While bureaucrats drone in meetings and bitter cynics rant in the columns of tabloids, bicycling continues to grow in Los Angeles, simply because the more cyclists the public sees on the roads, the more of the public decides to try it out and become bicyclists.

For years the bicycle had been categorized as a toy for children, a tool for professional athletes, or a last-resort of the desperately poor—a mode of travel that required either courage or foolishness.

Yet the foolish ones were those who immured themselves in cars, alone and sequestered, for so long, draining municipal treasuries with their demands for free roads and cheap parking, clogging lungs, driving the weather crazy, walling themselves off from their world and their fellow humans.

Now that's changing, as people become accustomed to seeing cyclists everywhere—cyclists who are neither poor, nor supermen, nor derelicts. Cyclists who are just people like themselves, but riding bikes...and looking pretty happy about it.

The other day my wife Gina and I were pedaling from a music shop in Hollywood to the Farmers Market near our house, and as we passed through a nondescript intersection of two side streets, another couple out on bikes veered around the corner, while two fellows coming the other way zipped through the crossing with us. Six cyclists, meeting by chance, in the middle of an average neighborhood surrounded by shopping streets.

Over and over again it happens, on main streets and side streets alike, and the bike racks scattered round the city are more often in use than not.

The bicycle is becoming normal once again. And CicLAvia helped with that, giving everyday folks "permission" to ride their bikes on the street in that great rolling party, and get a taste of what they had been missing during the long grey era when we lived in glass and metal boxes, breathing essences of vinyl and burnt fuel.

It was a lack of imagination that held us back for so long, nothing more.

Here's a short video of the most recent CicLAvia, to give you a taste of what Los Angeles has just discovered—in case you weren't lucky enough to be there with us:

Richard Risemberg on Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:02:07 -0800 [link]  

Last Sunday was the year's first CicLAvia, Los Angeles's most daring civic moment, and happiest day, when a few miles of streets are swept free of cars and opened to the human community to move about in, in company, under each person's own power. Hundreds of thousands jammed the streets, most of them on bicycles, and learned that beautiful weather and happy neighbors around you make for a wonderful day!

Get a before-and-after view of LA's open streets event at Orange 20, with CicLAvia Sunday, looking forward to it, and on Flying Pigeon LA with Next Time, More Road!, looking back.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:40:02 -0800 [link]  

Tomorrow, April 21st, We will enjoy CicLAvia once again, Los Angeles's version of the ciclovías pioneered in Bogotá forty years ago, and spreading throughout the world. A lucky street is cleared of cars, their noise, smell, frenzied hurry, and danger, and opened up to unarmored human beings moving gently on their own power. Mostly cyclists, but also walkers, skaters, wheelchair users, dog walkers, wheelchair users, old and young, every race, every shape, together in happiness on LA's normally oppressive streets.

Tomorrow's route is ambitious, and will take participants form Downtown to Venice Beach via Venice Boulevard, an old bike route from the 1970s. Some will go the whole way; most will visit just a part of it; all will find joy in our beautiful weather and even more beautiful people—with none of it obscured by metal and glass.

To whet your appetite, here are links to photos I've taken of previous CicLAvias:

See you there!

Richard Risemberg on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:53:48 -0800 [link]  

Here's a sweet little video from Streetfilms, exploring the drop in Vehicle Miles Traveled in the United States since 2004—or, to be precise, miles traveled in personal motor vehicles.

It also asks the all-important question: Why are we planning for ever-increasing car miles when the reality is completely opposite? Why the resistance to spending public money on growing modes with far higher ROIs than the fading paradigm of the car?



Send this clip to your local DOT engineers and planning departments, eh?

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:17:36 -0800 [link]  

This week's Orange 20 post covers an effort to get bicycle-firendly business districts established in Los Angeles, in Lobbying for Bike Love.

