For a long time, bike routes, lanes, and paths in LA seemed not to be designed for actual travel. Routes were nothing more than signs on back streets–often very pretty, quiet routes through residential neighborhoods, but leading from nowhere to nowhere. Lanes clung to the door zone (as they generally still do), and started or stopped seemingly at random. Paths usually followed the river channels, and were (and are) useful for getting across town–if you know where to find them. But there was no comprehensive network of linked routes that cyclists could follow to an actual destination–especially new or casual cyclists intimidated by sharing the road with fast car traffic.

They were laid out mostly as recreational routes–whether for neighborhood matrons out on their cruisers with the kids, or spandex superheroes getting in some training before climbing into the car to drive to work. Even when two routes did cross, there was no indication that either of them led anywhere–as in fact they often didn’t.

But car routes aren’t bike routes; drivers want fast, wide roads that get them the hell out of Dodge–which isn’t good for local businesses, but it’s what the suburb and mall developers have taught us is the “right way.” But cyclists want to be able to ride out of the madness, take the scenic route, end up at the homey shopping street where the clerks all learn your name. And when non-enthusiast types (the great 60% of “interested but concerned” potential cyclists) did try to use a bike Euro-style, to make commuting and shopping a pleasure rather than a penance, why they would end up lost on roads that were unfamiliar to them because they were “too slow” for driving on, and so they had never been there in their previous car-bound life.

As you know from my earlier complaining, the Los Angeles River bike path through Frogtown has no signs on it to let you know where you will be if you leave the path. And other crossings again simply tell you that you’re at an intersection of two bikeways, but say nothing about where you’ll end up if you go left, right, or straight ahead.

Now, though, Los Angeles has run out of excuses: the brand-new 2012 edition of the California Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices henceforth gives the city explicit permisson to use the kind of wayfinding signage that Portland, San Francisco, Berkely, Oakland, and Emeryville (among others in the US) have been using for years. (LA is overall a timid civic entity.)

Here they are in all their glory:

Let’s look forward to seeing a few of these on our ever-expanding (though far from complete) bikeways network soon.
 

Last week our city’s beleaguered DOT announced the coming of sixteen sidewalk bike racks to the stretch of Broadway between Olympic and 7th downtown. I was particularly happy with this, as it was my suggestion that they survey Broadway for bike racks–though I’d suggested going as far north as 5th.

Sometimes I like a change-up and ride the bus from Bicycle Fixation HQ in the Miracle Mile to the Garment District where our sewing contractor works. I love walking downtown’s streets and alleys, and as the bus stops three blocks from my contractor’s building, that gives me a nice excuse to do so, without having to worry about parking my bike. You know, there just aren’t enough racks downtown for the number of cyclists–and in fact I usually “park” my bike in my contractor’s cutting room when I’m downtown cruising for gabardine, satin, and twill.

So as I walked back to 5th to catch the Rapid back home, I noticed just how many bikes and cyclists one sees on Broadway. Most of the bikes are old, and the cyclists poor, but, what the hell, it hurts a poor rider more to lose his bike than it does someone who can swear and stamp a bit, then go buy a new one. Lots of bike boom tenspeeds and department-store mountain bikes, usually with baskets, chained up in all manner of awkward and insecure spots–in doorways, next to flimsy little street trees, leaning off of parking lot gates. Not very convenient for the folks who work, shop, or deliver lunches there, or for pedestrians either.

So I nagged LADOT–and barely more than a week later, they were out there surveying storefronts and sidewalks and marking spots for racks!

Similar nags resulted in similar action on the Miracle Mile itself and in Chinatown–and that’s aside from the several dozens of racks I’ve called in using LADOT’s Sidewalk Bicycle Rack Request Form, where you put in the address of the site you’re suggesting, your name, phone, and email, the council district, and push the button.

After all, we’ve got a long way to go to catch up with the vast seas of free parking the city gives to motorists–for even metered spaces are rented at below market value. I’m doing my part, but I can’t be everywhere. Help me out a bit. You know where bike racks are needed in your neighborhood. Drop a dime on that wasted space that could be bike parking; LADOT is really pushing racks now, so give them a (digital) shout and call one in!
 

For years–decades, in fact–there has been an LADOT bike rack in front of my local post office. It’s old and dusty, and of a design the city no longer uses. Maybe it’s dustier than it ought to be because not a lot of cyclists have used it lately–though plenty of people have been riding their bikes to that post office. They would bring their wheels in, or just leave them outside, unlocked!

Why? Because the LA Times had stuck a “Brand X” newsbox right next to the bike rack, making pretty awkward to lock just one bike to it, and nearly impossible to lock up two. Especially using U-locks.

