tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13241227996758455022024-02-28T19:17:56.551-08:00UCLA Bicycle AcademyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-71030439204000392612022-06-23T10:50:00.012-07:002022-06-23T10:56:08.496-07:00 $20 Million Rosenfeld Hall Leaves Cyclists in the Gutter<p> </p><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Maxine and Eugene Rosenfeld Foundation</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Los Angeles CA 90024</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br /><div>CC: Peter Hendrickson <phendric@capnet.ucla.edu>, lparker@support.ucla.edu, chancellor@ucla.edu, David Karwaski <dkarwaski@ts.ucla.edu>, Carrie Byington <carrie.byington@ucop.edu>, Michael Beck <michaelbeck@ucla.edu>, Amelia Neptune <amelia@bikeleague.org><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Dear Maxine and Eugene,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Congratulations! The new Rosenfeld Hall on Westwood Blvd is slowly nearing completion.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Although this is a very significant contribution to UCLA, please allow me to highlight a problem that your generosity has produced. Of course, building works have impacts on neighbors, and we at the UCLA Bicycle Academy do understand this. Unfortunately on our campus—whether from ignorance or from a lack of policy—these impacts are consistently thrown into the path of cyclists. For more than 18 months UCLA Capital Programs and UCLA Transportation have removed the bike lane that used to run in front of the Rosenfeld Hall. Instead, the bike lane has become a loading zone for a dumpster. This arrangement forces those Bruins who use the most sustainable and healthiest mode of transportation into a dangerous conflict with car traffic. Rather than reducing the number of traffic lanes for cars and maintaining a functional bike lane, the campus administrators mis-used your generosity to create a problem for people on bikes.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">The suspended bike lane was a celebrated achievement for a campus which is proud of its bicycle friendly (Gold) designation awarded by the League of American Bicyclists. A bike counter was installed only a few hundred meters from the dumpster. But there is no accounting for the number of Bruins who have been deterred from using two wheels for their commute by the imperfect arrangement in front of Rosenfeld Hall for the last 18 months.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">The ease with which UCLA suspends facilities for bikes is disappointing. But it is not new. The construction of the Geffen School of Medicine blocked a major route onto campus for more than two years. In front of Rosenfeld Hall it is an enormous dumpster that eclipses cyclists. <a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2014/11/porta-potties-and-space-planner-unite.html" target="_blank">On Tiverton Avenue it was a series of portaloos which took precedence over the needs of people on bikes.</a></span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">When the new Rosenfeld Hall will be opened, we hope to join the celebrations with you. Cyclists attending will then ring their bike bells, celebrating the return of the stolen bike lane, and reminding the campus of its failure to consistently prioritize people on bikes. We also hope that your gift for the next Rosenfeld Project on campus will come with the proviso that no bicycle infrastructure shall be impacted during the building work.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">This is not the complaint of a few entitled cyclists who are endangered or inconvenienced on UCLA roadways. Our complaint is that the campus and the health system you have supported so generously in the past is failing, even in the light of an accelerating climate emergency, to support and encourage more people to get around without a car, and without setting our planet on fire.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Dr Michael Cahn</span><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Secretary, UCLA Bicycle Academy</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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One of the aims of the course was to establish that transportation is never a logistics problem of moving stuff effectively, but always involves how we live our lives and where we create distances and between whom. Transportation involves the inequitable policies that have governed land use, but it also involves health: That would be the road violence which is embedded in the aggressive design of your next SUV. That would also be the "Car-Enabled Comfort that Provokes Persistent Waves of Disease" which provided such a rich bounty for the Corona virus in this country. </p><p>It seemed a good idea to bring these issues to a head locally, on Westwood Blvd, on the Medical Plaza <b>Driveway</b> (soon to be renamed Medical Plaza <b>Bikeway</b>). The final assignment for my students was to bring what we have learned about the complexity of mobility to the attention of the leadership of our medical provider, and to challenge our non-profit academic health center to recognize their responsibility as a stakeholder in local healthy transport planning. </p><p>I liked what I saw, and I think the students deserve answers to the letters they have written. Here is some poetry, some artwork, a Rap sheet, and many powerful arguments. Here is the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IsPSO2HppEPjriGsHJUYJyk4nA5_38HH/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">pdf</a>.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IsPSO2HppEPjriGsHJUYJyk4nA5_38HH/view?usp=sharing" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1683" data-original-width="1301" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbPlfcQ6CR_97qwMt0ZAtlNh4o8D6rM4xM2YMFGwNTFKjTHy4cupmSnW8GEvhJzq1lwN_z-me8L3US4leC26eAU3C-W54pOd0hWlu-DsaAtjVfkNIW9OMusqeTo0mXAL_E77dpgG7UE8/s320/Examination+Unhealthy+Mobility_cover.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>A limited edition of the <b>Examination: "Unhealthy Mobility"</b> will be issued and paper copies will be distributed to </p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>John Mazziotta</b>, CEO, UCLA Health <br /><b>Johnese Spisso</b>, President, UCLA Health <br /><b>Kelsey Martin</b>, Dean, UCLA Medical School</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>Carol Mangione</b>, Community Engagement Implementation Team, UCLA Health </div><div><b>Medell Briggs-Malonson</b>, Chief of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA Health </div><b>Michael Altschule</b>, Community and Government Relations, UCLA Health<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tanya Andreadis</b>, Chief Marketing Officer, UCLA Health</div><b>Wendelin Slusser</b>, Associate Vice Provost, Healthy Campus Initiative, UCLA<br /><b>Michael Beck</b>, Administrative Vice Chancellor, UCLA, Bicycle Commuter<br /><b>Jennifer Poulakidas</b>, Associate Vice Chancellor Government & Community Relations, UCLA </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>Carrie Byington</b>, CEO, UC Health </div><div><div><b>Matthew St.Clair</b>, Director of Sustainability, UCOP</div><div><b>Kieran Flaherty</b>, State Governmental Relations, UCOP</div></div><div><b>Michael Drake</b>, President UC</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Rodney Hanners</b>, CEO, Keck Medicine of USC</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-79541375242865371852020-08-08T18:31:00.004-07:002020-09-17T13:18:30.409-07:00An Active Transportation Policy for UC Health<i>No Bike parking at the cardiologist? Unhealthy car parking subsidies at our Health System? Does your hospital find it difficult to grasp the health gains of active transportation? The open letter below is directed at the </i><i>UC Regents' Health Services Committee. </i><i> They are in charge of six large hospitals and many hundreds of medical offices all over the state. This letter is a joint effort of </i><a href="https://ucbikes.slack.com/home" target="_blank">UC <i>Bikes</i></a><i>! and the UCLA Bicycle Academy. This is a state-wide initiative. We have the support of three Nobel Laurates and many more stakeholders (here)</i><br />
<i>Please sign <a href="https://forms.gle/RQKCkqYGn5qi3Lkp6" target="_blank">here</a>: </i><br />
<i>See who has signed <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jXPzFPThHwqYXPyg1VaRstEv6157p5iuQcBIDv9M45Y/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>: </i><br />
<i>The letter will be presented at the <a href="https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/index.html" target="_blank">Regents Meeting on 20 October 2020</a></i><br />
<i>For precedents of medical institutions getting involved in healthy transport issues see our </i><a href="http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2019/04/hospitals-addressing-automobilitis.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">previous post</a><i>.</i><br />
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Dear Regents, Dear Carrie Byington<br />
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Over the last decade, UC campuses have worked hard to support healthy and sustainable transportation. Seven <a href="https://bikeleague.org/sites/default/files/BFU_Award_List_2019_ALL.pdf" target="_blank">Bicycle Friendly University awards</a> are proof of a consistent and admirable effort throughout the system. The UC 2025 carbon goals are an important plank of this effort.<br />
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But given the acceleration of global warming and the dramatic impacts of Covid-19, we see new opportunities for UC Health. Strategies to reduce driving and improve health are in very high demand. The e-bike revolution has vastly increased the number of people who could commute without a car. Covid-19 has led to soaring bike sales. The <i><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/904146/gear-change-a-bold-vision-for-cycling-and-walking.pdf" target="_blank">Gear Change</a></i> program in the UK and the <i><a href="https://www.adfc.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Expertenbereich/Politik_und_Verwaltung/Download/So_geht_Verkehrswende_klein.pdf" target="_blank">Verkehrswende</a> (Transport Transition</i>) in Germany affirm that poor health and too much driving are really a single problem, one that can be addressed with two wheels.<br />
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Now is the time for UC Health to acknowledge its own transport footprint.
We therefore ask the Regents’ Health Services Committee to initiate an active transportation policy. This policy would end the marginalization of those who do not have access to a car and discontinue hidden subsidies for car use like “bundled parking”. It would guide our hospitals to actively engage with local communities by supporting active modes of transport. Such programs have invariably led to financial savings while also offering access to physical activity for Black, Brown and low-income communities. Every UC Health location (owned or leased) must provide safe and welcoming bicycle facilities for visitors, patients and staff.<br />
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When seeing patients, our doctors invariably recommend an active lifestyle. Yet currently many UC Health premises are not set up to support and encourage and reward active modes of transportation. The active transportation policy will address this disconnect, invest in encouragement programs and avoid the scandal of ignorance and hypocrisy.<br />
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With such a policy UC Health will emerge as a national leader for healthy transportation. Our’s will be the first health system to act on the overwhelming evidence public health experts have provided: Active transportation prevents obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. California is the state to recognize this and the UC is the institution to act on it. UC <i>Bikes!</i> and bicycle advocates throughout the state are eager to assist with this process. The signatories to this open letter request that the Regents’ Health Services Committee instruct EVP Byington to work with stakeholders and experts to develop an active transportation policy for UC Health.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Gear Change UK</i></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-17125674656630481882020-02-29T17:51:00.001-08:002020-02-29T17:51:21.130-08:00UCLA Health: Welcome to Santa Monica (An Open Letter)<div>
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Johnese Spisso, CEO, UCLA Health</div>
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c/c Rick Cole, City Manager, Santa Monica</div>
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Dear Johnese,</div>
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UCLA Health is going from strength to strength under your leadership. Congratulations! I am a resident of Santa Monica and I understand that the hospital is now the largest employer in our fine city. Welcome to "populus felix in urbe felici." For the healthy transportation advocate the car dealerships on Santa Monica Blvd always were a sorry sight. I am sure your new premises there will be a great improvement.</div>
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Over many years our city has developed a sophisticated planning process which ensures new developments conform with the long term vision of our community. While you are exempt from most of this process as a state entity, I am sure you will use this privilege with caution and keep in mind your local impacts on our community. </div>
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But the relationship between the hospital and its community is also about money. The IRS has certified the hospital as a charity, hence exempting you from local (and other) taxes. As a resident of Santa Monica I personally do not mind that I may now pay a little more for our roads, schools, policing and garbage collection because the tax-paying car dealership will be replaced by a 501c3 entity. But I am extremely interested that the tax privilege is part of a local engagement that makes a real difference in your service area. </div>
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Let me outline some pointers how the hospital can become a positive presence in Santa Monica, rather than a tax exempt trip generator, unrestrained by planning guidelines. (Traffic engineers tell us that medical offices do generate a great deal of car traffic) </div>
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A recent piece by <a href="https://twitter.com/danielleofri" target="_blank">Danielle Ofri</a>, MD, in the New York Times ("<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/nonprofit-hospitals.html&source=gmail&ust=1583112520271000&usg=AFQjCNFzfZO93z0NUEMZHV0fzMPdWBG8Mg" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/nonprofit-hospitals.html" target="_blank">Why are Nonprofit Hospitals so Highly Profitable</a>") has argued that the arithmetical exercise that declares Medicaid losses as a community benefit may be insufficient to justify these tax benefits. Those health fairs she considers marketing pure and simple. That is why improvements in the structure and delivery of community benefits are needed. The community is footing your tax break and it must have a say in the design of such benefits. But delivering benefits from inside the marketing department gives them a self-interested appearance that is most disconcerting. The Bicycle Academy engaged with the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) process recently but were disappointed: The Metro Best program, which would have delivered bicycle safety education for staff, patients or community members at no cost, was not pursued, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2019/05/but-what-is-outcome.html&source=gmail&ust=1583112520271000&usg=AFQjCNGJ6DbyZdWSiBwMGpWEbZDD-g8wdw" href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2019/05/but-what-is-outcome.html" target="_blank">in spite of our best efforts</a>. Ofri's piece suggests there may be legal remedies.</div>
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At the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb20/hs.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1583112520271000&usg=AFQjCNGdwNrvfHEJQ6bUn_VAeJfx5TyUPw" href="https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb20/hs.pdf" target="_blank">UC Regents Health Services Committee</a>, UC Health CEO Carrie Byington has recently spoken of the need to better present the community benefits the system must provide as part of its tax exempt status. Ambiguity at the highest level is often paired with a real reluctance about proper, hands-on community engagement. Sure, medical research is a benefit for humankind, but what is needed across the road from the hospital in Santa Monica may be funding for a Safe Routes to School program to keep kids healthy and to reduce driving in our community. Because community (and planetary) health suffers greatly from a transport system that discourages the use of active modes, we hope the hospital will <b>establish a Healthy Transportation Committee in conjunction with public health researchers </b>on the other side of Westwood Blvd. Your marketing department will then be keen to place your brand on a local bike share system and underwrite the message that active transportation is healthy. The committee would remind capital programs never to enter into leases that include bundled car-parking. And R Gluckson's message that "unfortunately", "<i>u-n-f-o-r-t-u-n-a-t-e-l-y</i>, there are no bike racks or any place for visitors to park and lock their bikes at your new premises in Glendale" will seem as outrageous as a doctor who recommends smoking. Your director for government relations will then eagerly seek the dialogue with local transport agencies, because he has your back when joining the conversation about <b>community health (obesity, diabetes and cancer) which need to be addressed in the transport domain</b>. Because less drive we must! And if we drive less, <b>we and our planet will be healthier.</b></div>
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Welcome to Santa Monica, Johnese! The UCLA Bicycle Academy and many stakeholders in Santa Monica and on the Westside are eager to assist you to become a shining beacon of healthy transportation. Perhaps a meeting in Santa Monica City Hall with Professor Richard Jackson or another public health expert of your choosing would be a good beginning. </div>
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Dr Michael Cahn</div>
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Secretary, UCLA Bicycle Academy</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-85251937580925763052019-11-11T20:13:00.011-08:002023-01-31T17:53:28.041-08:00The Path to Platinum Leads through the Neighborhoods of UCLA<br />
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<a href="https://beagreencommuter.com/ucla-recognized-as-a-gold-status-bicycle-friendly-university/" target="_blank">
