Daily Archive for January 4th, 2007

You may have read my most recent two posts (here and here) on commuting by bike (maybe combining it with bus, and subway as well, which is what I do most times – there are excellent express bus routes through the city: the Metro Rapid system). I’m not the only person cycling in this city. For more on cycling in LA there is a host of resources. There’s the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition for example, the Bike Kitchen, the Midnight Ridazzz, and many more activities and associations. There are maps of cycle routes and cycle lanes on the LACBC site too, as well as recreational bike paths.

Here’s a recent Los Angeles Times profile, written by John Balzar¹, of Monica Howe who is a major mover and shaker in the local bike and biking awareness scene. (I borrowed the photo, above right, from the article. It was taken by Al Seib.)

It’s very nice to read about people who are super-enthusiastic about the same issue. It is an uphill struggle, but I think I see more cyclists on the roads these days.

One thing that is mentioned a lot in the article and in other discussions of this sort is the safety issue. For what its worth, in my opinion the danger risks are often overstated, or perhaps not properly represented. While there are accidents due to careless drivers not paying attention, etc., I have to say that there’s not enough mention in these discussions of the far too many cyclists who are doing stupid things. I can’t help but wonder how many of those stupid acts contribute to the number of accidents that people count in the stats. Yes, we need to get motorists more used to Continue reading ‘Just So You Know I’m Not The Only Nut In The Fruitbowl’

(Reprint -somewhat modified- of an article I posted on CV some time ago.)

There are many frustrating myths about Los Angeles. Many of them are formed and/or perpetuated by people who are simply unaware of so much about the city because they’ve only seen it from their cars. You cannot see much of the full life of this city in a car. You have to get out of them and move more slowly, and at street level. Walking, cycling and buses are best for this. This leads me to one of the other frustrating myths. The myth that there is no public transport. To begin to blow that myth apart, have a look at this map (click for larger) for the impressive coverage of the city afforded by the bus, subway and train system:

You can get more information from the MTA site, for example, and a bigger version of that map, into which you can zoom down to street level. There are schedules, route planners, online tours of the beautiful (and highly underused) red line subway stations, and much more. See also the LADOT site, and especially the DASH buses for quick local trips. No, the system is not perfect, but it will not improve rapidly if we don’t use it. And, no you can’t use it for all journeys that you want to do, but it can be used for some of them. Yes, you do need to plan ahead, and maybe work to a schedule sometimes, but that’s true for most transport systems, not just LA’s. It will never be as convenient as a car, but that’s not the point. Furthermore, you can broaden the scope of what you can do on the system with the aid of a bike, in combination with the buses and trains. (Almost all buses have bike racks on them, or use a folding bike and just take it on to the bus, like I do.)

I’ve spoken earlier about public transport (such as the fact that it exists but almost nobody uses it), and I’ve spoken about walking, and cycling. But it must seem all so abstract. So in a fit of frustration at not being able to bring you all along with me and just show you, I decided that I’d take you with me on one of those mornings when I Continue reading ‘Commuting, I’