Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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11/14/2010: "Eyeball Stats"
Just yesterday, on the way home from visiting the Fish Master (sakana no sensei) at Kyoto Aquarium, I turned onto 4th Street, a block or two out of my way, so I could ride in quiet instead of the usual traffic frenzy.Fourth is of course the street LACBC hopes to make our city's first bicycle boulevard, a project I am helping with by constantly interrupting at the committee meetings (though they still let me come back).
It's quiet, pretty, and connects a good number of "destination facilities" as well as other bike routes, and I've been using it for decades as part of my various commutes. Still on it nearly every day.
And I almost always see numerous other cyclists on it. Yesterday was no exception: in just one two-mile stretch on either side of the Rossmore crossing, I counted six fellow cyclists on 4th...and only two motor vehicles, one of them a roach coach headed towards a remodeling site. (The houses there are big enough that remodels require a construction crew.)
This is pretty much the way it is on Fourth. Why LA is taking so long, first, just to decide to make it a bicycle boulevard, and second, actually to fix its abominable road surface, is beyond me. One glance at the Bicycle Fixation Twitter feed will show you news snippets I pick up every day about the progress other cities--large, medium, small, or minuscule, rich or poor--are making in facilitating practical cycling.
LA lags, and we nag. Well, it looks as though the nagging is slowly getting ahead of the lagging, but really...it gets frustrating sometimes.
Until I see all those good folks riding, on Fourth and elsewhere, without waiting for bike paths to appear.
Think how it'll be when we actually do get some attention from the city!
I can't wait!
But I will....
