Cycling with your Councilmember in Westwood

Early morning political cycling anyone? Tomorrow, Friday, February 27, 2009, the LA County Bicycle Coalition organizes the second Car Free Friday ride.

We start at 8 am - come early and raise you bicycle complaints directly with your Council member Bill Rosendahl

From West LA to Century City: Here is the route

1. Start at Corinth Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd.
2. North on Corinth Ave.
3. Right on Ohio St., east on Ohio St.
4. Left on Sepulveda Blvd., north on Sepulveda Blvd.
5. Right at Westwood Park, ride through Westwood Park and Federal Building Area
6. Cross Wilshire at Veteran, north on Veteran
7. Right on Kinross Ave., east on Kinross Ave.
8. Right Westwood Blvd., south on Westwood Blvd.
9. Left on Santa Monica Blvd., east on Santa Monica Blvd.
10. Right on Avenue of the Stars, end ride in Century City Business Area.

There should be plenty of opportunities to raise the dismal state of bicycle approaches to UCLA, the lacking connectivity of SM Boulevard to Santa Monica, the state of the street surface, directly with your council member: Bring your complaints and bring your friends and bring a camera too – Just as this is an photo opp for the politician, it is also our opportunity to push for improvements with the council member directly.

Wilshire Boulevard

Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles, a book by Roderick and Lynxwiler, was presented at UCLA library yesterday, 18 Feb, with a reading and a book signing event. The occasion was enlivened when an unknown bicycle rider from Beverly Hills distributed a pamphlet entitled Wilshire. The [ ] of UCLA. Cyclists forgotten and insulted which highlights the difficulties of driving your bicycle on Wilshire. The author calls the street "Wiltshire", and claims that the campus has neglected to provide viable bicycle access to UCLA. Wilshire is not a Grand Concourse, it is an enormous barrier for bike access to UCLA, and the campus seems unwilling to recognize or improve this. The text highlights well-known issues for commuters from the East and from the West. It mentions the closure of the National Cemetery, which has severly impacted the connection between Westwood and Brentwood (and Santa Monica) – and the deplorable state of Wilshire at the Country Club for those who come from Beverly Hills. Sure, Wilshire is a scandal for cyclists, but even more of a scandal is the way the campus has given up any attempt to improve the lot of the cyclists on the approach.
The booklet has apparently been deposited at the UCLA library. In the meantime, here is a scan

Not called Christmas any more

They say it is not called Christmas any more, but I just cannot kick the habit. Whatever you call it, don't forget your bicycle and your bicycle friends. The LACBC, our Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition has come up a with a nice selection of T-shirts for all frame and chest sizes, with marvelous designs, and a good cause it is too. www.zazzle.com/lacbc1. And don't forget one for yourself, after all those missed stops at the gas station, you surely have earned one, or even two.



Next year the Bicycle Coalition (www.la-bike.org) is planning a big membership drive at UCLA. T-shirts are good, but with all the work that waits for us to make the bicycle really viable in Los Angeles, we need smart and angry cyclists who join in and take charge. We could have a cordon of stations at most entries to the campus, and hail cyclists with good news about supporting the bicycle party. Now that the other election is over, we need to vote the bicycle king, and we need to do it soon. Please let me know if we can count on you to be on the sidewalk at the crucial time, and greet, thank, inform, count and recruit our brave and beautiful souls on the saddle. This is going to be a big one, and we want 50 bicycle recruiters placed at 12 points, and the exercise may include a short questionnaire and some counting of the bicycles.



There was also talk about a different kind of bicycle event: A ride from USC to UCLA, and one from UCLA to USC, 11 miles each way. Crews depart at the same time, they meet twice on the road, and a noisy encounter it may be. Before the return trip, each crew is fed and watered at the other campus in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, as only the bicycle can produce it. And the winner is: The group which sends more cyclists, and offers a kinder welcome to the arriving peloton. -

Lets hear from you if you can help to get this off the ground: velocipedus@gmail.com

Crash Data

Please enter your crash data below as a comment, using some or all of the following criteria. This will help us to get a measure of the danger-spots around campus.
Crash Data Criteria:
Location, direction, speed
Time of day, date, daylight
Type of crash: Dooring, right hook, left hook, harassment (specify), distracted driver/cyclists, failure of gear,
Infrastructure involvement (Potholes, signage, bike-lane)
Injury, ambulance, hospital ?
Police Report? Cell phone useage, Alcohol, Drugs
Cyclist helmet / ear-phones
Insurance Involved? Lawsuit? Justice served?
Lesson Learned ? (How could we have avoided this incident)
Cyclists trained to League standards?

Ciclovia

Save the date: Bike Town Beta #1 Los Angeles- Westwood Village
Saturday October 25th, 2008 6pm-10pm
Boundaries: Wilshire, Galey, Westwood, and Le Conte

This could be the first Ciclovia in Los Angeles - See if you can find a better party: Its a humble announcement, but the buzz is there.

And just in time for the new Complete Streets Legislation, just signed, which gives bicycle traffic an entirely new basis in law -

Perhaps we are in for better bicycle times. But has UCLA moved? Has their bicycle department heard from you about access routes, about street surfaces in Westwood and about crossing the 405? What about the cemetery closed for national security? Or perhaps a charming bikepath right through Los Angeles Country Club, instead of Hell on Wilshire, every day.

Yes, much work remains to be done, and Bike Town Beta can be a joyful beginning for this work. But where to go if UCLA does not get around to implement its own bicycle masterplan? And actually improve access to the campus? What doors to knock on? Which phones to ring?

That's the big question. Too big for a few academic cyclists? Probably not. No.