late August 2012. Check out the before and after photos below and be sure to tell us what you think about the project in the comments section.

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