MetroRiderLA

• LA Weekly doesn’t mince words when it comes to the Westside vs. SGV transit funding debate.
• Goodbye Pam from Santa Monica, Hello Mayor Villaraigosa.
• Eric Garcetti wants to lift the rush hour ban of bikes on trains.
• Metro buses are late 40% of the time and the yellow shirts won’t let you forget it.
• We’ve heard this one before: Washington Post columnist George Will thinks the solution to America’s transportation woes is simple, build more roads!

Yesterday afternoon while traversing the ever exhausting Vermont corridor a man in headphones and overalls was the unfortunate victim of bike theft by an all too loud and obnoxious, possibly insane, bus driver. Of course if I were a driver on Vermont I’d be half crazy as well.

I should have known the trip was going to be a disaster since after boarding it took upwards of fifteen minutes and a good amount of unnecessary yelling and scolding by the driver to load a disabled person. The driver had already closed the door and I guess by doing so decided he was no longer letting people board even though he was of course still at the bus stop; however, the people standing at the door way thought otherwise.
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Bike racks in front of the L.A. Times Building in Downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy of Payton Chung.

Many many square miles of Los Angeles are devoted to parking and securing the private automobile.  The options read like Bubba’s shrimp recipes from Forest Gump: there’s surface parking lots, underground parking garages, multi-story parking buildings, street side parking, valet parking, and parking lifts, to name a few.  Bicyclists aren’t so lucky.  Usually they get nothing.  But that’s not to say that there isn’t a wide variety of bike racks to choose from, it’s just that if there were as many parking lots are there are bike racks, auto drivers would have little to do.

Anyhow, over at the Cool Hunting blog, there’s an article the references a design competition to build a better method of parking bicycles in New York City. Inspired by this competition, the author lists five bike racks that represent the creme de la creme of bicycle parking as it stands today.  These include: the “Arlington”; the Velib from Paris; Cyc Bicrac by Madrax; the witty car shaped rack by Adrien Rovero;  and the Horsehoe Rack by Creative Pipe.  What’s great about all these racks is that not only are they functional, they’re also aesthetically pleasing and add to the built environment in pleasant way… a stark contrast to the urban wastelands that are parking lots.

Via a comment on Streetsblog LA’s recent post about bike parking at Dodger Stadium I found this awesome Streetsfilm about free valet bike parking at the AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants:

I was shocked to find out that over half the people who attend Giants games get there without a car. I bet under 1% of Dodgers fans get to games without a car. The AT&T Park’s website lists public transit directions before car directions in the Getting To The Park section. The Dodgers website, on the other hand, has its own special mini-site dedicated to parking with FAQ’s, safety tips, traffic info, and other such crap that would be irrelevant if they made it easier to get to the stadium without a car. Pathetic.I wonder what kind of overall cost savings (internal and external) the ballpark and stadium sees by having more that half the people attend games without a car.

• Commentary on density, growth, and the media in Los Angeles.
• A look at L.A.’s lost “cycleway”.
• Climate change brings planning changes.
• Pasadena residents walk in order to make one of the most walkable communities in L.A. even more walkable.
• Downtown gets a new DASH line, loses the City Hall Shuttle.