Congratulations, Gold Level Bicycle Friendly University!</a>
Good stuff is happening on campus. The next stop: Platinum.<br />
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Now is a good time to survey some of the approaches to campus. Because on the roads to and from campus we really struggle to convince Bruins to leave the car at home. Connectivity for active modes is our weak point. The attitudes are in place, the desire to improve our communities has been established, the need to address the climate crisis which is burning only a few miles from Murphy Hall is evident. All that is in place. But we need help. Help to work with our neighbors, help to facilitate the collaboration among our neighbors, help to address decades of car-centric infrastructure around UCLA. We need the Bike Fairy (him/her). Here are some examples:</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">1) Streetlight Down</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQSAgec0t2YZiUqq1SQwlIpRb3AwxF9IliVl2U8fDrmjbjttFoYn-lROOHvEtNkgydPkyiE1O0m-6YvFxKfE1PmlmpybbZje74LlRODCxSx1wfBLgTUCHd6ocmZ81lVUsDwX2UdORN1W4/s1600/Sepulveda1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="852" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQSAgec0t2YZiUqq1SQwlIpRb3AwxF9IliVl2U8fDrmjbjttFoYn-lROOHvEtNkgydPkyiE1O0m-6YvFxKfE1PmlmpybbZje74LlRODCxSx1wfBLgTUCHd6ocmZ81lVUsDwX2UdORN1W4/s320/Sepulveda1.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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A streetlight rests on the sidewalk at Sepulveda. The sole and unpaved sidewalk herewith fully blocked. Bruins will have to lift their bike over this obstacle. Wheel chair? Forget it! Who would dare to block a traffic lane for cars for a whole week? UCLA Bike Fairy (him/her) makes the call to have it removed, presto. Because pedestrians and cyclists are important for UCLA. Very. Very very.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">2) Detour?</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5tqdpv4_wLIhGQMIBnve9MZvrPEIG6sHou9SwT6EA9XpYlGnWMQQhOorh3Ab2I2iEGwJSHNfv-pOqQx-Xd7u1KHEJa9jlEAGObsSTHdaTSvYIonQN-yltar-t1vK4o41dzw5nZONrfE/s1600/Detour+VA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="964" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5tqdpv4_wLIhGQMIBnve9MZvrPEIG6sHou9SwT6EA9XpYlGnWMQQhOorh3Ab2I2iEGwJSHNfv-pOqQx-Xd7u1KHEJa9jlEAGObsSTHdaTSvYIonQN-yltar-t1vK4o41dzw5nZONrfE/s320/Detour+VA.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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The unnamed CALTRANS bike path leading from the VA to Church Lane (and on to mountainous Montana Ave) is closed. UCLA Bike Fairy (he/she) calls the contacts at these agencies, questions, reminds, resolves, and re-opens this path for the benefit of our current and future bike commuters. And for the benefit of our planet. Because we simply can not afford to lose a single cycling Bruin. Indeed, we need to find many more.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">3) Deadly Manhole cover on Veteran</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6aHLJSqw-LSx_NgTiG1vymA72QiwHMGtbzJWjGEiflLkcQiaNNQpchtoP9Y0zoljZkdX5wjVjoNGqen8SFycgjeE-jUIwqqdLa_uSe73ALD-K9SEREGA-43Z94aAhGEYBA5gA2DqyyE/s1600/manhole+with+shoe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="872" data-original-width="1600" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6aHLJSqw-LSx_NgTiG1vymA72QiwHMGtbzJWjGEiflLkcQiaNNQpchtoP9Y0zoljZkdX5wjVjoNGqen8SFycgjeE-jUIwqqdLa_uSe73ALD-K9SEREGA-43Z94aAhGEYBA5gA2DqyyE/s320/manhole+with+shoe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Two mean manhole covers on Veteran and Wellworth. They are going to be chief witnesses in a million dollar legal case brought by an injury lawyer. The ignorance of the road maintenance crews who would sign off on such criminal workmanship beggars belief, but that is what we have to deal with here. (Attention Injury Lawyers: The office of the local councilmember has been informed) Who? Which fairy?</span></h4>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">3b) UCLA Health Supports Active & Healthy Modes </span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLM-Z2SjOq7f2bkme-3p2Ve0d0dv8tiba9OBrsdzbzhyphenhyphenEn2nBZKIuzeDfHpyzikUj2qlHZsgTId2mBq0yhzo9KTkxMMvD5DISdtQTU6vGCWjFl2cnaPEPCfMVni0aA4hjMdqF11CbnsY/s1600/Most+desired.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="1018" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLM-Z2SjOq7f2bkme-3p2Ve0d0dv8tiba9OBrsdzbzhyphenhyphenEn2nBZKIuzeDfHpyzikUj2qlHZsgTId2mBq0yhzo9KTkxMMvD5DISdtQTU6vGCWjFl2cnaPEPCfMVni0aA4hjMdqF11CbnsY/s320/Most+desired.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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A recent study at UCLA Health Facilities found that 30 % of employees would consider a bicycle commute if incentives and secure parking for bikes was on offer. Bike Fairy (m/f) springs into action and makes sure that all UCLA Health locations offer secure bike parking and that leases for medical offices do not include bundled car parking. Bike Fairy may also facilitate a research project with UCLA Fielding School for Public Health to encourage patients riding their bike to their <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/primary-care" target="_blank">neighborhood</a> clinic. Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) will include healthy transport programming. Because our hospitals and our health clinics know that cycling is healthy. For our communities and for our planet. And urgent.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">4) Walk with Bike (WTF)</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZin0Qu-KdZqkDPnLfh3ATyM76yUCiiyBSOVWuH0Z31sh9e52qC7eXLWptMdYUPPoMyecvQxA2Q9MV7hsczRGO9uVipRVtjd8qmuOBjJGYJEd0rLOQ9_oCYnRAK-Lm6jmZv4c2xadGQeI/s1600/unsunken+curb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="1033" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZin0Qu-KdZqkDPnLfh3ATyM76yUCiiyBSOVWuH0Z31sh9e52qC7eXLWptMdYUPPoMyecvQxA2Q9MV7hsczRGO9uVipRVtjd8qmuOBjJGYJEd0rLOQ9_oCYnRAK-Lm6jmZv4c2xadGQeI/s400/unsunken+curb.jpg" width="400" /></a>
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Planners sometimes made life difficult for cyclists. Whenever bicycle convenience was an obstacle to car convenience, they used cement to tell our riders to get off and to walk their bike. An ancient vestige of this attitude has been found on Sepulveda, on the official and advertised access route to campus. In large letters the sign commands: <b>Walk with Bike</b>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjQDhZB7z-GDCf48P8tLV-DcziEuYKvrajlQ05iKteNL3N3FCifRhtCvQhBd2bPO7JMnMHPriGvJTDtq7TWlH-79ijVeL1M_Hj1mffRdT3xykIfSUuvujLUMsnh9LH17CWKeW2y9kGMQ/s1600/Walk+with+bike.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1060" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjQDhZB7z-GDCf48P8tLV-DcziEuYKvrajlQ05iKteNL3N3FCifRhtCvQhBd2bPO7JMnMHPriGvJTDtq7TWlH-79ijVeL1M_Hj1mffRdT3xykIfSUuvujLUMsnh9LH17CWKeW2y9kGMQ/s320/Walk+with+bike.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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The full height curb will force anybody to dismount. But the UCLA Bike Fairy (m/f) knows that the times of torturing cyclists is over. Bike Fairy will investigate, arrange for the removal of signage and amend this curb to its proper sunken state. And a new sign will go up: It will be straight. It will read: <b>UCLA Welcomes Cyclists! </b>Because UCLA does.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">5) Yuck under the I-405</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyypFSftXgbj-pAKIOQemCew2Bxiqo1fnbyi1BLkpAVMtCehNJwCzcoU2bB71Sx6YWC_dNk6xN5Y1rUghsrnXjy-N1zd7xPiW5QB_c4epQNSKwF4FVNJnj7zM__EDPiaua4oBywK6GjEk/s1600/DirtUnder405.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1089" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyypFSftXgbj-pAKIOQemCew2Bxiqo1fnbyi1BLkpAVMtCehNJwCzcoU2bB71Sx6YWC_dNk6xN5Y1rUghsrnXjy-N1zd7xPiW5QB_c4epQNSKwF4FVNJnj7zM__EDPiaua4oBywK6GjEk/s320/DirtUnder405.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Roadways are cleaned weekly. Sidewalks less so. One of the most important sidewalks connecting Brentwood and Westwood - for those who do not drive - has not been cleaned for years. Fancy car ramps soar overhead, but down under pedestrians are treated to years (years!) of accumulated refuse, dust and excrement. Located under the freeway, some mid-ranking administrator has simply dropped the ball. The UCLA Bike-Fairy (him/her) will identify the responsible party, get this stretch onto the schedule of weekly cleaning, and help to make a nightmarish campus approach just a little less horrible. With a sidewalk neglected like this, how would you even dare to suggest that anybody walk or ride rather than drive? Yet less drive we must. Must.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">6) Wilshire Center Picks a Fight with Cyclists</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRL8JnaojxHA_VJ7NGJHu6GlE1tGZk-kYkqMsvnFIlQXy8j6YxUhd0bS0cXzqzOJgK54yYNMHbMxC8C3bJd_1hqrh-5jACvjYc8JyQKvawUeyIPd92UMV6KtOIW6F4TUbny_PkKCMlqv0/s1600/NotAWalkway.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1422" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRL8JnaojxHA_VJ7NGJHu6GlE1tGZk-kYkqMsvnFIlQXy8j6YxUhd0bS0cXzqzOJgK54yYNMHbMxC8C3bJd_1hqrh-5jACvjYc8JyQKvawUeyIPd92UMV6KtOIW6F4TUbny_PkKCMlqv0/s400/NotAWalkway.jpg" width="400" /></a></h2>
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Wilshire Center, right at the intersection of Westwood and Wilshire, is a high-rise with many UCLA offices. If you have arrived at Wilshire Center, you have survived, by limb at least, one of the most dangerous intersections in the country. Now get ready for a "Not A Walkway" fight to access a few poor bike racks perversely placed, and over-regulated by someone who really tries to pick a fight with the most sustainable mode of transportation. The regulatory venom on display here is a kick in the head for any Bruin who would consider getting out of the car. It sign shouts out: </div>
Go Away! We really do not want you here!
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwWb1MwhJdfxwTQqBn0ozcKgN8VOT6LpuWudLKZ1MqUNTMzvAP654AXb2Xmrt7veV7huycZ-34EryFMoG53IUY2vAekcrjPw2YP29zicMWza2S7fiO4rATr6Qa8jBmAj4odhNV8Dfijnk/s1600/Bike+Rules.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1200" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwWb1MwhJdfxwTQqBn0ozcKgN8VOT6LpuWudLKZ1MqUNTMzvAP654AXb2Xmrt7veV7huycZ-34EryFMoG53IUY2vAekcrjPw2YP29zicMWza2S7fiO4rATr6Qa8jBmAj4odhNV8Dfijnk/s400/Bike+Rules.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our Bike Fairy (Any pronoun) will make the call, investigate leases entered into, push to amend them, arrange for the removal of signage and provide for easy and welcoming and plentiful bike parking at Wilshire Center. Because we must! UCLA pays a lot of rent here, but Bruins on two wheels get the worst service. The sheer inequity of it.</div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">7) Find the curb and hit your head</span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Yqe-i-208oV9mRtLLzMOEXL8hxWfFdRK0IDk7vU2aXIZDopq0ul2tYgZyFMyoJB5tRY6b2jEn_5EQNmLnWmXfB8ajeOHCCsewS90ZRbJlS1HMDGcH4Hsbl3GY8wi2Aja7Y75uj9qlJY/s1600/Head+Bump.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="928" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Yqe-i-208oV9mRtLLzMOEXL8hxWfFdRK0IDk7vU2aXIZDopq0ul2tYgZyFMyoJB5tRY6b2jEn_5EQNmLnWmXfB8ajeOHCCsewS90ZRbJlS1HMDGcH4Hsbl3GY8wi2Aja7Y75uj9qlJY/s320/Head+Bump.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bruins driving cars from Brentwood to Westwood have ten car lanes, lanes designed for speeds of 50 MPH or more. Bruins riding a bike to campus along the same route will soon enough make the acquaintance of a non-compliant street sign mounted so low, and located right at the sunken curb, that it must have caused many a concussion with cycling heads. Bike Fairy, please! Do something. Do we really need to call our Senator to get this sign out of the path of Bruin heads? </div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">8) Narrow Sidewalk / Bike Path: Just Add the Bus Stop </span></b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI7XGIgQPSbwKyV1PiLBVADUlmCs4ACTjMifQpAkCYDYb9R8d42dZBhw3-2hN_TuO5qX46r9kNRAA9a5erDlzSaWieBlBfqVZOZnwIW2oR9Flk8puThxAFcRw20oP-JSDvqoK52o8I9Pg/s1600/Bus+Stop+on+Wilshire+crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="667" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI7XGIgQPSbwKyV1PiLBVADUlmCs4ACTjMifQpAkCYDYb9R8d42dZBhw3-2hN_TuO5qX46r9kNRAA9a5erDlzSaWieBlBfqVZOZnwIW2oR9Flk8puThxAFcRw20oP-JSDvqoK52o8I9Pg/s320/Bus+Stop+on+Wilshire+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bruins taking the tree slalom sidewalk on Wilshire along the National Cemetery have a hard time managing pedestrians and these mid-path tree obstacles. Now a bus stop chicane has been added to the mix. Really? So there are ten high speed lanes for cars, and a narrow congested sidewalk for the rest. This is how they used to do it before the Bike Fairy (she/he) looked into it. Because we urgently need more space for sustainable and healthy modes around UCLA. The planet is burning. And our communities expect that UCLA and UCLA Health will speak out for a better future.</div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">9) Bike Parking Rift Found on Kinross
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HZ1Qpvwb50pjARLmzYFx4VVPIPgbglSwVXc30j7kdM664Z_ZyrAPiD_nAKWFzvVQollfkEZIQqPmVNsHiGiS-hu0K3JsPM2gKoMjp7zUJG7Qeqr4JqM2vpL08Lb51B-E9qrNJ4RAp1s/s1600/Kinross+Rupture+Parking.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="1100" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HZ1Qpvwb50pjARLmzYFx4VVPIPgbglSwVXc30j7kdM664Z_ZyrAPiD_nAKWFzvVQollfkEZIQqPmVNsHiGiS-hu0K3JsPM2gKoMjp7zUJG7Qeqr4JqM2vpL08Lb51B-E9qrNJ4RAp1s/s320/Kinross+Rupture+Parking.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Some Bruins drive their gas guzzler to campus. The combined weight and acceleration of these vehicles ruins the roadway, so much so that a rift has now opened on Kinross, large enough to securely place a bike into the slot which has appeared here. But woe if your bike wheels ever get stuck in this opening. The lack of road maintenance throughout the Westwood Village is a scandal, and it gravely affects sustainable modes of transportation. Calling Bike Fairy, environmental justice hero, to the rescue! </div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">10) Don't go here between October and February</span></b></h4>
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The I-405 widening project included community input, and UCLA was part of these conversations. But back then nobody invited the Bike Fairy to the table. This is why so much pedestrian and bicycle injustice has been cemented along Wilshire. Consider streetlights for the sidewalk. Missing. So for four months every year, when the sun sets before you go home, the walk and the ride along the VA becomes a hair-raising adventure in the dark. Blimey, we forgot to put in street-lights for the sidewalk. Blinded by fast moving cars, the sidewalk users are struggling to find their way. Is that even legal? What says the Bike Fairy?</div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">11) <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wHUw9O1DIZC8qMnIwaS3UxwmdHl-nVaD/view?usp=share_link" target="_blank">UCLA Health Bikeway Corridor</a></span></b></h4><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wHUw9O1DIZC8qMnIwaS3UxwmdHl-nVaD/view?usp=share_link" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="3284" data-original-width="2538" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEkRewqbWGxb7aD13o2Igc6LTqeJIJgbI65gnzD0981BvzAN6qzTqac9croRUxCkh8Y32dxRdvnCxpOBDfuMwJBBoB-iAN7oWpxTccprV9ulUwXYnpNitnPh6q3d2aK3jOPYuCDIO_Owfir3YsmyteKgJ-OFRqkrCLlm8HzJbfUNTCYSbrE8APPY3O/s320/UCLA%20Health%20Bikeway%20Corridor%202019%20Cover.jpg" width="247" /></a></div></b><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">The project to create an improved bicycle connection between Santa Monica and Westwood hospitals is on life support. The project has been designed on paper <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dxhdFaNJt0ImggqQDyN656OCYeL8WZrS/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><link></a>, but since 2019 we are waiting for the Best in the West Hospital to acknowledge, to take ownership, and lead the conversations with neighboring agencies. Because being in the health business gives you a keen keen keen awareness of the unhealthy consequences of our dominant transport modes. Unhealthy for people, unhealthy for planet. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTyKG-I6AFXgdtfgiUmzStJLF9dGPKfzIrd7MkQiX5mnSDUCC2sbPQdfg1KLM1wCkKmZbkuqH85WWpGd5Woy2jcsywrT9HuBmm5p0Z18dI5rtKk-veE-_pXaZBTl508WLNolz13JENxS4/s1600/WestwoodBlvd3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1600" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTyKG-I6AFXgdtfgiUmzStJLF9dGPKfzIrd7MkQiX5mnSDUCC2sbPQdfg1KLM1wCkKmZbkuqH85WWpGd5Woy2jcsywrT9HuBmm5p0Z18dI5rtKk-veE-_pXaZBTl508WLNolz13JENxS4/s400/WestwoodBlvd3.jpg" width="400" /></a>
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Imagine a world-class hospital where the main approach is without a bike lane. Imagine a world-class university where the main approach is without a bike lane. Is cycling not healthy and sustainable? Do we not all need to do much more of it? Without bike lanes? How then?
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The students have painted their own bike-lane here, but it was removed without delay. A great street, a great campus, a great hospital, all suffer from a lack of bicycle infrastructure on the main approach. Why is it still all about cars?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6g40R_KK0mrTD62YqlzmN1Hrb8Be6GYujqHQ9o7wOHwADn0usmGM_nUEbQ1eWjnwnFOF7v7oG04wi10AUAinJ9DccLlPohA81OxfwH2DPf2NpEqcWxS86Mnhc3flUBCpdlY7eTytr3aQ/s1600/WestwoodBlvd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="800" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6g40R_KK0mrTD62YqlzmN1Hrb8Be6GYujqHQ9o7wOHwADn0usmGM_nUEbQ1eWjnwnFOF7v7oG04wi10AUAinJ9DccLlPohA81OxfwH2DPf2NpEqcWxS86Mnhc3flUBCpdlY7eTytr3aQ/s400/WestwoodBlvd.jpg" width="400" /></a>
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Bike Fairy to the rescue: Facilitating a committee of hospital leadership, campus leadership, public health experts, local stakeholders and neighborhood leadership, laying out the path to a safer Westwood, more equitable and more sustainable. Call it Paul Koretz Bike Lane if you want, but do [expletive deleted] paint it.
Sure, this is a big one. This is why our Bike Fairy that has the full support of UCLA Health and of the campus, this is why it can draw on the legal firepower of our Law School, and on the expertise from the hospital and from the Fielding School of Public Health. Yes we can. Yes we must.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">13) Discouraging Cycling</span> </span></b></h4>
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Last year, traffic planners in West LA turned a trickle of bicycle traffic headed for UCLA into a odd occasional drop.
