Wednesday, December 2, 2015

UCLA Health Continued (3) The first steps [...] have already been made and further progress is inevitable.

Olga Yokoyama, Distinguished Professor at UCLA, has shared with us a letter written to UCLA Health CEO Mazziotta and laid out the arguments for doing more and doing it now. In her letter she speaks about her personal experience using a bicycle, and the obstacles she has faced in the past.
I made a lonely case whenever there was a bicycle parking problem, including the management at the Faculty Center, whom I told that the Faculty Center needs to have a bike rack near the entrance to prevent people like me from parking my bike next to a traffic sign across from the Faculty Center (and getting in trouble with campus police). It was a distinctly odd topic to bring up at the time, and the fact that it was a graying female faculty member raising it made it only more difficult for those addressed to respond.
This bike rack has now been planted and is well used, not least due to her insistance. She also refers to the "gray couple happily biking" that is used to advertise the UCLA Health System. She encourages him to lead a concerted effort to make such happy cycling a reality for more people and she concludes "I do feel optimistic about the world when I imagine Westwood full of pedestrians and bicyclists, with only an occasional car passing by."
A lot more needs to be done to make all the locations of UCLA Health in Los Angeles attractive for cyclists, and to provide programming and education for staff at the hospitals. The resources currently given to transportation services are too limited and the standards are not exactly professional. Close communication between the users, well trained experts, and the health providers, and transportation services is a must if the planning is to be done to the appropriate professional standards.
Thank you, Olga. Please let us know when you hear back from Dr Mazziotta.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzlRYl5hllZDZ3ItZnZHazhkeWs/view?usp=sharing
Image linked to pdf