Support for Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance Growing

We know it’s hard for you tear yourself away from CARMAGEDDON, but we here at the LADOT Bike Blog would be remiss if we didn’t update you on how things are coming along for the Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance.

The Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance, which you can read in its entirety here, has been gaining more and more attention.  Outside of the copious amounts of coverage on the LADOT Bike Blog for the ordinance, it has now been also picked up by Streetsblog, various Patches (Venice, Mar Vista, Brentwood), Biking in LA, and elsewhere.  The idea is already starting to spread – even before the ordinance gets to council: there are calls for similar legal protections in Washington DC.

Council District 10 Council Member Bill Rosendahl also recently released a video making his case for the Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance.  You can see more at his Youtube channel.

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Mark Your Calendars: Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Comes to Council July 20th

It’s finally here.  After years of work by City staff and dedicated members of the public, it’s here.  After months of council hearings and refining of legal language, it’s here.  Just over a week from today, the City of Los Angeles has the opportunity to enact a truly groundbreaking ordinance for protecting Bicyclists’ rights and safety.

A vote on the Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance is scheduled for the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, July 20th.  You can read the latest draft of the ordinance here. We’ll be attending the meeting next week, and will be live-tweeting the proceedings from @BikeBlogChris.

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New Website for the LADOT Bike Program Now Live

To commemorate the recently completed Bike Week LA, the LADOT Bike Program is excited to announce a re-design of our website.  The site is now live, so go take a look for yourself.  Along with our recently updated bike maps, and our continually updated maps of new bike infrastructure projects, the LADOT Bike Program is committed to getting ourselves 100% up-to-date.

Not to be confused with the LADOT Bike Blog, we’re instead talking about the LADOT Bike Program website, bicyclela.org.  What was once a comically retro, circa 2000 design scheme comes roaring into 2011 with a revamped layout and some brand new features.

The website of old...

...just got a facelift

Not Just a Pretty Face

Beyond a simple upgrade to the template, however, our new website offers connections to our Shortform channel (which allows us to curate videos), our Flickr page, our Twitter account, our Facebook page, and (naturally) access to the LADOT Bike Blog.

Poke around the new site once its up and let us know what you think

As our updated website is brand new, there are sure to be a few wrinkles to iron out.  Now that the site is live, let us know in comments what you think of the new design and if there are any bugs that we should fix.

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50+ Bicyclists Brave Rain for DTLA Ride; Blessing of the Bikes; Bike to Work Day Tomorrow

True to our word, LADOT Bike Blog showed up bright and early this Tuesday morning at Union Station with our rain gear on. Once there, we met up with over 50 other bicyclists who had come out for the Downtown LA Ride. Rain had slowed to just the barest of misting by the time the ride took off, and a great time was had by all.

Riders alongside City Hall

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cicLAvia Stories: Share Yours With Us!

LADOT Bike Blog had a great time at cicLAvia this past Sunday.  We were up bright and early downtown to catch the Mayor’s press conference in Little Tokyo, and then we spent much of the day tooling back and forth between Boyle Heights and Koreatown.

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BPIT’s “Top 10″: How Would you Build Venice Boulevard Bike Lanes?

The Bike Plan Implementation Team (BPIT), which met this Tuesday, is continuing their work on the “Top 10″ list of priority projects.  In addition to working on bringing bike lanes to 7th Street, the BPIT also began discussions about extending the existing Venice Boulevard bike lanes from their current terminus at Crenshaw Boulevard all the way to Downtown LA.  We’d like to open up that discussion of bike lanes on Venice Boulevard to the public at large.  Your ability to make it down to City Hall at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday shouldn’t impact your ability to help LA implement its Bike Plan and become more bike friendly.

As part of the BPIT’s continued outreach for input on “Top 10″ projects, LADOT Bike Blog last month launched discussions (both on the blog and on Facebook) on how best to build bike lanes on 7th Street.  We’d like to again extend the opportunity to comment on how to build bike lanes on Venice Boulevard.

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“A Bike Love-in”: Villaraigosa Commemorates Adoption of New LA Bike Plan

It was a festival atmosphere at City Hall this morning as bicyclists from all over the City pedaled in to celebrate a new era for Los Angeles. As we’re sure you’ve heard, the Draft LA Bike Plan is “draft” no longer; the Bike Plan came before City Council yesterday and was unanimously adopted into the City’s General Plan.  Today was the celebration.  Check out all our photos from today on flickr or our facebook page.

The hoopla just getting started

When looking for reports on yesterday’s Council meeting, you can take your pick: the LADOT Bike Program Facebook Page, the BikeBlogChris Twitter feed, Streetsblog, Biking in LA, Good, LA Times, LA Now(twice), KPCC, Flying Pigeon, LACBC, CorbaMTB, the Daily Bruin, NBC4, ABC7, KCET, Venice Patch, Mar Vista Patch, LA Weekly, the Daily News, LAist, The Washington Post, The Contra Costa Times, and many, many others.

This morning, a gathering of City staff, elected officials, and the bike community came together to celebrate the new bike plan and reflect on what its adoption means for the City of Los Angeles.

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