A bit late with this post after some kind of server or router issue, but here it is:

AT Orange 20 Bikes this week we cover San Vicente Boulevard's Split Personality, and on Flying Pigeon LA's blog, we worry over how to replace bike racks at a popular destination when they are removed to bring back standalone parking meters in Larchmont's Last Stand.

Richard Risemberg on Thu, 29 Aug 2013 20:18:41 -0800 [link]  

Just took one of my evening walks in the Miracle Mile, strolling along Sixth Street as far as the parkside entrance to the art museum, where I was pleased to see that the normally unused bike racks were nearly full—and there's around fifteen of them. I've done my best to publicize them, as they're pretty much invisible from the street or from within the park. And indeed, I don't recommend using them except when the museum plaza is crowded. It was crowded tonight—a band had just finished playing, and the museum's excellent restaurant and bar were still open; scores of people were lingering in the warm night, providing "eyes on the street" to protect the parked bikes, and of course nurturing a general air of tranquil festivity. There was no particular "event" to celebrate except a beautiful summer evening. The museum's plaza was a real town square tonight.

On the way home, walking along Wilshire Boulevard, a very busy street that host many restaurants in the ground floors of the office buildings that tower over it, again most of the sidewalk racks were occupied—and most of the bikes locked to them were singlespeeds or fixies. It's still a bit of a fad in the bicycle advocacy world to deprecate one-speed bicycles, but the folks who are voting with their feet certainly love them. Me too: I rode my fixed-gear twenty-five miles today, down to Playa del Rey for a calming half hour by the sea. I used to ride a 21-speed bike with a custom gearset I chose and assembled myself (back when it was easy to gather cogs at will and do so), and I don't miss it a bit. I've put around 45,000 miles on fixed-gears since those days. Simplicity isn't holding me back. I do have a two-speed Brompton though.

Regardless of the number of gears they carry, bikes are proliferating in Los Angeles, yes, even in Los Angeles. As is street life. Too bad we have so few places for people to gather in anonymous conviviality, as they do in the plaza at the museum. But more are appearing, slowly, year by year, and, as with bikeways, as with CicLAvia, when people are allowed to choose community over carmageddon, they do flock to it, in happy throngs.

Richard Risemberg on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 21:44:15 -0800 [link]  

This week's Orange 20 post looks at what amounts to Bicycle Freeways in Los Angeles—which have existed almost forty years!

And Flying Pigeon LA's post is yet another Reality Check for NIMBYs, looking at the economic and safety benefits of the road diet on York Boulevard.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 21 Aug 2013 08:28:19 -0800 [link]  

This morning, while on the way to Santa Monica for a client meet, I stopped by Cedars-Sinai, the hospital that houses the neurology clinic that I visit every few months to verify that I am in fact still alive after my tiny but disquieting stroke last year.

The clinic had moved to a shiny new building, one that looked something like a cross between a Tokyo luxury hotel and a set for the kind of science-ficiton movie that invariably uses electronic dance music for background sound. I rolled into the spacious entry tunnel and past the valet parking staff—who reside in a glass-and-chrome cage, believe it or not—and was dismayed to find that there was no bike parking.

But I was even happier than I was dismayed, for there was no bike parking because every single one of the long row of highly-polished stainless steel bike racks was occupied—with not one but two bikes each!

There were bike lockers as well, but they were for employees only. So I parked at a dusty black wave rack behind some shrubbery a half a block away and walked back to where I was to pick up a couple of prescription slips.

Which had been lost, but that's another story….

So, not only did this fancypants hospital include bike parking, they put it right across from the main entrance, and…people are using it!

That's a joyous annoyance indeed.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:16:36 -0800 [link]  

Well, I've been so busy I've neglected my own blog for too long, a situation I hope to correct this week. Meanwhile, here are the links to this week's blogging on other people's site, with Orange 20 featuring a post on how wayfinding is finally coming to keep cyclists from feeling Lost in Los Angeles, while at Flying Pigeon LA I look forward to how one of LA County's nimble smaller cities will look, Come the Evolution to a Bicycle Millennium.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 14 Aug 2013 08:31:22 -0800 [link]  

This week's posts cover the pleasures of cycling A Few Degrees North, in San francisco, which I wrote up for Orange 20, and how Even Strip Malls Aren't Safe, based on what I see in a shabby corner of northeast Los Angeles every week—written up for Flying Pigeon LA.

Richard Risemberg on Wed, 07 Aug 2013 08:42:45 -0800 [link]  

BikeLoveJones
BikeSnobNYC
CycloCulture
Kent Peterson
LADOT Bike Blog
Lovely Bicycle!
Saddle Americana
Streetsblog
Velobakery