At Barrington & Goshen, a relatively quiet route to campus, a forced right turn sign has appeared last years. Bruins on two wheels who follow the signage will have to make a left turn at Wilshire & Barrington: A most hostile intersection for bikes. Can we please have a "Except Bicycles" addition to this signage? And can we please have the UCLA Bike Fairy (m/f) at the table when the regional traffic planners come up with ideas that simply do not help us to get more people out of cars? Why do so many minor planning decisions in the environs of our campus still point in the wrong direction, failing to make it easier, safer, simpler for the most sustainable street users we try to recruit?
To remedy this, the Bike Fairy will also call on the support of experts from the UCLA School of Law, who are eager to help <b>to make Los Angeles a sustainable, resilient, more equitable, more livable city. </b>As our Executive Vice Chancellor Emily Carter <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnXFXUVaBOo&t=894s" target="_blank">said</a>. </span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">x) </span></b><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Metro First & Last Mile</span></b><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></b></h4>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">x) Greta and Arnold</span></b></h4>
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Here is Greta Thunberg cycling in Santa Monica. In a few years she may apply at UCLA. It is high time to get our bicycle infrastructure into shape: For this prospective student, and for everybody else. Luckily, we have the Bike Fairy (him/her). Arnold is on standby to help in real difficult cases. So that we can "help LA to become the city it should be, the city of the 21st century, an opportunity unlike any other on this planet that UCLA should seize." As our Executive Vice Chancellor Emily Carter <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnXFXUVaBOo&t=810s" target="_blank">said</a>.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">What Bike Fairy? </span></b></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKmbOTN87aR2ldwxN3p-ZhmlHV2wesItuQ5Nmcw8dKXOlSeHVs5dE1f2rQtKJdiL1mbD5UDdET-JTcxIEDlvGoz45foeuCoXv_hBqj4RiWIIHytPAwhN_MroMJnurgZ8MElxOH1H5DyM/s1600/bicycle-fairy-sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="818" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKmbOTN87aR2ldwxN3p-ZhmlHV2wesItuQ5Nmcw8dKXOlSeHVs5dE1f2rQtKJdiL1mbD5UDdET-JTcxIEDlvGoz45foeuCoXv_hBqj4RiWIIHytPAwhN_MroMJnurgZ8MElxOH1H5DyM/s320/bicycle-fairy-sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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The Bike Fairy comes about through the joint commitment of UCLA Health Leadership (Johnese Spisso), UCLA leadership (Emily Carter), and Associate Vice chancellor for Government and Community Relations. (Jennifer Poulakidas). It is a production of the UCLA Sustainability Committee under the leadership of Vice Chancellor of Facilities, Michael Beck. The godparents come from the School of Law (Environmental Law), the Institute of the Environment, and the Fielding School of Public Health. Together they fund and task the Bike Fairy (him/her) to revert decades of car-centric infrastructure around UCLA. Adept in facilitating close interactions with a large number of jurisdictions and administrations in the neighborhood of the campus, the UCLA Bike Fairy fills a glaring hole in how the UCLA Health and the Campus relate with our communities. These are some of the agencies involved: The National Cemetery Administration, the Veterans Administration, the Veterans Hospital, the cities of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, Metro, Caltrans, transit companies, neighborhood stakeholders, etc. The Bike Fairy will convene and advance a consistent agenda with a variety of stakeholders who for too long have heard far too little from the campus and from UCLA Health. The Hospital and the Campus need to take the lead in these conversations, because as a world class hospital and university in an urban context, it simply is our civic obligation. If we don't show leadership here, well beyond the safe walls of our campus, all campus talk of sustainability will remain hollow and fake.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-3270195463512371852019-05-09T17:08:00.000-07:002019-05-09T22:36:18.002-07:00But what is the outcome?On Friday, May 3rd, 2019, we met at UCLA Health. "<a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2019/03/mitch-katz-rides-on.html" target="_blank">Mitch Katz Rides On</a>" was the title for an attempt to facilitate healthy transportation programming around medical providers in Los Angeles. It is part of a larger vision of medical providers playing an active role in reducing unhealthy modes of transport. Because as you drive more, obesity becomes a problem. And the more your use actives modes (transit, cycling, walking), obesity and all its side-effects declines. <b>Look here:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifSazw0rlPF3WiJktWwukTcGIa0hyVmuG-9iSdBekUzbQn5goBeC8LaFkxeS8hedmD3qAyLnVC0PwWmmJRVMYAw9n-3Ur-Lzm-STGld0cff9hUns3yLrKsYRCM0UnPQzEqD66D5I2489g/s1600/obesity+%252B+mode+share+inverse+graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="1515" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifSazw0rlPF3WiJktWwukTcGIa0hyVmuG-9iSdBekUzbQn5goBeC8LaFkxeS8hedmD3qAyLnVC0PwWmmJRVMYAw9n-3Ur-Lzm-STGld0cff9hUns3yLrKsYRCM0UnPQzEqD66D5I2489g/s400/obesity+%252B+mode+share+inverse+graph.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This graph gives us the big picture. It was the center of our conversation. The first installment of a good and important conversation. But what precisely was the outcome?<br />
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We understand the need for the community benefits teams to learn more about the <a href="https://www.metro.net/riding/go-bike/" target="_blank">METRO Best</a> program which provides community based bicycle education and encouragement. We invited Indu Sanwal from the <b>UCLA Health</b> community benefits team, but she cancelled on the day of the meeting. We invited Cindy Levey from the <b>Cedars Sinai </b>community benefits team, but she had a conflict. We invited Katrina Bada from the <b>Good Samaritan Hospital</b> community benefits team. This hospital conducts an annual Blessing of the Bicycles, but she could not come. We invited Justin Joe from <b>Providence</b>, who is in charge for community benefits for a number of Providence hospitals. In his place Paul Makarewicz, Director of Mission Leadership from Santa Monica, joined us. We are very grateful for that. We invited Nancy Clifton-Hawkins from the <b>City of Hope</b> community benefits team, but she had a prior engagement. We invited Celia Brugman from the community benefits team at <b>Kaiser Permanente</b> in West LA, but she could not come, and neither could her deputy. We also invited Melissa Biel, whose firm Biel Consulting contracts with many hospitals to conduct Community Health Needs Assessments. She thought it was an important topic, but she was not available.<br />
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Mind you, we were able to make our pitch on the phone, sometimes more than once, and a very useful time on the phone it was, for which we are grateful. But when it comes to a better understanding to how healthy transportation programming could be implemented at <b>UCLA Health</b>, at <b>Cedars Sinai</b>, at <b>Good Samaritan Hospital</b>, at <b>Providence</b>, at <b>City of Hope</b>, at <b>Kaiser Permanente in West LA</b>, we were not really able to share our message and advice. What kind of format would be suitable? What kind of obstacles should we expect? How to advertise, whom to include, how to connect with related efforts. It was a important conversation to have, highlighting the need for such programming, and highlighting the need to build bridges between the domains of transportation and health, referring occasionally to the long list inspiring precedents <a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2019/04/hospitals-addressing-automobilitis.html" target="_blank">here</a>. And acknowledging, more than once, the work done by Prof Richard Jackson of <b>Designing Healthy Communities</b>, whose work has left a deep impact at UCLA and elsewhere.<br />
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From left to right: Eli Kaufman (LACBC), James Evans (UCLA Health, Sustainability), Linda Khamoushian (CALBike), Jean Armbruster (LA County Public Health, Place Program), Jimmy Tran (UCLA Transportation), Karen Miotto (UCLA Health Physician Wellness), Richard Azar (COO UCLA Health), Gustavo Friederichsen (CEO LA County Medical Association), Michael Cahn (Bicycle Academy). Not pictured: Jim Shanman (Walk 'n Rollers), Paul Makarewicz (Providence Saint Johns). Present by implication: Richard Jackson.<br />
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Yes, it was a good meeting to have. We are grateful for those who attended, and for those who had time for us on the phone. We learned that the LA County Medical Association is a strong ally for healthy communities. We argued that <b>bike advocacy is health advocacy for everybody, </b>not a special service to a few bicycle enthusiasts. We agreed that the Metro BEST program now offers a very special opportunity for health providers: Too good to be missed. We said that hospitals will soon come to recognize the tremendous health benefits of active transportation. In Los Angeles - where else?<br />
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The work continues. At the next round all the community benefits teams will be in attendance. Hopefully.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-22595674093499710942019-04-05T18:40:00.001-07:002019-04-23T19:22:16.592-07:00Hospitals addressing Automobilitis: Examples for the Future<br />
(1992) The <b>British Medical Association</b> publishes "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0192861514/" target="_blank">Cycling towards Health and Safety</a>", arguing that cycling should be an integral part of the medical toolkit, as important as addressing alcohol and tobacco abuse<br />
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(1996) The <b>American College of Surgeons</b> issues guidelines for <a href="https://www.amtrauma.org/page/NPRC_ACS_Prevention/Prevention-Guidelines-for-ACS-Verified-Trauma-Centers.htm" target="_blank">trauma prevention</a>. Level I Trauma Centers must implement at least two programs that address major causes of injury in the community (Car Seat Safety etc). We are not aware of any certified hospital that has actively engaged with healthy transport or Vision Zero initiatives<br />
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(2003) The <b>Wheeling Hospital Foundation</b> (WV) provides a grant for a "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040520044537/http://news-register.net/community/story/109202003_com1.asp" target="_blank">Walk to School Day</a>"<br />
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(2003) The CA Office of <b>Statewide Health Planning</b> and Development issues a recommendation that hospitals should, at a minimum, <a href="https://oshpd.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SB-697-Planners-Guide.pdf" target="_blank">conduct one public meeting</a> to present their community benefit plan to the public<br />
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(2003) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190406190810/http://www.vtpi.org/health.pdf" target="_blank"><b>Victoria Transport Policy Institute</b></a> issues first version of "<b>If Health Matters</b>" with guidelines how to integrate public health objectives into transportation planning. (Frequently updated since)<br />
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Since 2008 <b>Seattle Childrens Hospital</b> accommodates 6000 visitors a day with only 1200 parking spots, issues only daily parking permits, and offers a wide variety of <a href="https://mobilitylab.org/2016/08/31/drive-less-earn-new-bike-employer-tdm/" target="_blank">support for bicycle commuters,</a> Certified as <a href="https://bikeleague.org/business" target="_blank">Bicycle Friendly Business</a> (now Platinum) since 2009<br />
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(2008) National Center for Bicycling and Walking (bikewalk.org) receives funding from <b>Blue Cross & Blue Shield</b> (MN) to "<a href="http://www.bikewalk.org/centerlines/centerlines2008/cl_issue_203.htm" target="_blank">remove barriers and make physical activity the easy choice</a>"</div>
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(2008) <b>Lancaster General Hospital</b> (PA) sponsors Mark Fenton, host of the PBS television series 'America's Walking' as a leader of a <a href="http://www.bikewalk.org/centerlines/centerlines2008/cl_issue_202.htm" target="_blank">Walkable Communities Summit</a> (2008)</div>
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(2011) <b>UnitedHealthcar</b>e, Children's Hospital Colorado and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge launch a <b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170915230157/https://www.uhc.com/about-us/community-connection/unitedhealthcare-pro-cycling-team1" target="_blank">Bikes for Life</a> </b>program which provides 1,000 bicycles to Denver-area kids. 'Bikes for Life' will promote the health benefits of cycling, helping curb the growing prevalence of childhood obesity. (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190405060902/https://www.uhc.com/reference-library/video-transcripts/3866079873001" target="_blank">Video transcript</a>)</div>
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(2011) <b>Centers for Disease Control</b> issue <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/transportation/promote_strategy.htm" target="_blank">Transportation Health Impact Assessment Toolkit</a> which offers elaborate resources and health planning tools and highlights the health impacts of transportation<br />
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(2013) <b>Greenville Memorial Hospital</b> (SC) funds the position of a Project Coordinator, (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190317103521/http://www.bikewalk.org/centerlines/centerlines2013/cl_issue_329.htm" target="_blank">School Health Bike</a>) to implement bike programs along with other activities to promote the safe and healthy physical activity for children.</div>
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(2013) Smith and Hamann Burney publish a paper on "Transportation Demand Management Strategies at the <b>Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus</b>"</div>
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(2013)<b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170303210428/https://torontoist.com/2013/01/physicians-call-for-more-bike-lanes-more-quickly/" target="_blank">A group of physicians from St Michael's Hospital (Toronto)</a> </b>are calling for more progress on the City's bike plan: they urge councilors to consider the preventative benefits of cycling and active living in general. “Cardiovascular health, mental health, insomnia—all these things are treated with exercise…this is a public health issue, and an issue of primary care” </div>
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(2014) <b>Boston Medical Center</b> lauches <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190406184343/https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2014/03/26/hubway-prescriptions-boston" target="_blank">Prescribe-a-Bike</a> which offers patients greatly reduced membership rates for a local bike-share system<br />
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(2014) <b>UCLA Health </b>issues a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCxXAX5Nrtw" target="_blank">bicycle safety video</a><br />
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(2014) <b>Kaiser Permanente</b> (Folsom) issues <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160629132110/https://bikeleague.org/content/bfb-spotlight-kaiser-permanente-folsom" target="_blank"><b>Kaiser Pedal Power</b></a>, a newsletter for Kaiser employees which covers Safe Routes to Schools, community planning, bicycle commuting, health tips, etc<br />
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(2015) <b>Rady Children's Hospital</b> El Cajon implements a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160324015342/https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/el-cajon-teams-rady-childrens-hospital-implement-safe-routes-school-programming" target="_blank">Safe Routes to School Program</a><br />
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(2015) <b>Good Samaritan Hospital </b>in Los Angels conducts annual <a href="https://blessingofthebicycles.org/" target="_blank">Blessing of the Bicycles</a> (ongoing since 2003)<br />
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(2016) <b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181103121259/www.calhospital.org/general-information/neighborhood-and-built-environment" target="_blank">California Hospital Association</a></b> provides information about hospital based benefit programs that improve local neighborhoods and the built environment, including transportation<br />
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(2016) <a href="https://www.hilltopinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/HospitalCommunityBenefitsAfterTheACA-TrendsInLegislation-IssueBrief13-June2016.pdf" target="_blank"><b>Hilltop Institute</b></a> highlights IRS regulation that "the health needs of a community [include] the need to prevent illness, [and] the need to address social, behavioral, and environmental <b>factors that influence health in the community</b>"<br />
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(2016) <b>AARP</b> Los Angeles becomes a sponsor for <a href="http://www.ciclavia.org/" target="_blank">CicLAvia</a>, a open streets event which promotes <b>active transportation and good health through car-free streets</b>.</div>
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(2016) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171024093209/http://news.uhhospitals.org/news-releases/university-hospitals-to-name-clevelands-large-scale-bikeshare-uhbikes.htm/" target="_blank"><b>Cleveland Hospitals</b></a> (OH) provides sponsorship and has naming rights for Bike Share Program </div>
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(2016) The federal <b>Department of Transportation</b> releases a <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/health_in_transportation/planning_framework/the_framework/fhwahep16014.pdf" target="_blank">Health in Transport Planning framework</a> which requires transport planners to consider the health impacts of their designs</div>
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(2016) <b><a href="https://twitter.com/newhospital/status/750806700773355520" target="_blank">Sutter Hospital in Santa Rosa</a></b> (CA) partners with MyCityBikes to support doctors and nurses cycling to work<br />
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(2016) <b>Kaiser Permanente</b> issues video advert to promote <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4DPkIXSnyo" target="_blank">commuting by bicycle</a></b><br />
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(2016) <b>American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons</b> launches public service campaign to remind drivers that <b><a href="https://www.orthoinfo.org/BikeSafety" target="_blank">Cyclists Are Always Fragile</a></b><br />
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(2016) <b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190410170022/https://www.healthiq.com/life-insurance/cyclist/special-rates" target="_blank">Insurance Provider HealthIQ</a> </b>offers 25% savings on life insurance because cyclists who ride for 3 hours a week or more have a <b>28% lower risk of all-cause mortality</b> than non-cyclists<br />
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(2017) A major study in the <b><a href="http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/138376/7/138376.pdf" target="_blank">British Medical Journal</a> </b>shows that initiatives that encourage active commuting can reduce risk of death and the burden of important chronic conditions. Cycling to work lowers the risk of dying early by 40 per cent, and reduces the chance of developing cancer by 45 per cent.<br />
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(2017) Gregory Hood, MD asks "<b>Should More Doctors Ride Their Bikes to Work?</b>" in <a href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/885081" target="_blank">Medscape</a>, and his readers agree: Yes, they should<br />
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(2017) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190407024234/https://blog.cedars-sinai.edu/every-day-is-bike-to-work-day-for-imaging-specialist/" target="_blank"><b>Cedars-Sinai </b>Blog</a> honors a staff member Juan Castillo who rides 15 miles to work but reveal their ignorance when they call him a "cycler"<br />
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(2017) <b>American Heart Association</b> issues a major <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190406191703/https://www.heart.org/-/media/files/about-us/policy-research/prevention-nutrition/active-transportation-ucm_495249.pdf" target="_blank">policy statement on active transportation</a> complete with 215 juicy footnotes presenting lots of recent research and evidence<br />
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(2017) CALTRANS calculates the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190326043600/http://www.dot.ca.gov/activecalifornia/documents/PlanElements/Final_ActiveCA_Benefits.pdf" target="_blank"><b>savings in healthcare expenses</b></a> (600M$) as expanded bike network would lead to 3,330,103,000 more hours of physical activity<br />
