Streetsblog New York City

Since taking office late last year, the new chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Charlie Beck, has taken several steps toward making conditions more tolerable for local cyclists. The most notable to this point is probably the formation of a cycling task force to address issues including traffic laws and bike theft. As reported by Damien Newton of Streetsblog LA, last week Beck fielded questions at a city council committee meeting, during which he referred to cycling as "an admirable form of transportation" and called cyclists "our most vulnerable commuters."

Beck has a lot of work to do. His department has a rich history of shabby cyclist treatment, and there is skepticism that Beck's promises will bring about the culture shift many feel will be necessary before LAPD's relationship with bike riders truly improves.

At least Beck is willing to come to the table. As in Los Angeles, cyclists in New York are routinely ignored and harassed by police, yet there is no sign that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has any qualms with the status quo. Kelly's subordinates freely espouse the department's "move traffic first" mantra, and just don't seem to get it when confronted with questions concerning pedestrian and cyclist safety. Though cyclist fatalities dropped in 2009, pedestrian deaths are up. Too bad New York's top cop puts no stock in data that exposes the rampant, preventable traffic crime that leads to countless deaths and injuries.

It's not too late for Kelly to apply the same rigor to street safety that has brought other crime rates to historic lows. In addition to measuring the rate of traffic crime, he could get behind efforts like "Hayley and Diego's Law." If nothing else, Kelly could engender a lot of goodwill by breaking NYPD's silence when it comes to fatality investigations. Releasing that information would increase public knowledge of why traffic deaths happen, help save lives, and send the signal that he takes bike-ped safety seriously.

We got a tip yesterday about an errant driver hogging a curbside spot in a residential area:

So, outside my house is a street with two hour parking. Today a Jaguar with dealer plates was parked there all day. When I checked, it was because there was an FD placard on the car.

No news there, right? Except our tipster was Streetsblog LA's Damien Newton, and the placard in question was emblazoned with the logo of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association.

Placards without borders. Gotta love it.

Following a highly-publicized, intensely-followed trial, Christopher Thompson, the physician accused of using his car to seriously injure two cyclists in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, is behind bars.

Thompson was convicted yesterday of six felony counts: two counts each, according to VeloNews, of assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, and reckless driving causing specified injury and mayhem.

On July 4, 2008, Thompson passed cyclists Ron Peterson and Christian Stoehr as the pair rode through the emergency room surgeon's upscale neighborhood. Angry after a verbal exchange with the men, Thompson slammed on the brakes of his red Infiniti as Peterson and Stoehr rode behind. Stoehr ended up in front of the car, wounded with a separated shoulder. Peterson hit the rear window, suffering severe facial injuries. Thompson told police on the scene that he was tired of cyclists in his neighborhood and wanted to "teach them a lesson."

At trial, Thompson denied making that statement, claiming that he had been attempting to get photographs of the cyclists, who he said had frightened him. But the jury didn't buy it, possibly because of Thompson's history of hostility toward people on bikes. He was also convicted Monday of misdemeanor reckless driving, a charge stemming from a prior encounter with two other cyclists.

Read more...

If you don't care for DOT's new bike safety ads, here's something you'll really hate.

Damien Newtown out at Streetsblog LA pointed us to this flippant, counterproductive LADOT spot earlier today. While our own DOT implores street users to look out for each other, the agency's LA counterpart plays up the supremacy of the motorist by likening cyclists to insects. Writes Damien:

[F]or anyone that thinks that it's unfair to pull an LADOT advertisement from a couple of years ago to compare to the hard-hitting stuff being put out in NYC, components of the "Laws of Physics" advertisement campaign are still being circulated today. At Bike to Work Day, I received a yellow bracelet bearing the slogan "Ride right and stop at the light," a slogan which still confuses me. Are they telling me to ride correctly, or urging me to ride in the gutter? Is the bracelet an example of bad grammar or bad advice?

Like several New York readers, Damien wonders if the "Look" ads might unintentionally scare would-be cyclists off the roads. But relatively speaking, at least, NYC DOT's message holds up pretty well.

