There are patterns of a city that give importance to the identity of a city and it is not all colored green.
Los Angeles is the new contested site for a better bicycle city. However there are issues such as way finding, etiquette, and infrastructure to be improved for the bicycle community. Bicyclists at this point are a dangerous asset to the road because there are gray areas of where they can or cannot not go. It seems like bicyclists in Los Angeles County can and want to bike on both the roads and sidewalks leaving both drivers and pedestrians confused with where they should and should not go. During a change in culture for transportation in a critical mass, there are growing pains that will occur.
Imagine a car wanting to make a right turn and the crosswalk light counts down from 5, 4, 3, 2… it looks clear, the last pedestrian walks back up on to the sidewalk and at the last second a traffic accident occurs. A bicyclist is hit speeding to make the green turning yellow light while the car driver is oblivious to where the bicyclist came from.
We need a handbook that educates drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists of what are the best practices. Yes, there will be the extreme and road rage type bicyclists that may get injured, but for the majority of bicyclists it does not feel safe.
BICYCLE STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS
BICYCLE ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES
The first order of business was where bicyclists can bike. We established that they can occupy a full lane in DTLA or have a dedicated green wide lane. It’s common practice for bicyclists who can average speeds of 15mph to zip through where cars drive 35mph and then 2-4mph pedestrians. This leads to more accidents. Constant speeds make less accidents. Variable speeds make more accidents. Just look at Mumbai traffic. Organized chaos? Maybe. More importantly, its the ability to estimate distances in time and space that lessens collisions.
We have figured out bicycle routes. However, we have not figured out bicycle infrastructural amenities.
BICYCLE ROUTES
LOS ANGELES BICYCLE MAPS
As the role of inter city travel becomes important to personal transportation vehicles, new strategies on how to create a better experience should be explored. If cars have drive thru windows, why not bicyclists? If pedestrians have a crosswalk,why not bicyclists? There should be a fair share of amenities and infrastructural frameworks around bicyclists. Imagine a AAA service for bicyclists who are traversing from one end of a county to another by servicing their flat tires. Also, as a community we should start to think about how our cities are connecting to each other not by streets and sidewalks, more importantly through businesses and partnerships. How does a big scale Mall affect a car commuter typology? If its micro scale such as old downtown typical plans, how does parking work with the nearby restaurants? Infrastructure is not solely based upon a grid or streets, it is based upon the community businesses and their required uses. It is required use, not expected use.
Think about hybrid uses such as a bollard+pump or a bicycle ATM, along a bicyclist’s journey, they can utilize these saving time. If public funds are drained for such urban/suburban projects, what about corporate sponsorship and advertising within these built up amenities? I think it’s the right time to create bicycle infrastructure solely for the purpose to enhance and define the culture. It’s time to not leave bicyclists in the gray area of both culture and business, it’s time to define those terms in conjunction with painting funny colored “sustainable green” lanes.