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(2017) <b>Henry Ford Health System </b>and <b>Health Alliance Plan</b> are title sponsors of the new MoGo <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180921125428/http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20170426/NEWS/170429884/mogo-bicycles-to-hit-detroit-streets-next-month" target="_blank">bike share program</a><br />
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(2017) <b>LA County Department of Public Health</b> releases recommendations for Community Health Needs Assessments to "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190327191501/http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/chronic/docs/diabetes%20prevention%20recommendations%205.8.17.pdf" target="_blank">encourage cities to establish policies and programs that support increased walking and biking</a>"<br />
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(2018) <b>Southmead NHS Hospital</b> (UK) conducts a survey asking all visitors how they arrived at the hospital<br />
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(2018) <b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190423235204/https://www.eventa.us/events/baldwin-park-ca/free-city-cycling-class-kaiser-permanente-baldwin-park" target="_blank">Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park</a> </b>offers safe cycling classes with <b>ActiveSGV</b><br />
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(2018) <b><a href="https://twitter.com/newhospital/status/750806700773355520" target="_blank">Sutter Hospital Santa Rosa</a></b> (CA) is certified as a Bicycle Friendly Employer by the League of American Bicyclists https://twitter.com/newhospital/status/750806700773355520<br />
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(2018) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190406192337/https://salud-america.org/heat-maps-help-hospital-workers-find-best-multimodal-commutes/" target="_blank"><b>Virginia Hospital Center</b></a> in Arlington uses heat map tool for healthier commutes. Hundreds learned that it would take them less than 3o minutes to ride a bike to work. The <a href="http://modeify.com/" target="_blank">Modeify</a> tool also found that almost all of their employees lived within a mile of a potential carpool partner.<br />
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(2018) <b>AARP</b> Los Angeles comments on Community Health Needs Assessments for hospitals in Los Angeles and suggests addressing healthy transportation as a community need<br />
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(2019) <b>UCLA Fielding School </b>hosts panel led by Richard Jackson on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190407024754/https://ph.ucla.edu/events/paul-torrens-health-forum-ucla-beyond-getting-point-point-b-transportation-public-health" target="_blank">Transportation as a Public Health Issue</a><br />
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(2019) <b>Northwestern Medicine </b>are sponsors of the Fight for Air Ride by the <a href="https://action.lung.org/site/TR?fr_id=18025&pg=entry" target="_blank">Lung Association </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-39111005577323822202019-03-24T21:43:00.002-07:002019-04-13T14:45:46.215-07:00Mitch Katz Rides On<span style="line-height: 1.5;">The UCLA Bicycle Academy will hold a round table meeting to bring together hospital executives, community benefits managers, and bicycle advocates on 3 May 2019 at 11:00 (Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles 90095, Conference Room 6-6234) We are natural allies, both focused on healthy communities, but we have not been speaking much to each other in the past. We are grateful to the former head of LA County Public Health department who has kindly allowed us to call this conversation "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_H._Katz" target="_blank">Mitch Katz</a> Rides On". Gustavo Friederichsen of the <a href="http://www.losangelesmedicine.org/" target="_blank">LA County Medical Association</a> has been the main midwife for this effort. UCLA Health kindly provided a conference room. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Paul Watkins, CEO of Northridge Dignity Health and previously <a href="https://www.ucop.edu/sustainability/_files/annual-reports/2018-annual-sustainability-report" target="_blank">sustainability champion</a> at UCLA Santa Monica hospital will join us, Linda Khamoushian from <a href="http://calbike.org/" target="_blank">CALbike</a> in Sacramento, Eli Kaufman from the LA County Bicycle Coalition (<a href="http://la-bike.org/" target="_blank">LACBC</a>), Vanessa Gray from <a href="http://www.cicle.org/" target="_blank">C.I.C.L.E.</a>, Jim Shanman from <a href="http://walkmorebikemore.org/" target="_blank">Walk 'n Rollers</a> and a number of Community Benefits managers. The scope of the meeting is to learn how bicycle advocates and medical providers can work together to advance a common agenda for better health in our communities.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5;"> </span>
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"Mitch Katz Rides On"<span style="line-height: 1.5;"> will share best practices by bicycle friendly providers, which include</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Hospital based safe cycling education provided by certified coaches. Exciting opportunities through the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iAspCx35Ve4E60DQBGvOruCpugIM5oQt/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Metro BEST</a> program</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Health providers increasing their support for active commuting choices for staff and facilitate Bicycle User Groups</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Wayfinding for locations and appointments should no longer reproduce the notion that everybody drives in LA (include transit and bicycle access in appointment reminders)</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Make sure leases for medical offices do not include <a href="https://mobilitylab.org/2018/05/31/unbundling-parking-costs-is-a-top-way-to-promote-transportation-options/" target="_blank">bundled parking</a></span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Improved stairways in medical offices</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Enhanced bike parking racks that carry a health message like <b>"The Chief Medical Officer has determined that cycling and walking is good for your health"</b></span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Hospitals to be League certified as <a href="https://bikeleague.org/league-vocabulary/bicycle-friendly-business" target="_blank">bicycle friendly business</a> </span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Community Benefits Programs which support active and healthy transportation, Safe Routes to School</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Hospital based <a href="http://blessingofthebicycles.org/" target="_blank">Blessing of the Bicycles</a>, etc</li>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">There are a huge number of medical practitioners throughout LA who personally have discovered the pleasures of two-wheeled transport. They are waiting for the right signal from the leadership and are ready to become champions of such an agenda. </span>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">If you want to be involved in the event, please get </span>in touch. <b>Bike advocacy is health advocacy. And it is urgent.</b><br />
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<a target="_blank" href="https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=NnBrYWNyMmgwM2hyc290bzVvdWE2YmQ3bmYgdmVsb2NpcGVkdXNAbQ&tmsrc=velocipedus%40gmail.com"><img border="0" src="https://www.google.com/calendar/images/ext/gc_button1_en.gif"></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-9862063876047332892018-11-23T14:24:00.001-08:002018-11-29T11:10:29.453-08:00Five Forgetful Hospitals <b>Five Forgetful Hospitals </b>in West Los Angeles. Major players, big names. If we don't intervene, they will forget, as before, to include healthy transportation in their program of community benefits. The process, required by the IRS, is called CHNA: Community Health Needs Assessment: It serves to confirm the non-profit status of a hospital. Currently they are working on a plan for the period 2019 - 2021.<br />
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While many doctors and all public health experts do know a whole lot about the health benefits of active modes (walking, cycling), the <b>five forgetful hospitals</b> are on the path to overlook the disease burden in their communities that could be lifted if people had more opportunities, and more encouragement, to leave the car at home. Prevention. Population Health. Cheap and effective.<br />
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Whence that forgetfulness? Why is it so difficult to implement public health knowledge in our local community? The stereotype that everybody drives in LA is overwhelming. The roads so crowded, the parking lots so full, the cyclists so few. Pedestrians? - Send the police to arrest them. We have been so firmly socialized into vehicular living that a special mental effort is required to recognize automobility as a health condition. But reduce driving we must, for our own well-being, and for that of our planet.<br />
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Hospitals are only in the business of curing bodies broken by too little exercise, bodies shattered by vehicles which move too fast? Prevention is none of their business? Not according to the IRS. Prevention is right up the CHNA alley. Even better, the IRS allows expenses for <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990.pdf" target="_blank">lobbying</a> (like lobbying a council member for more and safer bicycle infrastructure!) Also allowed are expenses for <b>community building activities </b>like <b>environmental improvements, community health improvement advocacy, leadership development and training for community members, coalition building</b>, etc. <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990sh.pdf" target="_blank">IRS (schedule H, part II)</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhb8qsKCUgPSvUHptxTsvKUsVTkOoeURa2aiH_Jtg112a0hyphenhyphenzWb07nJ7ECRtVExf-aCBiex8182F-j_X4dyHW1x5rHxotNXMT8S18EosUP2tYd8mOUT1vgfW5ei64vErjl5H6tl0ItBA/s1600/IRS+Hospitals+2018+f990sh_Page_02+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="1135" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhb8qsKCUgPSvUHptxTsvKUsVTkOoeURa2aiH_Jtg112a0hyphenhyphenzWb07nJ7ECRtVExf-aCBiex8182F-j_X4dyHW1x5rHxotNXMT8S18EosUP2tYd8mOUT1vgfW5ei64vErjl5H6tl0ItBA/s640/IRS+Hospitals+2018+f990sh_Page_02+image.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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If that sounds like an opportunity, here are the CHNAs that currently face updating: <a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Community-Benefit/Community-Needs-Assessment/" target="_blank">Cedars Sinai</a> (<a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Community-Benefit/Community-Needs-Assessment/2016-2019-Community-Health-Needs-Assesment.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a>),<a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/community-health" target="_blank"> UCLA Ronald Reagan</a> (<a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/Workfiles/CHNA/Ronald-Reagan-2016-CHNA.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a>), <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/community-health" target="_blank">UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica</a> (<a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/Workfiles/CHNA/Santa-Monica-2016-CHNA.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a>), <a href="https://community.kp.org/be-informed/service-areas#chna" target="_blank">Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center</a>, (<a href="https://share.kaiserpermanente.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-KFH-West-Los-Angeles-CHNA_Final.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a>) (See also <a href="https://kp-chna.ip3app.org/" target="_blank">KP Data</a>), <a href="https://www.psjhealth.org/community-benefit/community-health-needs-assessments" target="_blank">Providence Saint Johns (Santa Monica)</a> (<a href="https://www.psjhealth.org/-/media/files/providence-st-joseph-health/community-benefit/ca/2016chnaandchipprovidencesaintjohnshealthcenter.pdf?la=en" target="_blank">pdf</a>)<br />
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The CHNA process takes into account input from persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospital, including those with special knowledge of , or expertise in, public health, or expertise relevant to the health needs of the community. There is a great deal of demand for healthy transportation in the Westside. Active transportation is an emerging issue that will be overlooked if stakeholders do not share their local knowledge. We need much much much more than the famous <a href="https://connect.uclahealth.org/event/50-westside-walkers-free-mall-walking-program/" target="_blank">Westside Walkers</a> who meet (drive there, of course) in a shopping mall to walk (laughter). What about a concerted effort, with local partners, aiming to offer our neighborhoods a safe way to leave the car at home and walk or ride a bike? Our hospitals must find a way to support advocates who demand healthy transport options for our neighborhoods. Doctors will be able to prescribe safe cycling training, hospital facilities will lead the way by conducting a bicycle master-plan for their premises and associated medical practices. Hospitals are quick to demand that streets must be suitable for their ambulances, now we want to hear from them that streets also need to be suitable for those neighbors who should move about without a car. Now is the time to take apart the poisonous notion that everybody drives in LA.<br />
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The current CHNA process for five forgetful hospitals is conducted by <a href="http://www.bielconsulting.com/" target="_blank">Biel Consulting</a>. So far no public meetings have been scheduled. Which is a not a good sign. Through public meetings the hospital can build essential partnerships with community stakeholders. Failing a public meeting, the next best way to have your voice heard is to make written comments on the previous CHNA. Pick your favorite hospital and send emails to CommunityBenefit@cshs.org, smunoz@mednet.ucla.edu, CHNA-communications@kp.org, Ronald.Sorensen@providence.org. These comments count as public input and offer a privileged way to participate in the process. Now. Or wait three years for the long overdue dialogue of transportation and health.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-48091158998672992472018-11-18T14:49:00.003-08:002022-08-23T09:00:58.750-07:00Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)<br />
Every three years, hospitals need to submit a CHNA to the IRS to secure their status as a tax-exempt organisation. Community health benefits listed in the CHNA can take many forms. They should be based on statistical data, but also on community input to identify emerging issues. The CHNA for the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (2016) often reminds us of an in-house questionnaire which includes the question: "Is this work a community benefit?" Adding up all the "Yes" answers in a large organization, you invariably end up with a very long list. These activities are then arranged in priority areas, but even at that level it lacks the overarching coherence of a well designed community intervention. The result is one grand confusion of initiatives and programs. It is hard to make out the encompassing vision for the community.<br />
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In the following we outline a new area of community benefits which is currently missing. Healthy transportation initiatives will have a positive effect on many of the health needs listed. They impact the community as a whole. They comprehensively address separately listed health needs such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, mental health, etc. The empirical evidence for the effectiveness of such interventions is not in doubt. We hope the hospital will consider these suggestions and include support for healthy transportation as an overarching community benefit in the next CHNA.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqZYNbir1XtQVOV1VuzQAteukKOjL2i6GzQXkDspdqFAVl6tu9XMlgdbTBW4pU_FscaW2GD3uaBv2FNhLuP5v4eUjmNO3gBbJUtWqnstB9bRyZR0YyW-Fr9mfv7C7S60SAefASpBIDLo/s1600/BMA+Cycling+towards+Health+and+Safety+92.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqZYNbir1XtQVOV1VuzQAteukKOjL2i6GzQXkDspdqFAVl6tu9XMlgdbTBW4pU_FscaW2GD3uaBv2FNhLuP5v4eUjmNO3gBbJUtWqnstB9bRyZR0YyW-Fr9mfv7C7S60SAefASpBIDLo/s320/BMA+Cycling+towards+Health+and+Safety+92.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<b>1) UCLA Health Bikeway Corridor: </b>This innovative project provides a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dxhdFaNJt0ImggqQDyN656OCYeL8WZrS/view" target="_blank">comprehensive plan </a>for a bike route between the hospitals in Westwood and Santa Monica. It is currently managed by UCLA Transportation. The implementation itself is not funded. It represents a tangible community benefit by supporting safe infrastructure for healthy modes. It is part of the evolving issue of healthy transportation and sustainability which has received much attention recently. UCLA Health should associate its brand with this admirable project. I would also have a role in educating the community about the health benefits of active modes. As the pathway nears its implementation phase, UCLA Health should take full ownership of this project, provide funding and help present its advantages to stakeholders in the community. It should lobby local agencies for it. IRC 501(h) allows lobbying expenses. Bicycle infrastructure is a evidence-based community health intervention <a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-path-to-platinum-leads-through.html#UCLA_Health_Bikeway_Corridor" target="_blank"><link></a>.<br />
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<b>2) Additional Interviews, Community Meetings, Partnerships:</b> Prioritizing local needs is partly based on interviews with community stakeholders. The list of stakeholders is impressive but is biased by the leadership roles of those included. Do they live in the community? How are these selected? What kind of expertise do they have? Is the selection biased because it fails to include persons who commute by bicycle?<br />
A well facilitated stakeholder meeting provides much better insight into community needs. A series of interviews lacks transparency and dialogue, whereas a series of meetings can lead to local partnerships which are the best way to implement community benefits. The next CHNA should include such meetings for stakeholders. The following stakeholder groups should be consulted in future CHNAs.<br />
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<ul>
<li>The Healthy Campus Initiative at UCLA is a very valuable interlocutor, both for their expertise, but also for the community connections they have developed. It seems negligent to exclude these local experts from this process </li>
<li>The list does not include researchers from the Fielding School of Public Health who have worked on population health. It seems negligent to exclude these local experts from this process </li>
<li>Community groups advocating for healthy and sustainable transportation in the community (Calbike, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, UCLA Bicycle Academy, Better Bike Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Spoke, losangeleswalks.org, etc)</li>
<li>Neighborhood groups or councils (The new NWWNC, midcityneighbors.org, etc)</li>
<li>Youth groups and educational stakeholders, especially the Saferoutespartnership.org which advocates for safe ways to get kids to school without a car</li>
<li>The AARP has taken very progressive positions on transport policy and health for the elderly recently. They support Ciclavia events in Los Angeles and have a clear view of the transportation needs of those who can no longer drive a car (Stephanie Ramirez sramirez@aarp.org)</li>
<li>DPP Diabetes Prevention is an important aspect of population health and its voice should not be missing here</li>
</ul>
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<b>3) Modeling Best Practice: </b>UCLA Health should make community involvement a central part of its mission, not a triennial statistical exercise. This will require some input from the leadership. Spisso has repeatedly spoken about the importance of community health. She says that health is not only about repairing a broken organ, it is about healthy practices and healthy contexts. Establishing healthy practices in and around the hospital and the medical offices in the community can transform the UCLA Health into a local leader, but the leadership needs to think "outside the bed". The NHS in the UK has developed some guidelines as to how a health provider should do business in the community: Bicycle parking is better than valet car parking. Inviting stairs are better than elevators. Bike parking and transit information is absent from all UCLA Health webpages that contain way-finding info.<br />
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<b>4) UCLA Health and its Communities. </b>Recently the UCLA Vice Chancellor has conducted a discussion about a revised mission statement for the campus. During this process, UCLA Health has remained largely silent or MIA. Does the hospital have a vision for community involvement? Perhaps it could be of interest to the leadership that Part II of IRS Schedule H (Form 990) allows expenses for community building activities like environmental improvements, community health improvement advocacy, leadership development and training for community members, coalition building, etc<br />
