One Rack at a Time Too Slow for Creating a Bicycle Friendly City

By Eric Richardson
Published: Monday, June 16, 2008, at 02:27PM

Eric Richardson [Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A pair of new bike racks showed up on Spring street today, in front of 626 Gallery. They were placed in orange markings that had been put down way back in September of last year.

While certainly every rack is helpful for a cyclist looking to park, the excitement the sight of just one or two new racks can generate illustrates how far off the mark our city is as a whole.

In a city that wants to promote a lifestyle with reduced dependence on the automobile, making cycling friendly is essential. While other amenities are needed, a simple spot to park is one of the most important essentials.

Nearly every block of Downtown has numerous parking spots for cars, so why shouldn’t each block have a similar number of spots for bikes to lock up? A certain number of parking spaces are required of any development, but why aren’t there similar regulations for how many bike spaces a developer must provide?

Those are the sort of mindset shifts Los Angeles is going to need to make for Downtown to really become a changed place.

Comments

meekorouse writes:

I know some places where there are those markings still and no rack. A couple times I’ve been known to park my bike on those orange X’s like outside the Arts District’s Groundwork location and double lock my bike to itself (not something I would recommend as it obviously could still get swiped) and dash in & out for some coffee.

Locking it to the “invisibile bike rack” so to speak, as to make a point. The X is there, so should the rack. It’s not Groundwork’s fault the rack isn’t there.

# on Jun.16.2008 AT 10:32 PM

Ginny writes:

Maybe it’s a matter of funding for it. One concern has been the overgrown ficus trees in downtown. Dawna found out there’s like an 11 year backlog of maintenance…and then found out that if DLANC just paid the contractor directly then we could get the work done when the neighborhood wanted it.

Maybe the same approach could be used for our downtown bike racks? Hire the contractor directly and have them put in the racks where the markings already exist.

DLANC has the budget for it…

# on Jun.17.2008 AT 10:50 AM