Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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03/17/2012: "Something Better, Coming Soon...."
The sign in the photo below will not impress anyone in Portland, or even Oakland, both of which have excellent bicycle wayfinding signage, but it's as good as it gets in Los Angeles County for now....
It's in Culver city, along one of the very few streets in that town that have any indication whatsoever that bicycles exist and, in fact, are free to use the roads. But it's something. It not only indicates a bicycle route, but it actually tells you where it goes! Nothing so comprehensively as the signs in the Bay area, which I wrote up here, but far better than the typical LA County sign, which just says "Bike Path" or "Bike Route," and leaves it at that.
I was in fact headed towards the Ballona Creek bikepath implied in the placard--though fortunately I already knew where it was, as the direction indicated takes you to a T intersection, with no further notice of whether the path you are seeking is to the left or right.
Well, I hear that things will be getting better, at least in the City of Los Angeles, and probably along our riverside bike paths as well. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has been holding public meetings to see what residents want in the way of wayfinding--though apparently (no one seems quite sure) wayfinding along the river paths will be handled by a separate agency, the city's River Revitalization Master Plan group.
Or maybe not.
But at this point, we'll be grateful for anything that works.
I've already mouthed off at length to the LADOT; now it's your turn. If you live and ride in LA, fill out the city's wayfinding survey. Who knows how long it'll be up, so get to it.
With more and more inexperienced people starting to ride and looking for comfortable bike routes, we really need a system of signage that states more than the plain obvious fact that you are on a bike route.
I wrote this up--with a couple of doctored photos to add sarcasm--on Flying Pigeon LA's website recently; take a look.