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Healthy transportation programs are a perfect fit with the UCOP 2025 Carbon Neutrality Initiative. In order to see results in this area, leadership is needed, work needs to be done, relationships with community stakeholders need to be developed, advocacy needs to be prepared, and effects need to be evaluated. In short: UCLA Health needs to actively dismantle the stereotype that <b>everybody drives in LA</b>. The process of converting car parking into bicycle parking will position UCLA Health at the vanguard of population health and sustainability in California. Which is exactly where you want to be.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-81392685543378706092018-06-18T17:02:00.001-07:002018-06-18T17:02:13.252-07:00Lawyers to the Rescue In our discussion with UCLA Health we were told that the difficulties of renting and improving medical office space that would be bicycle perfect (bicycle parking, showers, no bundled parking to allow parking cash out) goes back to the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UJP65MEXgViOUzYWB_4hb3obEph_8l6b/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">lease template</a> provided by the University of California, Office of the President.<br />
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So we wrote to the UCOP <a href="https://www.ucop.edu/real-estate-services/staff/index.html" target="_blank">Real Estate Services</a> with some suggestions how to turn the lease template into a path towards better transport choices. We look forward to their response!<br />
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<i>Dear Allen Meacham, </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com&source=gmail&ust=1529077394503000&usg=AFQjCNGK48FF3aB9SvatqLAi8_Ancichvg" href="http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">UCLA Bicycle Academy</a> is concerned that leases used for UC premises have insufficient regard to sustainability issues. We are especially concerned that UCLA Health affiliated medical offices operate without adequate facilities that would support healthy modes of transport. This leads to a system-wide dissonance: The mode of transport most often recommended by doctors is very poorly served at the very premises where these doctors see patients. We were advised that the UCOP lease template prevented better accommodation of healthy and sustainable modes. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Your colleague Julie Wong shared the standard lease template for leases where the UC Regents are the tenant. (Rev. 12/2016 4821-2942-8779 v. 3)</i></div>
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<i>This templates includes only references to petrol burning vehicles (cars). From this exclusive focus a direct line can be drawn to the deplorable state of bicycle provision at premises used by UCLA Health (and on other campuses)</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>We would like you to make the following changes to the template</i></div>
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<ul>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><i>1. 1. 2. (Premises) ... loading and unloading areas, visitor parking areas, - add: loading and unloading areas, visitor parking areas, <b>shower facilities for bicycle commuters </b>...<b> </b>(LEED certification considers such facilities a necessity)</i></li>
</ul>
<i><br /></i>
<ul>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><i>11.1.e.(xxiv): any other parking facilities associated with the Building - add: any other parking facilities for <b>cars or bicycles </b>associated with the Building, (it is important to be clear and explicit about transport options)</i></li>
</ul>
<i><br /></i>
<ul>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><i>11.1.e.(xxiv): utilities, insurance of any form, real - add: utilities, <b>vehicle charging points,</b> <b>shower facilities for bicycle commuters, </b>insurance of any form, real (it is important to be clear and explicit about vehicle types and required facilities)</i></li>
</ul>
<i><br /></i>
<ul>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><i>Addendum 4, #2: Tenant Improvements must satisfy the Campus Fire Marshall, State Building Code and Federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Add: <b>Bicycle parking must be designed according to the bicycle parking guidelines of the APBP </b>(Where bicycle facilities are present, they invariably fail to meet the standards set by APBP and become an embarrassment in the eyes of bicycle user) </i></li>
</ul>
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<i>In addition, the UCOP leases should <b>NEVER </b>include bundled parking. Bundled parking is a sure way to remove incentives, for the entire duration of the lease, for users and organisations to reduce car use. Bundled parking effectively removes the ability to offer financial incentives for modes other than cars (Parking Cash Out). From the point of view of the sustainable transportation advocate, bundled parking is the prime source of unsustainable and unhealthy transportation choices. From the environmental point of view, it is a very bad idea. It should never be part of a UCOP lease. (Remove first Option in Addendum 1, or strongly discourage it)</i></div>
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<i>In a perfect world, the current template could well encompass sustainable and healthy modes of transportation. But experience shows that without <b>explicit reference to these modes,</b> administrators have consistently overlooked these issues. As it stands, the template enables and encourages administrators contract for facilities where EVERYBODY DRIVES. As amended, the template would better project the interest of UCOP in supporting and planning for sustainable and healthy forms of transportation. The amended template would also lead to lease negotiations that act in the best interests of those campus members (and the public) who would prefer to get around without a car. It is crucial that such improvements are planned in the early stages, because adding such facilities at a later stage is a very burdensome and complicated process.</i></div>
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<i>We believe making such changes to the UCOP lease template could well qualify for an <b><a href="http://chesc.org/best-practice-awards/overview/" target="_blank">Higher Education Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Best Practice</a> </b>Award issued by CHESC, for instance in the new <b>Large-scale Planning </b>category</i></div>
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<i>Sincerely</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>-- </i><br />
<div class="m_1822419478396673010m_-5322591148436855522gmail-m_-7059793736788654357gmail-m_-887442797428032040gmail_signature">
<i>Dr Michael Cahn</i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Secretary, UCLA Bicycle Academy</span> </i><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-35114062509896913152018-06-08T16:07:00.003-07:002018-06-09T22:32:49.588-07:00Transportation Wellness Task Force<br />
When we made the case for an <a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/02/more-healthy-cycling-meet-regents.html" target="_blank">active transportation policy to the UC Regents Health Services Committee</a>, there was no opportunity for a dialogue. That is why we are very grateful that UCLA Health offered us the opportunity for such a dialogue. UCLA Health already has a <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/smokefree/" target="_blank">No Smoking Policy</a>, it serves <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucla-antibiotic-free-meat-20140401-story.html" target="_blank">antibiotic free meat</a>, and it has recently been named <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/lgbtq/hei" target="_blank">LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Leader</a>. Perhaps our medical provider should also consider its role in the (healthy or not) transport choices its staff and patients are making every day? What would President Johnese Spisso, Richard Azar (General Services), and Joe Earnest (Media Relations) think?<br />
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We very much looked forward to this meeting. The lack of conversation over many years leads to a great deal of urgency: The more you have the conversation only in your own head, the more you are disappointed about the lack of results.<br />
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"These are all good ideas." "You will not find many doctors who would oppose such initiatives." But is there a constituency that could move things ahead? "Perhaps we could look into a certification as a bicycle friendly employer." "The staircases are really difficult because of building standards and fire regulations." "The leases which govern parking cash out and bike parking improvements come from UCOP, the Office of the President." "Perhaps we could do some bike commuter courses for staff, or something in the <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/vitalsigns/" target="_blank">Vital Signs</a> magazine." I like the idea of a UCLA Health branded bike rack said the President, perhaps we can do it like a wrap, and we shook hands on that (<a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-abc-123-of-bicycle-friendly-health.html" target="_blank">Full list here</a>). In the end, it is about an institutional attitude, and that needs time. But health impacts and climate impacts don't wait for us to make up our minds. Urgency? And how!<br />
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Thirty minutes with the leadership of a national "Best in the West" health care institution is one big deal. We recognize this and we appreciate it. On the other hand, the institution <b>has no plan</b> how to increase cycling among staff and clients, it <b>has no plan</b> how to improve bicycle facilities at all its locations, it does not assess the health effects of all this driving. UCLA Health has a <b>community relations </b>department, but it does <b>not get involved </b>in local planning discussions, does not remind Caltrans and METRO that the <a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2017/10/sustainable-transportation-around-ucla.html" target="_blank">I-405 widening</a> has discouraged more people to ride a bike to UCLA Health destinations. It is mum about a the slow death of a Great Streets Initiative for Westwood Blvd that would have included a much needed bikelane to our Medical Plaza, torpedoed by homeowners in Holby Hills and LA city council-member <a href="http://www.councilmemberpaulkoretz.com/" target="_blank">Paul Koretz</a>. But a health system that prides itself on its local connection - "<a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/primary-care" target="_blank">See you in the Neighborhood</a>" - can ill afford to remain quiet when neighborhoods <b>fail to safely accommodate the modes of transport doctors recommend most often.</b><br />
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Supporting healthy and sustainable modes is not about privileges for a few determined and reckless bike riders: It is about inviting the entire community to consider that car-centric policies and organizations have made us unwell. And that a health provider must not unwittingly lend support to the false notion that everybody drives in LA. A first class health system at a world class university should really be a leader on the bike-path towards healthy communities. It would be good to establish a formal forum in which active transportation advocates and public health experts can help the UCLA Health to address the unhealthy car bias of the organization. We would call it the <b>Transportation Wellness Task Force.</b><br />
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<b>Transportation Wellness Task Force.</b><br />
<i>(Draft Remit) </i><br />
<i>The purpose of the task force is enhance transportation wellness for staff, patients and the communities where UCLA Health operates. It provides a comprehensive perspective on the health implications of transport choices - for the individual, the enterprise and for the community.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The purpose of the task force is</i><br />
<ul>
<li><i>to integrate the public health research into the daily practice of a large medical institution</i></li>
<li><i>to provide recommendations to the leadership for programs and investments which improve transportation wellness for staff, patients and the community</i></li>
<li><i>to identify facilities improvements that would encourage more to use healthy modes</i></li>
<li><i>to identify areas where improved messaging can increase the visibility and attractiveness of healthy modes</i></li>
<li><i>to identify perverse incentives and address their impact on transport choices</i></li>
<li><i>to share its recommendations with related institutions in the UC Health system </i></li>
<li><i>to pursue certification of these efforts and to educate the public </i></li>
<li><i>to support the collection of trip data for staff and patients for scholarly analysis, including a quantitative study the health benefits delivered over a longer period, to engage campus expertise from urban planning and public health, and to contribute to a discussion of transportation wellness in the academic community</i></li>
<li><i>to make its insights available in the context of local and regional transport planning, and to provide community facilitation to increase availability of healthy options in the communities where UCLA Health operates </i></li>
</ul>
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>The members of the task force represent the following areas of expertise:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<ul>
<li><i>Public health </i></li>
<li><i>Population health, diabetes prevention </i></li>
<li><i>UCLA Transportation Planning</i></li>
<li><i>UCLA Health - Marketing </i></li>
<li><i>UCLA Health - Sustainability</i></li>
<li><i>UCLA Health - Community Relations </i></li>
</ul>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Two members of the committee use a bicycle for their commute. The task force produces an annual report.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The following have supported the establishment of such a task force:<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-85594079985491053642018-05-17T22:06:00.001-07:002018-05-17T22:21:34.033-07:00Bicycle Academy Meets UCLA HealthIn preparation for a meeting with UCLA Health leadership (Johnese Spisso, Richard Azar, Nancy Jensen) we have put some words to paper to remind everybody of the larger picture: How active transportation and health in our communities belong together. And how our Health System should educate itself, and the community, about the impacts of too much driving and too little walking and cycling.<br />
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It is not itemized agenda for a meeting. I'd call it the necessary background music for an attempt to find a path forward to help our Health System to recognize how active modes should become a part of its healing mission. We wanted to recap the large issues on paper so that in the meeting itself we can focus on the specific steps the organisation can take to move beyond the car bias which is still so well entrenched in our region. It is time to recognize the negative health impacts of such a bias and to reap the large health benefits which happen when active modes are properly supported. In the meeting we want to focus on small steps, measurable outcomes, specific projects, clear directions, both for staff and for patients. All this is complex enough, because it involves so many parts of a large organisation: Facilities, medical expertise, marketing, community relations.<br />
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But make no mistake about it, when a health system wants to change its attitude towards active modes, it will take some decisive leadership for the organisation to make the changes that are needed. Changes that will make sure that UCLA Health remains at the forefront of medical progress and community health impacts.<br />
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If you want to participate in this discussion, have suggestions for low hanging fruits that could be part of this program, or want to support our effort, please get in touch! Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-22952742055419943532018-02-01T21:48:00.001-08:002018-02-24T16:19:52.512-08:00More Healthy Cycling? Meet the Regents! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTMRoq7Dg2LUa6piz8VCDO6ZZG5JgX_IRu6SKmL6ol-V7F_-gjds-kHYiYkCtYWOQG-wVXd6He6yXQputAYy3dXE6MR4wHhjiTWuvWSPsK-ccT4kSRgpRRcL8X7OAlRtJ3XYGh9_qgwY/s1600/obesity+%252B+mode+share+inverse+graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTMRoq7Dg2LUa6piz8VCDO6ZZG5JgX_IRu6SKmL6ol-V7F_-gjds-kHYiYkCtYWOQG-wVXd6He6yXQputAYy3dXE6MR4wHhjiTWuvWSPsK-ccT4kSRgpRRcL8X7OAlRtJ3XYGh9_qgwY/s400/obesity+%252B+mode+share+inverse+graph.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is really easy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday February 6, 2018. The </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">Regents </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Health Services Committee</b> is <a href="http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/index.html" target="_blank">meeting</a> at UCLA. The time: 12:15 pm in the new <b>Luskin Conference Center </b><a href="http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb18/hs.pdf" target="_blank">(agenda)</a>. This is a sub-committee of the UC Regents tasked to guide the UC Health system. During public comment, the Bicycle Academy will highlight </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">the need for our state-wide health provider to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">address its automotive bias and to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">assert more clearly, in actions and in words, that cycling is good for you. We no longer can afford to ignore what public health experts are teaching us about the health benefits of active transportation. Please join us for this event, and share how you want this health system to improve its attitude towards active modes of transport. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We will remind the Regents and the experts present that a bicycle friendly health system </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">offers significant financial benefits because for a self-insured employer a healthier workforce means real savings</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">offers a low cost yet highly effective way to improve population health, well-being and disease prevention in the community</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We will also remind the Regents and the experts </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that </span>in spite of wide-spread anxieties about bicycle use, </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">obesity and its attendant co-morbidities are a far bigger public health hazard than cycling injuries</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px;">that the lack of active living options is responsible for a large part of our fast growing health expenditure</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that guidance from the highest level of the organisation is required, comparable to the surgeon generals warning about smoking, </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that the established division between transport planning and health policies effectively prevents accessing the multiple benefits (health, sustainability, community) of the medical device with two wheels</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that other health systems (NHS, Canada) have developed guidance that requires medical offices and hospitals to prioritize active modes, and to collaborate with local authorities to achieve a street network that can safely accommodate active modes</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that the League of American Bicyclists offers a program that can certify a Hospital as a Bicycle Friendly Business</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that there is a large unmet demand for CDC accredited <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention/index.html"><b>Diabetes Prevention Programs</b></a> with an emphasis on safe and confident cycling, or similar "Cycling on Prescription" programs</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">that this innovative program is very much </span><i style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">of the Golden State</i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">, that it should be spearheaded by an academic health center, and that it should be initiated right here, on the most </span><a href="http://healthy.ucla.edu/" style="font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank"><b>healthy campus</b></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"> of the system (<a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-abc-123-of-bicycle-friendly-health.html" target="_blank">etc</a>)</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">We will ask the Regents to adopt motion </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">to convene a working group of UC Health, UC Sustainability and UC Marketing and bicycle experts or advocacy groups, to design a UC branded bicycle rack that would serve to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">assert</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"> and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">advertise UC Health's support for active modes. Once a health system manages to put its logo on a bike rack, <b><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BF2ADjjXUZT81ZK_kaiPBl1JOMom_Rys" target="_blank">great things happen</a>.