Since there are strict rules on clearance that LADOT follows when installing sidewalk racks, it’s pretty clear that the newsbox went in long after the rack, not following street furniture guidelines. In fact, I suspect it was a pirate rack, installed without a permit.

Everybody loves to hate permits, but that’s why the permitting system exists, so people won’t step all over each others’ rights in the exercise of their own greed.

But, as you can see, in these photos taken a couple of days apart, the newsbox is now gone, and the bike rack can be used for actually parking bicycles!

Now you see it, now you don’t! Was it magic?

Nope, just complaining. Mine, in fact.

First I checked with LADOT, which said that newsboxes fall under the jurisdiction Bureau of Street Services. They said I should contact them, but that newsboxes are hard to fight, so maybe I should write my council office as well.

So, without much hope, I wrote a letter to Tom LaBonge’s office–never heard back–and filled out the Bureau of Street Services Service Request Form, which I often use to get potholes filled.

Much to my surprise, I received a phone call from BSS a day or two later, from a nice fellow who had inspected the newsbox, found it to be out of compliance, and ordered it to be moved. He gave me the name and number of the subordinate in charge of getting the deed done (by a contractor retained for such work), and told me to follow up if the situation hadn’t been remedied within a few days.

But I didn’t need to follow up. The newsbox is so gone that even the bolts had been removed from the sidewalk!

So now a humble bike rack can fulfil its destiny…thanks to an email and a few minutes spent filling out a form.

The moral of the story? Fixing little problems like this doesn’t take magic; it takes involvement.

Got a bike rack blocked by street furniture in your ‘hood? Hit up BSS through its form.

Got no bike rackcs at all? You’re in luck; LADOT just got in a shipment of racks that they’re dying to install. And there’s a form for that too, right here. (Put in your name, phone, and email, and remember that some businesses will reject bike racks in front…even though they don’t own the sidewalk.)

Yeah, that pesky “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” actually requires that the people get involved to make things happen.

So give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised at what all those allegedly “faceless bureaucrats” will do if you just ask.
 

Happy New Year to all LA ciclistas, and let’s hope for lots of happy miles on LA streets this year.

I know this is the one time of the year when “resolution” refers to something other than cameras or monitors, but since no one ever actually follows through on New Year resolutions, I’m going to skip them and go straight to nagging. (If you do want a short list of suggested resolutions for lovers of sustainable cities, click on over to my colleague Eric Miller’s column at The New Colonist.

Now, about that promised nagging….

1. Get thee to a meeting! Specifically, a bike planning meeting, more specifically, a Bicycle Plan Implementation Team meeting, aka “BPIT.” This is where LA’s citizen cyclists–ie, you and me–get to tell the city’s professional but often clueless planners and engineers what we on the front lines need to survive and thrive in the traffic mix. They have actually been listening…but not to you, if you haven’t shown up. Next meeting is on January 10th (not 12th as I mistyped earlier) at the CalTrans building downtown, and there’s plenty of bike parking under and in front, as well as easy transit access.
   

   
   

2. Get vocal! Write a letter to an editor, post a comment to a news article. Every time I read a brainless diss of cycling in an online rag, be it the LA or NY Timeses or some local gossip vortex, I log on and comment…even more so on stories positive about cycling, if the inevtiable droolers have tried to flood the comments boards with lies and venom. Don’t let the motorheads own the memes! Have your say. It’s easy, gratifying, and doesn’t take much time.
   

   
   

3. But keep it level-headed when you do! Don’t answer name-calling and lies with more of the same, ‘cuz then you’ve just added one more jackass to the argument. Do a bit of research, and firmly but civilly call out the BS. Don’t make excuses, and don’t let angry…just show the world they’re wrong with examples from your own life and from the many, many urban cycling blogs out there (including my own ‘zine, Bicycle Fixation). You won’t convince the hardcore morons, but you will reach the other more moderate people who are reading invisibly, without commenting.
   

   
   

4. Get involved! Read cycling blogs, write your own, help out at the Bike Kitchen or other local DIY bike co-op, join the LACBC or Bikeside or whatever other group your own spirit finds most sympathetic, or which is closest to where you live, ride, or work.
   

   
   

5. Ride with a smile, every day! It’s great PR!

Basically, what I’m saying is that, since all of us like to mouth off, let’s do it in public–at meetings or in the media–where it’ll count for something.

When I was researching an article on the LA bike plan for a planning journal, the one thing I heard over and over again from the insiders was that it was noisy citizens that made them change their ways and start building actual, usable bicycle infrastructure at last in LA!

We gotta keep it up in 2012. Not just me–you and me.