Fwd: Los Angeles Needs a Better Bike Plan

Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa
Mayor, City of Los Angeles
200 North Spring Street, Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90012


Dear Mayor Villaraigosa
I request significant improvements to the Los Angeles Bicycle Plan Update. The current draft falls far short of the initiative we need in order to provide Angelenos with a world-class mix of transportation options.
Los Angeles is blessed with the most favorable climate of any major city in the world. Yet the City's bicycle infrastructure is currently the world's worst, and woefully inferior when compared with bicycle lanes and paths located in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, London, Beijing, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen.
There is no question that bicycling is an essential mode of transportation, and encouraging and prioritizing bicycle infrastructure would directly address your recent concern to "find new, cleaner ways to travel."

• Bicycling costs little, making it an affordable solution in difficult economic times.
• Bicycling reduces traffic congestion.
• Bicycling complements other modes of public transportation.
• Bicycles do not pollute. Their use reduces air pollution.
• Bicycling promotes public health and an active lifestyle.
• Bicycling demonstrably helps local businesses by keeping consumer dollars close to home.

For all of these reasons, Angelenos from all neighborhoods within our diverse city are riding their bikes. Every resident of our city, bicyclist or not, has something to gain from a better Bicycle Plan.
I specifically request that the Bicycle Plan Update be revised to:

• Increase planned total mileage for each type of bikeway facility (especially bike paths and bike lanes) in comparison to the current (1996) city bicycle master plan. In particular, the update needs to designate more bike lanes in Los Angeles' population-dense urban core, including Downtown, South LA and Hollywood.
   
• Set implementation benchmarks for each type of bike improvement. For bike lanes, where cost is minimal, the city should implement at least 20 miles each year. For bike paths and bike-friendly streets, which are typically more dependent on external funding, the city should implement at least 5 miles each year.

Even the City of Long Beach has a bicycle plan that has set annual goals in building a robust bikeway network.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Please keep me informed about how the city can meet these requests.
Sincerely,
Me

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