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did it ever occur to you how weird it is that your medical office offers plenty of car parking, and nothing for bikes? Were you ever looking for a staircase in a medical office but only found the elevator? Did you ever feel your doctor should assert more firmly the health benefits of active transportation? Then the Regents committee should hear from you. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our proposal has already received a good amount of support. Regent Lansing, the chair of the committee, has expressed interest. Dr Stobo, Executive Vice President of UC Health, expressed interest in the financial savings that a healthier workforce would mean for UC as a self-insured employer. He did not object to the proposal to share this with the regents and the experts. <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Even the good folks from </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">AARP, </b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">who have shown great leadership in healthy transport issues,</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">expressed support. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This committee is a sympathetic and powerful forum. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Because we are looking for an explicit medical </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">acknowledgement</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> of the benefits of active modes, the issue exceeds the level of facilities management and requires an rarely seen level of collaboration between health policy and transport planning at the highest level. We hope that the Regents can establish some guidance for the entire UC Health system to recognize the bicycle as a cheap and effective medical device. A </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">medical office without bicycle parking really does send the wrong message. And a location webpage with advertises valet parking for cars, but is quiet about walking, cycling and transit routes, should not be difficult to remedy, once the regents have given the necessary guidance. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">We hope to see you on Tuesday. A few more talking points are </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-abc-123-of-bicycle-friendly-health.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Update: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Public comment has been recorded and is available here</span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </b><u style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://youtu.be/BdT5KkY5ZJk?t%3D140&source=gmail&ust=1519604236008000&usg=AFQjCNEHPYzjqQ8Q0a_q7fkU_D-eXIaTsw" href="https://youtu.be/BdT5KkY5ZJk?t=140" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/<wbr></wbr>BdT5KkY5ZJk?t=140</a></u></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-9458247457847545142018-01-22T14:55:00.000-08:002018-01-22T16:01:01.329-08:00UCLA Athletes as bicycle advocatesThis is an invitation for UCLA Athletes to join us for the meeting of the UC Regents Health Services Committee at UCLA on the 6th of February 2018. The meeting of Bruins, of Athletes and the Health System, is a meeting of giants. Because UCLA is really about our athletes, and about the campus health business. Five hospitals and 160 medical offices throughout LA county, the budget of UCLA Health actually exceeds that of the rest of the campus, that little world-class university we also call UCLA.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1rpQCT1wzHU5GNxZUxJ5F2AWpqj3HUn_iZrQdn6KDvTj0AkW7R9Sx-PFaJCFb0ftitQwwHkmxQSj0xnaU3RrZBU1hIPO9slUIzxd3ABmzOHlFg0JvGUeHWfzbQ6-a2eBPI7k9AgOvgE/s1600/Skirball-fire+Freeway+Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1rpQCT1wzHU5GNxZUxJ5F2AWpqj3HUn_iZrQdn6KDvTj0AkW7R9Sx-PFaJCFb0ftitQwwHkmxQSj0xnaU3RrZBU1hIPO9slUIzxd3ABmzOHlFg0JvGUeHWfzbQ6-a2eBPI7k9AgOvgE/s320/Skirball-fire+Freeway+Sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Driving to UCLA</td></tr>
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Remember how much our best athletes love the bicycle. Of course they would love to see more people cycling. A few images to do the talking:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVdj-BBDdu2BfHv11boEvXXLwiU56S1nnyhOd4HFxOwvhQC6oSXd9fCkFOrBi0k4j5FfYOPDkpM33wyiWvMNRtUgGgnzIpgx1ag9Blwttsei3r7eYmG2zZfVB4O5gWuHMiq_HPYLp7g8/s1600/walton-bike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVdj-BBDdu2BfHv11boEvXXLwiU56S1nnyhOd4HFxOwvhQC6oSXd9fCkFOrBi0k4j5FfYOPDkpM33wyiWvMNRtUgGgnzIpgx1ag9Blwttsei3r7eYmG2zZfVB4O5gWuHMiq_HPYLp7g8/s320/walton-bike.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill Walton jumped on his bicycle to get that famous haircut in Westwood<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15RT5Xwz7jKqqPIiQurwHyAdMPWfWNslt-uPI7ax3pHFanhW2XTOCJ1KbQIWaUYak0udwd_Cz4LUBl-zHoHqFwHZM5-h-CVsC2CIfWcbhrdtPFrThIrCR5_QQv9n77wEzdndhUWaikdY/s1600/Bill+Walton+Bike+Sculpture.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15RT5Xwz7jKqqPIiQurwHyAdMPWfWNslt-uPI7ax3pHFanhW2XTOCJ1KbQIWaUYak0udwd_Cz4LUBl-zHoHqFwHZM5-h-CVsC2CIfWcbhrdtPFrThIrCR5_QQv9n77wEzdndhUWaikdY/s400/Bill+Walton+Bike+Sculpture.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Bill Walton next to his sculpture with bicycle</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kareem Abdul Jabbar</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7yu8Iwx94lVTSwL1brEv3yuxPKchALoWbuF-hBDuoCp7zuYSZNnqK5gpchTNviavEaECFFjoEobpU4yor1Fe0jWm46S0Whbi1UaJI5JpO1zkmwwIsi6Zkh0E6vnhZRo4-QMj0C25zNc/s1600/kareem.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7yu8Iwx94lVTSwL1brEv3yuxPKchALoWbuF-hBDuoCp7zuYSZNnqK5gpchTNviavEaECFFjoEobpU4yor1Fe0jWm46S0Whbi1UaJI5JpO1zkmwwIsi6Zkh0E6vnhZRo4-QMj0C25zNc/s400/kareem.png" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kareem as Grand Marshall for the 1979 Bike-a-Thon, Marina del Rey</td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2co3CardnxUdoXOMV96YSfglr7BHGGhmCw_5YugnQAGGqJsv31xwfzXNKhsjcMnS51o2tqC5-3ib6i_Mw1QV8ekt3eGwBZQi1wjpagAvCR2dxGhRC9_Yk7dgLMtofYzP9YQDnA2-WrAA/s1600/Wooden-bicycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2co3CardnxUdoXOMV96YSfglr7BHGGhmCw_5YugnQAGGqJsv31xwfzXNKhsjcMnS51o2tqC5-3ib6i_Mw1QV8ekt3eGwBZQi1wjpagAvCR2dxGhRC9_Yk7dgLMtofYzP9YQDnA2-WrAA/s400/Wooden-bicycle.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And, yes, the wooden Bike, aka "The Coach" (?)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: small;">So when the UC Regents Health Services Committee meets at UCLA on the 6th of February 2018, this is a great opportunity to remind them that our athletes are watching how they bring this great tradition of cycling to all the medical establishments the UC system provides throughout California. Because a medical office or a hospital should be optimized for healthy modes of getting around, modes that are healthy for our bodies and healthy for our environment. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: small;">And if you don't quite know what to say to the Regents, here is some language that may come in handy</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>We applaud the sustainability effort underway for the UC Health system, which is led by Paul Watkins of the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica. But the bicycle has not yet received the attention it naturally deserves in a medical context. Bicycles are wonderfully effective in preventing disease, improving health and achieving sustainability in our communities. A comprehensive program which includes staff, patients, but also negotiations with local agencies in charge of transport planning, is beyond the scope of the current effort. A broader initiative is urgently needed to reap the manifold benefits an increase in active transportation will bring. Its natural starting point are the UC Health campus locations and countless UC branded medical offices throughout California. In our vision UC Health is committed to improve its communities, creating instances of bicycle perfection in a geography that urgently needs more of them.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Given a broad body of scientific evidence, the Executive Vice President of UC Health should issue a declaration about the medical benefits of active transportation. Such policy guidance would lead the way for UC Health to become a more bicycle perfect institution throughout the state. The design of a UC Health branded bicycle rack, complete with a health related message, may be a suitable first step to assert and market this insight.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Public health experts tell us that automobilitis and the lack of physical activity account for a large proportion of poor health in our communities. Now is the time for UC Health to devote resources to liberate our communities from our sickening addiction to cars. An academic health center is a natural leader for such a broad effort. The state of California is the right place for this. This committee can make this happen. </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>We support the proposal developed by the UCLA Bicycle Academy that lists a number of concrete steps through which a culture of health and sustainability can be generated. For those who have grown up to believe that the car is the only safe place on our roads, this proposal may seem scandalous. But the true scandal would be a UC Health system that fails to decisively support and encourage active transportation.</i></span></div>
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(See also: <a href="https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-abc-123-of-bicycle-friendly-health.html">https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-abc-123-of-bicycle-friendly-health.html</a>)</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-15826465069627438312018-01-18T10:48:00.002-08:002018-02-01T21:50:37.925-08:00The ABC 123 of a Bicycle Friendly Health System<br />
Some steps towards a <a href="http://www.ucop.edu/uc-health/index.htm" target="_blank">UC Health</a> system that decisively supports and encourages active transportation. <br />
<ul>
<li>A design-guide for a UC Health branded bike rack in collaboration with UC marketing (color, design, health message on rack, placement according to <a href="http://www.apbp.org/" target="_blank">APBP</a>) </li>
<li>Review and improve <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla-student-earns-uc-president-s-leadership-award" target="_blank">access and attractiveness</a> of <a href="http://fabnhsstuff.net/2015/09/01/hospitals-take-to-the-stairs-to-boost-health-and-productivity/" target="_blank">staircases</a> for all premises</li>
<li>Evaluate the financial benefit for UC as a self-insured employer if more employees use active modes for their commute</li>
<li>Pay staff who commute by bike 10 cents <a href="http://www.free2cycle.com/" target="_blank">for every mile cycled</a></li>
<li>Normalize cycling and transit options on all "<a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/directions-parking" target="_blank">directions and parking</a>" webpages which consistently assume that everybody drives </li>
<li>Create media opportunities for UC Leadership to be <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsGbPAEVNguWVKmOvqVtHxS_PVBGVj3TyDi4Dgc9-4_Jk_J2877L_ZJlUcT2YPCpFLhItU52NeErjJ6WO0t9ZYOideIyfRRGPJose1erfUovQJv6AwHTtRcArLw2NSl9Iu-YMzg9da3xM/s320/Block2.jpg" target="_blank">shown with a bicycle</a></li>
<li>Evaluate improved productivity and work satisfaction if more staff uses active modes for the commute</li>
<li>Conduct an annual <a href="https://blessingofthebicycles.org/" target="_blank">Blessing of the Bicycles</a> ceremony </li>
<li>Apply for certification as <a href="https://bikeleague.org/business" target="_blank">Bicycle Friendly Business</a> through the <a href="https://bikeleague.org/" target="_blank">League of American Bicyclists</a> (Precedent: <a href="http://www.bikeleague.org/content/bfb-spotlight-seattle-childrens-hospital" target="_blank">Seattle Childrens Hospital,</a> etc)</li>
<li>Offer CDC accredited <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention/index.html" target="_blank">Diabetes Prevention Programs</a> which emphasize safe and confident cycling education</li>
<li>Encourage development of "Cycling on Prescription" programs</li>
<li>Develop a Public Service Announcement Campaign: "Surgeon General's Warning: Driving causes Obesity and Diabetes, Start Cycling now to Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health." (Preecedent: <a href="http://newsroom.aaos.org/PSA/print/riders-arent-always-in-the-right-but-they-are-always-fragile.htm" target="_blank">Cyclists are always Fragile</a> campaign by the <a href="http://aaos.org/" target="_blank">American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons</a></li>
<li>Create the position of a Sustainable Transport Improver at each medical campus</li>
<li>Engage with local agencies to improve transportation infrastructure for active modes in the communities were UC Health operates. Bring the voice of medical experts to the planning process</li>
<li>Offer and advertise free bicycle valet parking at all locations that provide valet parking for cars</li>
<li>Ensure that Capital Programs reviews all current and new off-campus premises for active transportation improvements</li>
</ul>
<div>
Because these interventions touch many different parts of the organisation, this proposals requires strong leadership.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-51672656849249411532017-12-12T11:30:00.002-08:002017-12-12T13:48:43.343-08:00Book Review: Strategic Plan<br />
<br />
The email from Scott Waugh arrived yesterday. The executive vice chancellor asked us to look at the <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/strategic-plan/" target="_blank">strategic plan</a> for UCLA, the recommendations for the same to be precise. And so we did.<br />
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The process falls into five sections, each with a committee and a substantial report, and plenty of recommendations. I started with the section on <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/strategic-plan/civic-engagement" target="_blank">Civic Engagement</a>. H-i-g-h-l-y r-e-c-o-m-m-e-n-d-e-d. V-e-r-y. It is an extended meditation on the Chancellor's demand that <b><a href="https://chancellor.ucla.edu/priorities/civic-engagement" target="_blank">UCLA must make a difference in the civic life of Los Angeles.</a> </b>The report reminds us how <a href="http://www.usc.edu/" target="_blank">the other team in LA </a> has achieved an admirable track record on neighborhood engagement, while the community programs UCLA had initiated after the LA riots were silently dropped after a few years. The report contains some very clear language about a confusing and inefficient hierarchy, especially surrounding the so-called <a href="http://advocacy.ucla.edu/" target="_blank">Office for Community and Government Relations</a>, which, for the bicycle advocate, always felt deeply conflicted and ineffectual. The report suggest a new position of a <b>Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement </b>who would have the resources and the authority to facilitate the much needed connection between the campus and the community. The report envisions community relations that are bi-lateral, a constant give-and-take, and never top-down. It gives short shrift to the arrogance of academia that would consider itself as the bringer of all things nice to the community which does not know what it needs. It also highlights the unique responsibility of UCLA, being the only elite public university which is located smack in the middle of a global megalopolis. Bingo. Let's run with this!</div>
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Mind you, all this lofty talk is not goody-two-shoes stuff: The back-end is made of hard-boiled marketing considerations, brand surveys, and the need to shore up political support for public education. The ivory tower campus is no longer a viable proposition in an American city and an American society that needs a great deal of urgent fixing. There is talk of integrating disparate initiatives, of formally acknowledging student and staff involvement in such initiatives, and the interdisciplinary challenges posed by realities that do not neatly fall into disciplinary terrains. Like the bicycle which challenges the co-operation of urban planning, public health, sustainability, diabetes prevention, transport engineering and behavioral psychology. </div>
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Thanks, folks! From the handle-bar of our bikes we have identified very much the same shortcomings in the current strategic engagement and in the organization chart of our campus. But our <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kpH8GGMLwde_gGAHp1rag4DFZ6GJcbAU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">short proposal</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YylVic1nFb63RBEpfXSz0tYTCRKz0k__/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">long proposal</a> goes further. Because the bicycle is the unacknowledged purveyor of healthy living, our proposal had a closer look at UCLA Health, the big bear on our campus . Yes, there are many many many doctors and nurses in the system who do what they can to fix what they can. Imagine what they could achieve with the support from the top as envisioned here!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzudUMPYjw1A_a8jcpKvXUHZ93UaODlOLzaROgPNXadV23lC3X9664K12F5aqQTRVkbh-VhpLdK1HMMZEdwnRH-AJBqqo3f77GdS89bcYJaZQUqugAd18t4XqR1nyscNlimvoM6LXffI/s1600/Google2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="504" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzudUMPYjw1A_a8jcpKvXUHZ93UaODlOLzaROgPNXadV23lC3X9664K12F5aqQTRVkbh-VhpLdK1HMMZEdwnRH-AJBqqo3f77GdS89bcYJaZQUqugAd18t4XqR1nyscNlimvoM6LXffI/s320/Google2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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One report does not list the people which make up its committee, but from the available composition of the committees, we are hearing a whole lot of <b>silence from one entire half of the campus</b>. The bigger half, mind you. UCLA Health, previously known as the UCLA Health System, is hard to find here. Paul Staton, their Chief Financial Officer, is listed as a member of the committee on <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/strategic-plan/institutional-effectiveness" target="_blank">Institutional Effectiveness</a>. And there are faculty from the Medical School participating. But reading through those reports, it is evident that UCLA Health is boxing far below its real weight. The missing voice of a major health care provider in the region marks a worrisome disconnection. Perhaps Mrs Spisso, President of UCLA Health, should look into this. Or is there a secret plan for the UCLA Health to opt out from the community engagement vision outlined here? To be sure, the bi-annual accounting exercise called "Community Health Needs Assessment", required by the IRS to secure the tax-exempt status of the hospital, is miles, light-years behind the strategic vision of how the campus <b><span style="color: blue;">should make a difference in the civic life of Los Angeles</span>.</b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpsWe74Xa5zfMJuFmFYVFzGcMNvVjDN221-9no4hQrKRY06vWLv7egeNx3Ia9XJ4nFI4Y6dB28jcIfLkj8YeUTKj-6smrnoSpXqjafBahN0PL3CKcarelEswdnnYeKoKGk6deF44Eh1p0/s1600/Val-U.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="113" data-original-width="534" height="67" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpsWe74Xa5zfMJuFmFYVFzGcMNvVjDN221-9no4hQrKRY06vWLv7egeNx3Ia9XJ4nFI4Y6dB28jcIfLkj8YeUTKj-6smrnoSpXqjafBahN0PL3CKcarelEswdnnYeKoKGk6deF44Eh1p0/s320/Val-U.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Managerial formulas will not make a difference in the civic life of LA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The "Healthy Behaviors" project, presented as part of the <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/strategic-plan/research-innovation" target="_blank">Research Innovation</a> section, is a superb example how campus and community can come together. It includes a reference to an entity called "UCLA Medical Center" (p 13), which is the 520 bed hospital located on campus. But it fails to note the staggering opportunities of community outreach afforded by the network of 160 plus UCLA Health medical offices located in the LA County, - even if the locations of these offices precisely mirror the <a href="http://maps.uclahealth.org/" target="_blank">map of affluence in our region</a>. "Healthy Behaviors" has evidently been written without the benefit of engaged feedback from UCLA Health. The uncanny silence from UCLA Health threatens to derail this very laudable effort. There must be no opt-out from <b><span style="color: blue;">making a difference in the civic life of Los Angeles</span>.</b></div>
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Thanks, fellow Bruins! Great work! But why was all this good stuff kept in a drawer since July? Yes to more institutional agility. Improving access to campus for those who would not drive has suddenly become much easier, and it should have been easier 6 months ago. </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>When presenting community partnerships, try to avoid the false impression that UCLA is located in the city of Los Angeles. Those on two wheels learn very quickly that UCLA is located in a complex network of municipalities, districts and agencies, from Beverly Hills to the Veterans Administration, from Santa Monica to Culver City, from LA County to <a href="http://www.councilmemberpaulkoretz.com/" target="_blank">CD5</a>, from West Hollywood to the <a href="https://www.cem.va.gov/" target="_blank">National Cemetery Administration</a>. The problems associated with this regional complexity are addressed in our <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kpH8GGMLwde_gGAHp1rag4DFZ6GJcbAU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">short proposal</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YylVic1nFb63RBEpfXSz0tYTCRKz0k__/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">long proposal</a> </li>