While at Flying Pigeon LA, I wonder why LA isn't Signing In to install street signs along separated bike paths, when even little Culver City manages to do so.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:32:17 -0800 [link]  

They're back, by popular demand! We just ordered a new run of our famous Knicker Socks, and took the opportunity to bring back the Olive color, which we haven't carried for a couple of years.

These are as comfortable, durable, and good-looking as our standard Charcoal version, and go well with any color of our knickers you may have of obtain, as well as most other folks' knickers. Dressy yet, tough, warm yet easy-breathing, and made to our design by The Sock Guy—who have been making cycling socks for a long time—in a US factory.

They keep the sun or the cold off your shins, and even provide a little bit of compression to keep your blood flowing while you spin the pedals. Yet they coddle you so gently that some folks sleep in them!

So click on over and get yourself a pair or two to go with your cycling knickers, and complete your look!

Don't have knickers yet? No problem! Check out our Classic Wool Knickers (limited sizes for the moment) or our brand-new City Slicker Knickers (available in sizes from 30 to 42 while supplies last).

Look Good, Feel Good, Ride Happy!

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:10:24 -0800 [link]  

A bit of diversity today, as on Orange 20's blog I tout a cash-mob ride that aims to Spread the Love, Share the Wealth on Rowena's new road diet in LA's Silver Lake district.

Then at Flying Pigeon LA I note with alarm that we're Surrounded! on all sides...by little cities that beat our pants off as far as bicycle infrastructure goes. Pasadena having just joined my list....

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:12:49 -0800 [link]  

Well, it was my turn again...my turn to fall-down-go-boom.

I was riding through an old warehouse district east of the river, which has railroad tracks embedded in the pavement. I cut one track at a bit too shallow an angle, caught my wheel, and went sliding down. Fortunately I have practiced falling, both mentally and in real life, and the landing was soft, resulting in only a skinned knee (and some skinned bar tape). Didn't bump my head in the slightest (extended my arm as a cushion, even though I had a helmet on at the time, as I 'd far rather hurt my arm than my head). Didn't even feel startled or anxious.

I can't blame the tracks. Indeed, I have crossed those same tracks many dozens of time without incident, and nothing had changed, except that I was a bit more inattentive, and perhaps a bit more cocky, than usual.

Eternal vigilance, as they say, is the price of freedom.

A minor incident, but a good tonic against complacency.

My pal Eric W. who was riding behind me may have caught it on video, if his camera was working. If that's the case, I'll post it later to embarrass myself publicly. That should help me remember!

Richard Risemberg on Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:30:36 -0800 [link]  

This week, on Orange 20's blog, I look at the growing social compass of cycling in All "Members of the Tribe". Meanwhile, at Flying Pigeon LA I go over Meeting Needs of a community when proposing bike lanes...which apparently needs lots of community meetings!

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:29:00 -0800 [link]  

Here is our latest product, an update of our City Knicker so extensive that we've given it a new name: behold the City Slicker Knicker!

Its a blend of the City and Classic knickers, but goes beyond either one with all manner of new details that make it both casual and elegant. Among its features:

• Hidden elastic—no more bunching at the back waist! Yet you can still bend forward comfortably on sporty bike or when climbing a hill.
  
• Single welt pocket in back: unobtrusive when empty, elegant always.
  
• Deep Hem Cuff: allows taller riders to let the hems out nearly 3"/7.5cm.
  
• Inner pocket for cell phones, multi-tools, pocket knives, food bars, duck calls, what have you.
  
• 100% wool gabardine for excellent wear, drape, breathability, and odor resistance.
  
• An extra belt loop in back to prevent sagging.
  
• Available in sizes 30, 32, 34,36,38,40, and 42.

These are made in our downtown Los Angeles factory but a sewing crew that has been working with us for seven years now. Dry clean them, or just use Woolite, Kookaburra, or any other gentle cleaner in cold water, dry them flat, shake them out, and put them on. You'll look and feel great, on or off the bike—we promise you!

The City Slicker Knicker!—now is the time!

Richard Risemberg on Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:53:49 -0800 [link]  

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