I have to admit: The thought of filming a control room designed to move vehicles more efficiently didn't excite me at first. But once I met Senior Transportation Engineer Bill Shao and the friendly staff at Los Angeles' Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC), I was full of curiosity.

Developed to help direct traffic during the 1984 Olympics, ATSAC has grown to monitor and control over 3,000 of L.A.'s 4,100 signalized intersections, some of them incredibly complex. ATSAC is one of the only such systems in the country that is publicly owned, and the technology is so advanced that even on its busiest days the control room only requires a few people to run it.

I'm told there are regular group tours of the facility. Next time you visit LA I recommend checking it out.

Who would have thought that one of the best Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems in the U.S. would be in its most sprawling city?

In October 2005, the Los Angeles County Metro Authority (or Metro) debuted a new 14-mile BRT system in the San Fernando Valley using a former rail right-of-way. Unlike many "rapid" bus transit systems in the U.S., the Orange Line is true BRT: it features a dedicated roadway that cars may not enter, has a pre-board payment system so buses load quickly and efficiently, and uses handsome, articulated buses to transport passengers fast -- sometimes at speeds approaching 55 mph! The roadway is landscaped so ornately you could almost call it a bus greenway.

But that's not all. The corridor also boasts a world class bike and pedestrian path which runs adjacent to the BRT route for nearly its entire length, giving users numerous multi-modal options. Each station has bike amenities, including bike lockers and racks, and all the buses feature racks on the front that accommodate up to three bikes.

Perhaps the biggest problem is its soaring success: ridership numbers have some calling for the BRT to be converted to rail, and Metro is exploring ways to move more passengers, including buying longer buses.  Expansion plans are also underway.

Whatever way you slice it, this is truly a hit with Angelenos. A formerly 81 minute trip now takes 44-52 minutes -- over an hour in round-trip savings -- making a bona fide impact in the lives of commuters.

The bike scene in Los Angeles is alive and well -- and growing every day.

Streetfilms rode along with one of two bike tours of local art studios sponsored by the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. Afterward, we joined a block party in progress, arriving just in time to hear solid words of encouragement and promises of a brighter bicycling future from LA City Council President Eric Garcetti, himself a bike rider. Dancing, art, food, and general chillaxing in the streets continued until 10 p.m.

Sure, LA has a bigger hill to climb than most major U.S. cities, but it could also benefit the most from a livable streets agenda. Once the seeds are planted, there's no going back.

On his recent west coast tour, Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson visited three bustling Los Angeles bike repair co-ops: Bike Oven, Bikerowave, and their progenitor, Bike Kitchen. Despite its reputation as ground zero for car congestion, the sprawling City of Angels clearly sports a robust bike scene. Writes Clarence:

I don't know if there is an official stat chart on bike co-ops/collectives in the United States, but certainly Los Angeles boasts more in one city than any I am immediately aware of. We found the atmosphere at all three to be highly fun and informative, with the spirit of community to be the true draw. When you need to fix your bike why not make friends at the same time?

Clarence Eckerson's newest Streetfilm captures the bustle of pedestrians and cyclists using diagonal crosswalks near the USC campus. It's entrancing footage, even without the benefit of time-lapsed film. LADOT recently added 10 of these crossings around the metro area, but as Clarence discovered in the course of making the video, the "pedestrian scramble" isn't completely novel to L.A.:

...as it turns out, this new idea is something old. Thanks to some nifty sleuthing, Eric Richardson of blogdowntown uncovered the fact that the downtown L.A. area was once littered with two dozen diagonal crosswalks in the late 1950s. Removed in 1958 because a city engineer's report found they impeded car traffic flow, the lesson is obvious: let's not wait another fifty years to deploy a tool to keep pedestrians safe.

And if you want to watch something that now seems extra silly, we did something fun on Barnes Dances early in the year. You have been warned.

As if the Los Angeles bike scene weren't intense enough, the L.A. Times reported a gang-related bike-by shooting yesterday.

Time to trade in the 22's and hydraulics for a Schwinn?