<li>When talking about housing, environmental justice, education, please do include transportation</li>
<li>And thank you for envisioning DTUCLA close to a station of the purple line. These details do count! </li>
</ul>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-45032316914656300532017-10-26T11:04:00.002-07:002017-10-26T11:04:22.287-07:00UCLA in Downtown: Campus and city agree: Best to ignore the scandalous bicycle infrastructure around UCLAProvision for those who would walk or ride a bike to UCLA is, well, bad. Scandalously bad. It would be a nice project to quantify the damage done to the environment and the health of our communities by those planning decisions in the region around UCLA that have favored cars and ignored sustainable modes. But even before these figures are on the table, one would expect that the conversations between campus and elected officials during the annual UCLA in Downtown event would touch on the need to improve non-motorized access to campus. Not so. Campus and city agree: Best to ignore the scandalous bicycle infrastructure around UCLA.<br />
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To make up for this omission, we have attended the evening reception <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171026045556/http://advocacy.ucla.edu/ucla-downtown/" target="_blank">UCLA Day in Downtown LA</a> at LA City Hall. An impressive building, a beautiful evening. We handed out some reminders to those who forget (and forget yet again) all about the surprising benefits of non-motorized transportation. Here is the batch of custom colored bicycle badges for the occasion.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jzEeHyKwOseoV5Q6SmOKEjigs-1oxjrL67watOLxgXHeW5x6YcitExFRnOqfZctf5iC0vUSo_iZdk8xmwUKuo0xkdTmUdw9sKlc89MoQiXIPsbOGdAM02m_3uS0-FYRzVoWl9UfQodc/s1600/Picture+110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jzEeHyKwOseoV5Q6SmOKEjigs-1oxjrL67watOLxgXHeW5x6YcitExFRnOqfZctf5iC0vUSo_iZdk8xmwUKuo0xkdTmUdw9sKlc89MoQiXIPsbOGdAM02m_3uS0-FYRzVoWl9UfQodc/s320/Picture+110.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">custom colored bicycle badges</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
One lady would not touch our offering, she apparently fell from a bike as a child. But many attendees proudly displayed our bike badges as the evening progressed. One alumni remembered his father in law who had a bike shop, the other had his fiancee who is a keen cyclists. Still another arrived on a bicycle. The servers transmitted urgent demands from the kitchen where the badges were in high demand. They all supported the idea that a world class university which promotes an agenda that challenges itself to make a real difference in the local community can ill afford to stay silent on the benefits of bikes. Specially when talking to elected officials and planners.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgabaiEm7JVwAoom5tgqhvsreyjYI72_f7IcZERoC4oF-lOKeVxA8sdpfUlYchT3Z0gpoWdHgmS5NNrKjETfN7cLaJF2DSSOH9OsiwBPY39Dft7ubzL2sB_H3XaYyzKuOW9K4e3txM1O7w/s1600/Alum1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1075" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgabaiEm7JVwAoom5tgqhvsreyjYI72_f7IcZERoC4oF-lOKeVxA8sdpfUlYchT3Z0gpoWdHgmS5NNrKjETfN7cLaJF2DSSOH9OsiwBPY39Dft7ubzL2sB_H3XaYyzKuOW9K4e3txM1O7w/s320/Alum1.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alumni</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJ7g8o0U0gLiwD_oB2G9w34SdMHgQKXucxBNZQ5mzZz-UInNIn2xfOsDOAqQKHEozaM41j9mZ_Jbs0T6lHh4vorBNptt6RKjT83pcjSXb1ErecHSYQOHyuiG9BKJ37Gtle29K_MjQCBs/s1600/Alum2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJ7g8o0U0gLiwD_oB2G9w34SdMHgQKXucxBNZQ5mzZz-UInNIn2xfOsDOAqQKHEozaM41j9mZ_Jbs0T6lHh4vorBNptt6RKjT83pcjSXb1ErecHSYQOHyuiG9BKJ37Gtle29K_MjQCBs/s320/Alum2.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsGbPAEVNguWVKmOvqVtHxS_PVBGVj3TyDi4Dgc9-4_Jk_J2877L_ZJlUcT2YPCpFLhItU52NeErjJ6WO0t9ZYOideIyfRRGPJose1erfUovQJv6AwHTtRcArLw2NSl9Iu-YMzg9da3xM/s1600/Block2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="671" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsGbPAEVNguWVKmOvqVtHxS_PVBGVj3TyDi4Dgc9-4_Jk_J2877L_ZJlUcT2YPCpFLhItU52NeErjJ6WO0t9ZYOideIyfRRGPJose1erfUovQJv6AwHTtRcArLw2NSl9Iu-YMzg9da3xM/s320/Block2.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Chancellor Gene Block</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqF5fTH_QbO9kyx8uPAvVxcdi2zP-lHHjrSoV-PGuI_rvXTgIkAUI3IZnFCSkMyPAb_JFh2MTgpO72QaBdHdc1lkkW_urTpcbXgHqM8m-5ZffEhxtZPjOOOaSzvNn0LW6kLMfmJi2ihM/s1600/Block.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="637" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqF5fTH_QbO9kyx8uPAvVxcdi2zP-lHHjrSoV-PGuI_rvXTgIkAUI3IZnFCSkMyPAb_JFh2MTgpO72QaBdHdc1lkkW_urTpcbXgHqM8m-5ZffEhxtZPjOOOaSzvNn0LW6kLMfmJi2ihM/s320/Block.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chancellor Gene Block</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15Lz56nYm_gzNm4Qc0Umi_7IN5I2yYC0FlM5L4vRGaXnoczTfL-di2Hp4ELUSAKB3U2lyTBqjaLR_7pdozqC3hh9-D9YG6k90yEFccz8G24Qw4xm4k_oRVMayHBN6dUlp-nbFasUI0RM/s1600/Paul+Koretz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1232" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15Lz56nYm_gzNm4Qc0Umi_7IN5I2yYC0FlM5L4vRGaXnoczTfL-di2Hp4ELUSAKB3U2lyTBqjaLR_7pdozqC3hh9-D9YG6k90yEFccz8G24Qw4xm4k_oRVMayHBN6dUlp-nbFasUI0RM/s320/Paul+Koretz.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Koretz</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDdT97F4zFoofGB3aa7-tyrVS7MryKIZ1y3a69r6lHWb_TbfSJ_hNFZFFtKvSaHaJesT6Edv3dzB_AP6ifGWZbY5MlEWgZFx4F0LAORbi2AH16_XHyp7c2jz_oiL4sh6A7kOmQrEAxKVI/s1600/Randy+Spiro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDdT97F4zFoofGB3aa7-tyrVS7MryKIZ1y3a69r6lHWb_TbfSJ_hNFZFFtKvSaHaJesT6Edv3dzB_AP6ifGWZbY5MlEWgZFx4F0LAORbi2AH16_XHyp7c2jz_oiL4sh6A7kOmQrEAxKVI/s320/Randy+Spiro.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alumni</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin_-Ivzqiz_tn-NF8FUttnK3y10HcfGJdxmz6dtqQH9QMEi1z5ga5eZ9gXLTH6xwovXQNIpo0pqJMC6qh81JZSgNXV7MjA-47GVo_JlrWcRxDaYvmcfP6Y_MDOSJQBQII9ci4JUEzzoRA/s1600/Staff1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1286" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin_-Ivzqiz_tn-NF8FUttnK3y10HcfGJdxmz6dtqQH9QMEi1z5ga5eZ9gXLTH6xwovXQNIpo0pqJMC6qh81JZSgNXV7MjA-47GVo_JlrWcRxDaYvmcfP6Y_MDOSJQBQII9ci4JUEzzoRA/s320/Staff1.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZXB4yJ4NAuU7daMC3r6MTUgc7dB-hwwXqXN1aD3grDP9Z9ab9aU43aP_WyjeTQzEfvJbGJ-drPwlz6-1y5UnvXNpMVbAx9oenMno1CcnYNXWbIOo4WIl-HeTl036Zz9_hYL0EZdScmU/s1600/Staff2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1161" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJZXB4yJ4NAuU7daMC3r6MTUgc7dB-hwwXqXN1aD3grDP9Z9ab9aU43aP_WyjeTQzEfvJbGJ-drPwlz6-1y5UnvXNpMVbAx9oenMno1CcnYNXWbIOo4WIl-HeTl036Zz9_hYL0EZdScmU/s320/Staff2.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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We also brought a few playing cards.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWc82ZS-V13TG2iEr19KXeVnFIic1HKZdfCJ6KlBxjsi8ODToxhCAifHoYWNQV1h_Wlp9DYFeT6ogLIvmpllnvG7kaK3fWKj0AyWolUVdOq8Defg5IzJZB3TeORSPj46tHMX_OGp6uRXY/s1600/bicycle_cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="550" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWc82ZS-V13TG2iEr19KXeVnFIic1HKZdfCJ6KlBxjsi8ODToxhCAifHoYWNQV1h_Wlp9DYFeT6ogLIvmpllnvG7kaK3fWKj0AyWolUVdOq8Defg5IzJZB3TeORSPj46tHMX_OGp6uRXY/s320/bicycle_cards.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
But not the standard<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Bicycle Cards<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 15.6px;">®. Our cards are </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 15.6px;">specialized bicycle advocacy cards,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 15.6px;"> </span>cheat sheets with some of the questions that deserve attention when thinking about the place of UCLA in its community.<br />
Our cards were ♠ spades ♠ only, because ♠ spades ♠ is what it takes to get bike lanes built.<br />
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzlRYl5hllZDUW9idGl1LXk5d1k/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="907" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeThKYnwZY8foBS1SPqtxP0TCvLM2MwCGlNQN4szrpClKlRa35XLHMq_2eBsNH9tMyVTPDI2p37m1UZkSKYsp08OEKT8LcuxLa7oZi70MHTvivdKV8gX4XbOlugcBIq4kw60UcrH3DIr8/s640/playing+cards+sm+l.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
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Finally, for the latter part of the proceedings, when the assembly honored its advocates, we found a few bicycle bells in the our advocacy tool box. They rang out happily when the audience applauded, reminding all, yet again, that a campus that fails to get involved with healthy and sustainable modes of transportation is a poor campus indeed.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-28228699719264036572017-10-02T18:16:00.004-07:002017-10-02T21:45:27.836-07:00Sustainable Transportation around UCLA: The way forward after the I-405 Widening Below is the text we have shared with the members of the<a href="http://www.westsidecities.org/" target="_blank"> Westside Council of Governments</a>, which is meeting early October to discuss the Westside Mobility Study Update.<br />
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<i>The arrival of the Purple Line and the Olympic Village at UCLA offer important opportunities to improve transportation, environment and public health in the region around UCLA. The UCLA Bicycle Academy sees the need for a nimble regional entity which works closely with the campus and can better support those who would get around without a car. A complex network of overlapping authorities, sometimes called a "bureaucratic quagmire", has made it very difficult to improve connectivity for sustainable modes. The COG itself helps to overcome these barriers, but we would like to see a more dedicated focus on healthy and sustainable modes in the region around UCLA. The campus would play an important role in this effort. It creates most trips in the region, including some 50.000 weekly ride-share trips to campus. UCLA also has a track record of supporting healthy ways of getting around. The expertise among its administrators and faculty should become part of a long-term program to improve transportation options in the region. We ask the COG to investigate if such a round table would improve its ability to deliver improvements for active and healthy modes.</i><br />
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<i>The Background:</i><br />
<i>The I-405 widening project had a singular focus: Adding more car lanes. It failed to follow the Complete Streets Policy Caltrans adopted in 2008. Today, the interstate has become a massive barrier between Westwood and Brentwood, severing UCLA from its hinterland, forcing people use the car for very short distances. Sepulveda Blvd mocks us with a cruel grin that lacks sidewalks and bike lanes. Nobody represented future residents on the VA property who want to walk or wheelchair to Westwood away from the dangerous roar of a sea of fast cars. Residents are eager to do the right thing for the environment and for their health. But those soaring ramps and bridges which cross Wilshire so elegantly have become the </i>Arc de Triomphe<i> of Motordom, a stark reminder of what happens when traffic planning ignores the needs of those who would get around without a car.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn5nJ6g7urxXKqw_fEJsrtP30wpL-t7JIv7CDG1UgsrPEZq8CzO02GyyjbPl8U5Q_KaxcCslGTxmYNDd87AUkP5selBMC-I8uYU4vk3NrPTMtOaQuoC2bgBJ3M4hj9DsCu2nlLxI1b6Gg/s1600/Image3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="1600" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn5nJ6g7urxXKqw_fEJsrtP30wpL-t7JIv7CDG1UgsrPEZq8CzO02GyyjbPl8U5Q_KaxcCslGTxmYNDd87AUkP5selBMC-I8uYU4vk3NrPTMtOaQuoC2bgBJ3M4hj9DsCu2nlLxI1b6Gg/s400/Image3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The way forward: </i><br />
<i>We envision an entity which can refresh bike markings across administrative borders, trim hedges without a long waiting period and has funding to implement non-controversial improvements fast. It would also offer a mechanism for walkers and riders, the real experts on our street, to give feedback and call for small improvements. Overlapping authorities need to work together in the long term to make walking and cycling more attractive in the area around UCLA. After 1.6 billion dollars have purchased our cars a few more lanes across the Sepulveda path, now it is time to facilitate a well coordinated regional effort supporting sustainable modes. Funding for such a regional forum could come from Measure M. It should also be able to apply for 3rd party funding for regional non-motorized improvements around UCLA. We believe that such a forum would be able to remedy the negative consequences of the I-405 widening in the region around UCLA.</i><br />
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This is a pretty comprehensive ask. We want to see UCLA play a more significant role in transportation planning in the area. We also want to see a streamlined process for minor maintenance and safety improvements. We also want to see new funding for demonstration projects, for safety studies or for workshops to develop new ideas to support and encourage healthy and sustainable modes in the region around UCLA. The COG is an appropriate forum for such projects, because it ensures the co-ordination and collaboration between jurisdictions. If the COG becomes convinced that the I-405 has become a massive barrier for pedestrians in the region, then it would be only natural for them to reach out to the Rep Ted Lieu and ask him to raise the issue in Washington. Then we could see a path forward to remedy the negative impacts of the I-405 widening and get our region back on the path towards healthy and sustainable transportation. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-43485648497144777632017-03-06T23:51:00.002-08:002017-03-08T23:38:44.731-08:00Bring on the Experts: Bicycles: Yielding (AB 1103) for more health and cleaner air<br />
California is a big deal. Just behind the US, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, our state is the sixth largest economy in the world. They do a lot of driving here in California, <b><a href="http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/hpms/hpmslibrary/hpmspdf/2010PRD.pdf" target="_blank">327 770 million miles</a></b> to be precise. All this driving is a big problem for air quality, and for communities which are hurt by traffic. Moreover, all those cars discourage and prevent people from using active and healthy modes like the bicycle.<br />
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Traffic planning has facilitated and encouraged cars for more than 100 years. Little wonder that those who want to use active modes, for their own health or for the health of the environment, confront plenty of hurdles and barriers. Plenty of them! On Westwood Blvd and elsewhere.</div>
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But now the law-makers in Sacramento have come out with a new plan. It is called <b>AB 1103 Bicycles: Yielding</b>. On February 17, 2017 Assembly Members Obernolte and Ting, supported by Senator Wiener, Assembly Members Bloom, Chávez, and Kiley (@JayObernolte @PhilTing @Scott_Wiener @RichardBloom @AsmRocky @KevinKileyCA) introduced a proposal for a bill which would bring the so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop" target="_blank">Idaho-Stop</a> to California. It would allow those who are riding a bicycle to treat a stop sign as a yield sign. The proposal states:<br />
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<i style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.688px; line-height: 22.032px; text-align: justify;"></i><br />
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<i style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.688px; line-height: 22.032px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1103" target="_blank">A person operating a bicycle approaching a stop sign, after slowing to a reasonable speed and yielding the right-of-way to any vehicle in the intersection [...], may cautiously make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping. However, if required for safety, the person shall stop before entering the intersection, and may proceed after yielding the right-of-way.</a></i></div>
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When the law was introduced in Idaho in 1982, it was shown to reduce collisions involving people on bikes. It is not a provision to blow through stop signs. It is an arrangement that takes into account the 360% visibility enjoyed by the person on the bike, and the ability to hear approaching vehicles. There are no A-pillars or windows on the bike. The law also takes into account that, compared with a motor vehicle, the bicycle poses much less of a danger to other road users. It would also end the annoying intersection confusion that often occurs when a cyclist comes to a full stop, finds himself waved through, but then needs to co-ordinate with drivers from other directions. </div>
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I have a dozen of these signs on my own commute to UCLA. As an occasional unicyclist, I have mastered the art of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_stand" target="_blank">trackstand</a> to the degree that I can do red lights and stop signs without putting my feet on the ground, rolling back and forth slowly, regardless of wind and now also with onlookers. I will miss the opportunity of show off my tricks, but this law is not about me. </div>
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It is about those Californians who would ride a bicycle but have been put off by a infrastructure which does not project safety, and by a legal system that does protect cycling. The law (and enforcement) fails vulnerable road users in many ways: It does not offer <a href="http://www.cyclealert.com/presumed-liability-the-facts/" target="_blank">presumed liability</a>, it fails to address the epidemic of hit and run collisions, and vehicle based enforcement by police remains <a href="http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2014/11/distracted-policing-ucla.html" target="_blank">structurally blind</a> to the dangerous wave of distracted driving which we have to contend with when cycling. <b>AB 1103</b> could be the moment when the legal system takes the most vulnerable road users out of the shadow. But the point of this proposal is not that it would legalize a widespread practice on the road, the real point is that it would and could encourage more people to try healthy and sustainable modes for the many short trips Californians drive. Aggrieved voices from behind a steering wheel feel this proposal gives those on a bike an unfair advantage: But the advantage of the <b>California Yielding</b> will be available to all drivers, they just need to get on a bike. </div>
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Indeed, the true value of this law may well be the public discussion it will produce. This is a good discussion to have, to underline the urgency for more sustainable modes and less driving. When we bring this issue in front of 39 million Californians, each of whom is driving 14.000 miles a year, where more than 40% of all trips are less than 5 miles long, some insight may well occur, some lights my be switched on, and some drivers my venture outside their comfort zone and try how it feels to take advantage of the privilege <b>California Yielding</b> will afford to those heroes who pedal in traffic. </div>
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Which brings us to the main question: How many lights will this proposal be able to switch on? How much enlightenment can a public discussion like this produce? Indeed, how many of the 327 770 million miles driven in California will be replaced by miles pedaled as a consequence of the law, and the simplification it offers for those who chose to do the right thing? <b>How many more miles pedaled?</b></div>
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How will the public react? How much encouragement is in this new law? That then is the big question for the <b>public health experts</b>: Will <b>AB 1103 </b> yield 1 million, 2 million, or 20 million additional bike miles a year? Can we please urgently get a rough estimate from the experts? And would they be so kind to translate these additional miles cycled into air quality benefits, and translate them into health costs not incurred? How many premature lives not lost? And what would be the value, in millions of $, of carbon emissions avoided? What would be the value of health benefits achieved by these additional active modes? In millions of $ please. </div>
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These figures are urgently required. They can help to structure the public discussion about the proposal. And they can teach even the most dedicated motorhead that there is real money to be gained from giving your people on bikes a legislative leg up.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-82183459121974961052016-05-06T16:14:00.001-07:002016-05-09T19:46:34.946-07:00It has two wheels, prevents obesity<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 17.6px;">It has two wheels, prevents obesity and helps with 2025 Carbon Neutral goal of UCLA Health</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Now is a great time for physicians at UCLA Health to realize the full potential of the bicycle: For their patients AND for our environment. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The UCLA Bicycle Academy says: Cycling is not just a hobby, one that many physicians share. Cycling can address the obesity epidemic, it can slow global warming, and it is fun. </span><br />
