Interview with New BAC Chair Jay Slater

I had the great pleasure last week of getting to speak with Jay Slater, the newly elected Chair of the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC).  In February, during the BAC’s previous meeting, the BAC held their bi-annual election and voted in Jay as their new Chair.

The BAC has their next meeting this coming Tuesday night, at 7 PM, at Hollywood City Hall.  As always, BAC meetings are open to the public.  You can read the BAC agenda here, as well as the Bike Program and Bikeways Engineering reports submitted to the BAC.

In the speech he gave prior to the election, Jay emphasized the shortcomings of the BAC in years past and proposed a model of what the BAC needs to become in the future.  Below the fold Jay and I discuss what he plans for the BAC, the importance of getting the new adopted LA Bike Plan done right, his campaign to create a BAC liaison program, and his efforts to raise the profile of the BAC and their online visibility.

Newly elected LA BAC Chair Jay Slater speaking at the LA Bike Plan adoption celebration last month

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Bicyclist’s Anti-Harassment Ordinance Clears T-Committee – Next Stop: City Council

Yesterday at 2:15 PM, the City Council’s Transportation  Committee met to discuss, among other things, a possible Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance.  The draft of the ordinance, released last month to great fanfare, was the result of a motion introduced by Council Member Bill Rosendahl.  The hearing yesterday at the Transportation Committee was the first hurdle on the draft ordinance’s path to becoming law.  It was fitting, then, that the selfsame Council Member Bill Rosendahl sat today as Chair of the Transportation Committee to hear the ordinance which he had introduced.

One step remains for the ordinance to become law

With a few adjustments, the draft ordinance cleared Transportation Committee and is now on it’s way to being agendized for the full City Council.  You can check out the play-by-play at the twitter hashtag #TComm. If adopted by City Council, the ordinance becomes law.

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Two Can’t-Miss Meetings for LA’s Bike Community this Week

There was much hoopla last week over the adoption LA’s ambitious and visionary bike plan.  Now it’s time to take that momentum and use it towards getting work done today for the benefit of all LA’s bicyclists.  Two events this week should be of especial interest to the bicycle community: The BAC Planning Subcommittee meets Tuesday afternoon and the City Council Transportation Committee meets Wednesday to discuss the bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance.

Advocates, City Staff, and Electeds celebrate the Bike Plan's adoption

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Welcome to New Chair Jay Slater: Notes from the BAC 2/1/11

The BAC met this past Tuesday night, like they do every even-numbered month.  This month, the BAC held elections for 2-year officer terms.  In a tight vote, Jay Slater (former Vice Chair) was elected the third Chair in BAC history.

Come follow us below the fold as we cover the election results, an update from the estimable Sergeant Krumer, the latest results on a zoning change to require more bicycle parking, the Bike Plan Implementation Team, reports from the subcommittees, and various other agenda items.

In all, 15 of 19 BAC members appeared for the Tuesday night vote

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Next Stop: City Council – LA Bike Plan passes joint PLUM/T-Committee

Wednesday afternoon saw the penultimate stage completed in the years-long journey to get a new bike plan adopted for the City of Los Angeles.  In a special joint session, both the PLUM (Planning and Land Use Management) and Transportation Committees met to discuss the draft LA Bike Plan.  As the two committees with input on the bike plan, they are the last step before the plan faces the full City Council for adoption into the City’s general plan.  The crowd on hand was much smaller than those who turned out for the Bike Plan at the City Planning Commission, but there was still ample representation from the LACBC, Bikeside and the BAC.

The joint committee hearing was held in City Council chambers

While there was a small measure of conflict among speakers and committee members (mostly centered around equestrian/mountain biking conflicts), the plan itself easily sailed through committee.  Below the fold, we’ll cover the highlights of the hearing.  If you want blow-by-blow coverage, you can always check out the twitter feed of LADOT Bike Blog’s author Christopher Kidd (@BikeBlogChris).  You can also check out the twitter hashtag #LABikePlan to see what the collective bike community had to say during the hearing.

There were three items heard before the joint committee.  The first was an action item (requiring a vote) and the last two were “receive and file” items (which don’t require a vote).

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Back from the Dead: Bike Corral on York Boulevard

It sometimes seemed like the day would never come. And yet:

Now, what could be at that intersection?

That’s right, a Bike Corral is finally coming to Highland Park.  In the coming weeks, a bright & shiny bike corral will be installed in front of Cafe de Leche at York Boulevard and Avenue 50.  First leaked to Highland Park Patch, a tentative date of February 18th at 9:00 AM has been set for the corral’s grand opening.  Flying Pigeon and CicLAvia have also posted jubilantly about the impending bike corral.  But before jumping into specifics, let’s take a little stroll down memory lane.  How did we get here?

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Final Hurdles: PLUM/T-Committee Joint Hearing on the LA Draft Bike Plan set for 2/9/11

In a short aside prior to the meat of this post, I’d like to take the time to introduce myself. From now on, I will be posting under the handle of ladotbikeinternI. My name is Derek Levoit and I am a Planning grad student and frequent biker hailing from the vast plains of the Orange County suburbs. I’m looking forward to helping communicate about progress in bicycle issues and bringing in my perspectives on how to move forward together. This post is pretty short and I still have my training wheels (no pun intended), so please… be kind.

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We here at the LADOT Bike Program wanted to make sure you all knew about the upcoming joint Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) and Transportation Committees hearing for the 2010 Draft LA Bike Plan. The hearing is to be held in City Council Chambers on Wednesday, February 9 starting at 2pm. (You can get find information here on the 2010 Draft LA Bike Plan and LADOT Bike Blog’s previous coverage on the bike plan)

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