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The Bicycle Academy asks: Where are the physicians who recognize the connection between health and environment and who would like to grasp the opportunity of the UC 2025 carbon neutral goals. Where are the physicians who want to embrace the bicycle as a way to prevent disease, to improve health, and to design their facilities with cyclists in mind.<br />
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In early June 2016 the Bicycle Academy will meet with Paul Watkins, CAO of the Santa Monica hospital, to talk about ways in which the Health System can better serve those who do not drive. To improve access and facilities for those who do not drive, we will suggest that all UC branded health facilities covered by a bicycle master plan.<br />
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But this conversation should also include the bicycle as medicine. If you want to offer "a ride with the doc," if you want to work with a educational "pharmacy" which could fulfill a prescription for cycling, if you would like set up a research program which evaluates the effectiveness bicycle interventions, if bicycle therapy can save money over alternative interventions, I think UCLA Health (and the UC Health Centers) are now ready to listen to you.<br />
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Together with Mark Needham MD (Faculty Practice Group), the Bicycle Academy looks forward to co-ordinate the voices from the medical community. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-48656098806063886002016-04-05T22:29:00.000-07:002016-04-07T16:48:58.813-07:00Congratulations!<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Congratulations! UCLA Medical Center receives the <a href="http://www.smsqa.com/" target="_blank">Sustainable Quality Award</a> 2016 from the <a href="http://www.smchamber.com/" target="_blank">Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce</a>. Santa Monica residents are excited to see that our hospital is working so hard to reduce its impact on the environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For bicycle advocates, the intersection of sustainability and health is right up our alley. Sustainability and health: that is really what cycling is all about. Plus the fun, of course. So while the celebration is in progress, the bicycle advocates shall step aside quietly and whisper a few words of disappointment. They are disappointed that the group which is really responsible for this achievement, the <a href="http://sustainability.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?id=49" target="_blank">UCLA Health Sustainability Committee</a>, has chosen not to engage in the area of transportation. Sure, transportation is not the only path to sustainability, but encouraging more people to use active modes like cycling ticks many boxes in any green calculation. In addition, the evidence for the health benefits of cycling fits nicely with the healing mission of a hospital. Given that today <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/majority-of-california-adults-have-prediabetes-or-diabetes" target="_blank">more than half of the population in the US is diabetic or pre-diabetic</a>, it is rather surprising that a major health care company, "The Best in the West", did not get the memo about how the bicycle can connect health and sustainability. It is never easy to install solar panels, to save water and energy, to recycle or to re-use, but it is apparently really hard for our health care company to allow the facilities people to contribute to the healing mission, "one patient at a time." But that is exactly what is needed today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why has UCLA Health shown so little interest in transportation issues? Why has the committee ignored requests by the UCLA Bicycle Academy to present at their meetings? The argument was: "The other fellow does it." That "other fellow" is <a href="http://www.transportation.ucla.edu/" target="_blank">UCLA Transportation</a>. Now UCLA Transportation indeed performs <a href="https://main.transportation.ucla.edu/getting-to-ucla/bruin-commuter-club" target="_blank">sterling work for cyclists and transit users</a> on the Westwood campus itself, but the Santa Monica Hospital is strictly outside the remit of that department. The <a href="http://www.transportation.ucla.edu/portal/pdf/bikes/0306FinalMasterBikePlan.pdf" target="_blank">UCLA Bicycle Master Plan</a> only covers the Westwood campus. Sorry, the other fellow can't do it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As UCLA Health <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/360982/data/uclaprofile.pdf" target="_blank">expands</a> to become a major health care company all over LA County, it is no longer good enough to point to a campus department in Westwood and expect them to deal with all the traffic you are generating. UCLA Health needs to own the traffic to and from all its locations: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to encourage, educate, nudge and reward employees and clients to drive less</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. One way to do this is for the UCLA Health System to create its own </span><a href="http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-ucla-health-system-needs-bicycle.html" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Bicycle Master Plan</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> to cover all its locations in LA County, including Santa Monica. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the meantime, leaving transportation to the "other fellow" has led to a few regrettable outcomes: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During a major building project on campus along <a href="http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2014/11/porta-potties-and-space-planner-unite.html" target="_blank">Tiverton Avenue</a>, UCLA Health made little effort to make space for pedestrians and cyclists in a safe and welcoming manner. The space planner for UCLA Health showed little concern for the fact that prior to the year-long closure for cycling, Tiverton was a designated bike route into campus. "We don't care, get over it" he seemed to say.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The main entrance to the Santa Monica Hospital on 16th Street has an elaborate valet parking station for those who drive, but no bicycle parking. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A 2014 proposal to fund a planning study (by Stantec) of potential improvements to the bicycle connection between the Westwood and Santa Monica Hospitals was rejected by a UCLA Health budget committee. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Staircases are a good example of healthy transportation. Show us a good staircase in a UCLA Health building and we show you ten which are difficult to find and awful to use.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Santa Monica <a href="http://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2015/11/ucla-health-continued-2-questions-for.html" target="_blank">Breeze Bikes were looking for a corporate sponsor</a>, many thought UCLA Health would be a perfect match. The health care company was approached repeatedly, but Marketing was not interested to see its logo on these bikes. For any public health expert, putting together a local health care company and cycling would have been a marriage made in heaven. But the marketing expert, who probably still believes that everybody drives in LA, decided that bicycles are too risque for her brand. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nobody wants to spoil a well deserved celebration. Enjoy! Well done! But the company which owns the Santa Monica Hospital will unwittingly do great harm to its own brand unless it actively offers alternatives to driving for its employees and its clients. With engaged leadership from the top of the organisation, the </span><a href="http://sustainability.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?id=49" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">UCLA Health Sustainability Committee</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> will reap many more awards. In the year 2016, the year when diabetes affected more than half of the population, it is truly a scandal that a health care company would design, build or use premises which lack high quality (</span><a href="http://www.apbp.org/?page=publications" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">APBP standard</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">) bicycle facilities. The fact that this health care company is associated with a world-class university makes this scandal even more painful. The time has come for </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">UCLA Health to take s</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ustainable transportation really seriously, in a rigorous and consistent manner, precisely because many evidence-based studies have shown its <a href="http://designinghealthycommunities.org/" target="_blank">pervasive health benefits</a>. Now is the time for more than</span><a href="http://identity.uclahealth.org/downloads.cfm?id=219" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"> pretty designs</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_2135481416">See what they can do in rainy Seattle: </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bikeleague.org/content/bfb-spotlight-seattle-childrens-hospital">http://www.bikeleague.org/content/bfb-spotlight-seattle-childrens-hospital</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/05/08/how-seattle-childrens-hospital-took-the-lead-on-healthy-transportation/">http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/05/08/how-seattle-childrens-hospital-took-the-lead-on-healthy-transportation/</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/seattle-childrens-opens-new-onsite-bicycle-service-center-for-staff-encourages-alternative-transit/">http://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/seattle-childrens-opens-new-onsite-bicycle-service-center-for-staff-encourages-alternative-transit/</a></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-10731780660627852102015-12-02T15:00:00.000-08:002015-12-02T15:04:35.152-08:00UCLA 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.<br />
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<i>I made a lonely case whenever there was a bicycle parking </i><i>problem, including the management at the Faculty Center, whom I told that the Faculty Center needs to have a </i><i>bike rack near the entrance to prevent people like me from parking my bike next to a traffic sign across from the </i><i>Faculty Center (and getting in trouble with campus police). It was a distinctly odd topic to bring up at the time, </i><i>and the fact that it was a graying female faculty member raising it made it only more difficult for those addressed </i><i>to respond.</i></blockquote>
This bike rack has now been planted and is well used, not least due to her insistance. She also refers to the "<i>gray couple happily biking</i>" 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>I do feel optimistic about the world when I imagine Westwood full of pedestrians and bicyclists, with only an occasional car passing by</i>."<br />
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<i>A lot more </i><i>needs to be done to make all the locations of UCLA Health in Los Angeles attractive for cyclists, and to provide </i><i>programming and education for staff at the hospitals. The resources currently given to transportation services are </i><i>too limited and the standards are not exactly professional. Close communication between the users, well trained </i><i>experts, and the health providers, and transportation services is a must if the planning is to be done to the </i><i>appropriate professional standards.</i></blockquote>
Thank you, Olga. Please let us know when you hear back from Dr Mazziotta.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-31290866257670438532015-11-16T14:17:00.000-08:002015-11-16T17:54:23.761-08:00UCLA Health Continued (2): Questions for the Chief Marketing Officer<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Pattie Cuen</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Chief Marketing Officer </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">UCLA Health System </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Dear Pattie Cuen, </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">We have been in touch previously about a Community Health Program featured in <b>Vital Signs</b>. I was glad that you were able to schedule one presentation about the health benefits of cycling in 2011. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">The UCLA Bicycle Academy would now like to express our disappointment that you have not taken up a sponsorship request from Santa Monica regarding their bike-share system. We have been told that your office had been contacted repeatedly to consider if the UCLA Health logo should appear on 500 Breeze bikes which are now operating. As you know, UCLA Health operates a hospital and a large number of medical offices in Santa Monica. Your support for a public transportation system which has, according to CDC experts, significant health benefits, would seem an excellent fit, both regionally and because of your commitment to community health. Why were you not able to take advantage of this opportunity? Has there been some administrative barrier that prevented you from pursuing this? Has someone whispered something bad about bicycles? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">The corporate mission of UCLA Health is to increase market share among those who need medical help. But you also have a responsibility to enable the public to lead active and healthy lives with fewer visits to the doctor. Putting your brand onto bicycles advances this community benefit and connects your brand with a young and trendy audience who represent an urban, "car-light" lifestyle of the future. I know we are in agreement because of this memorable image, which so effectively presents the rejuvenating abilities of the bicycle. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">It so happens that the City of Los Angeles is also planning to launch its own bike share system soon. They too are looking for a major sponsorship partner. I want to encourage you to reach out to them and work towards placing the stamp of an enlightened health provider on the most healthy mode of transportation. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">News today is that America's obesity problem is still growing, up from 34 % to 37%. This may sound like a economic opportunity for some in the health business. I hope you hear it as a different challenge: How could the UCLA Health brand support the active living arguments which flourish inside public health programs around the country, including the <a href="http://emph.ucla.edu/bio.asp?group=0&fid=107" target="_blank">Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA</a>, where you teach healthcare marketing. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Please share with us the reasons why you declined the Breeze Bike request so that we can work towards removing such obstacles in the future. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">We have copied Dr Mazziotta because we are currently discussing with him a more rigorous approach about how UCLA Health sites can support and increase the numbers of those who do not drive. We believe marketing should play an important part in this conversation. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Sincerely </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Dr Michael Cahn </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Secretary, UCLA Bicycle Academy
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324122799675845502.post-11853859253826494222015-11-03T16:39:00.004-08:002015-12-02T15:03:40.074-08:00UCLA Health Continued (1): The medical establishment as a bicycle friendly employer We had a short answer from Mazziotta, who writes: <i>The UCLA Health System always wants to support activities that improve the health of the campus and the community that surrounds it. Your request to more effectively support sustainable and more healthy mobility would fall under that umbrella. That said, almost all of the items that you mention in the email correspond to traffic flow, bike lanes and bicycle storage in and around the campus. These activities are overseen and controlled by the campus rather than the Health System or the School of Medicine. As such, I will forward your comments and requests to the appropriate people at the campus level and have them respond accordingly. </i><br />
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Karwaski from UCLA Transportation followed up with a more substantial answer. It includes the memorable term "erosion of entropy", as in: "While this is admittedly a complex process involving multiple jurisdictions, the combined public relations value along with the real-world utility of having such a facility will erode any entropy within the various partners." He also warmly acknowledges of our own work.<br />
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His answer is <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzlRYl5hllZDOG40R3pjYzB1Qk0/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I then tried to draw the campus architect into this discussion. Referring to the plans for a new UCLA Health office location in Reseda, I raised technical questions which the campus architect quickly, too quickly, referred back to UCLA Transportation.<br />
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I asked:<br />
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With reference to our correspondence with Dr Mazziotta, aimed to insure that the UCLA Health System offers safe, attractive and welcoming bicycle facilities at all its locations, I would like to ask how the project # 947785.01 referenced above will contribute to this goal.</div>
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I would like to know: </div>
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1) Do current procedures for this and similar tenant improvements include negotiations with the landlord aimed to increase the number of users and employees who will choose active and healthy means? </div>
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2) Which nationally recognized standards do you apply when establishing the amount, type and placement of bicycle facilities (eg <a href="http://www.apbp.org/resource/resmgr/Bicycle_Parking/EssentialsofBikeParking_FINA.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">ABPB</a>?) at locations used by UCLA Health?</div>
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3) Does the absence, presence and quality of such facilities play a role in SCAQMD compliance? </div>
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4) When making changes that serve to attract a greater number of visitors without a car, it is good practice to put a $ value on the savings achieved for every car not parked. How have you calculated this value? Do you have a conflict of interest policy in place when weighing such savings against the income achieved through parking charges and valet parking services? </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">My sense is that both the Architect and the CEO of the Health System imagine that UCLA Transportation is doing a job which it really is not equipped to provide. Traditionally, UCLA Transportation was strictly limited to work <b>o</b></span><b style="background-color: transparent;">n the Campus</b><span style="background-color: transparent;">. The questions we raise are specifically <b>off campus</b>. Moreover, support for healthy modes is not only a question of putting a bike rack somewhere, - most likely next to the refuse bins. It is about programming, about base-lines, about education, about a change of culture when selecting, renting, refurbishing, using locations for UCLA Health System. To provide that kind of service for such a large entity with diverse regional premises, some big, some small, where none so far exhibit any traces of having had the benefit of a professional bicycle planner, is a daunting job. Creating a bicycle plan and implementing it over such a varied geography will surely take a number of years. It will take more than "Karwaski will fix it" to make the UCLA Health system a truly bicycle friendly employer.</span></span></div>
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UCLA Health has a very strong marketing team, who have given us <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4QjnBvCNV1G3clbKiIhUb1mPtcCHQYRSu8dog2Z2t0-o0gd7bZZYo3YGZXPicWBYIX16H94SGtJGncj8RMlXAluoJjTvUczZWI64eYAllBi7hhk_b8rrJ_VSYwDQATS9F4QSAwKNRUqM/s320/fountain+of+youth.jpg" target="_blank">the image of the senior cyclists who happily ride along the beach</a>. That marketing team also looks to it that most of the buildings UCLA Health uses across town carry the trademark blue color of our campus. It would be nice if the same care and attention that is needed to create this consistent marketing message was applied to make these sites fit for a healthy cycling future. Like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCLA_Blue" target="_blank">UCLA blue</a>, this process would offer a great public relations value, but more than that, it would also have real-world utility, offering healthy modes to the communities where UCLA Health works.</div>
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