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July 17, 2008
Bicyclists Punished for Skateboarders' Wrongdoings
A sign near the intersection of Riverside Dr. and Fulton Ave. in Sherman Oaks. | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
Further investigation into reasons why a few spots around the city have signs prohibiting bicycle sidewalk riding shows that both Sherman Oaks locations were due to troubles caused by skateboarders. After pedestrians getting hit by boards, cars nearly hitting skaters falling into the street and customers being intimidated, Van Nuys Division LAPD officers requested a solution to help them enforce the location-isolated problems.
But the standard signs put up also prohibited bicycling and rollerskating on the sidewalks, which leaves us with the question of why those two modes of transportation are being denied access if they were not the problem.
So we posed the question, "can no skateboarding-only signs be installed?" Brian Gallagher, Senior Traffic Engineer for the East Valley agreed with the idea and said he would look into the possibility of signs for skateboards. "If it's possible to split it in the ordinance so it's just skateboarding, we'll do it."
That's good news! We'll let you know the update when we find out.
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Yeah, cuz I've never been run off the sidewalk by a bicyclist.
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good - get off the damn sidewalk. if you're too afraid to use the street, start walking
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I am all for green transportation, but LAist has turned into a blog to whine about how unfair bicyclists have it. There's so many more important issues!
The Alexa ranking for this site has dropped considerably over the past couple of months and I honestly believe it's due to a turn in the content. LA has millions of people and tons of things going on. So then why are a large majority of the posts about idling cars, meter prices jumping and bicycles?
Get over it.
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there's too much masking of obnoxiousness under the guise of being a bicyclist in LA. these problems don't exist in other cities. stay off the sidewalk unless you have pigtails and training wheels.
you got your parents to buy you a bike, use it properly. don't block traffic, don't take it on the subway, don't ride it on the sidewalk or they'll take it away.
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Currently transportation and energy (including cars, public transit, bicyclists, roads, traffic, pedestrians, fuel & fuel sources, traffic) is a very pressing concern for many cities around the world, and will get more urgent. It will effect everybody who needs to get from A to B-- however they choose to do it. If anything, this is the time to have more discussion of these issues.
And I'd like to see more people out there walking, talking public transit & biking-- because it will push the city to to build the infrastructure to support different modes of transportation... Then maybe we won't have to argue over whether bikes go in the street or on the sidewalk.
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Whining? I hardly see how this is whining, Emoney.
I found something I felt was wrong in the neighborhood and I went about finding a solution. I didn't sit here and whine, I got on the phones and spoke to the Department of Transportation who in turn agreed with my point and they are looking into how to fix it.
Now, you may not think it is a big issue, you may not agree with me, but I see it as huge. Yes, these two corners are pretty insignificant in the grand picture of the city, I agree with that, but in the long run, having the city's top transit managers look at this municipal code to improve it for any future times something like this happens is big. They wouldn't be looking into it if they didn't agree.
And if you want to sit here and whine about people you think are whining, then e-mail me, anyone, e-mail me at zach@laist.com Let me know what we should cover to help solve and fix in your neighborhood.
Last year I had two bloggers e-mail me ask me to help fix a traffic problem at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. At evening rush hour, cars piled up in the garage because Camarillo St. became a single lane instead of two because of one on-street parking space. I went out, documented and brought my case to the city, who then in turn, studied it, agreed with the complaints and fixed it. Once again, not the biggest problem in the world, it's totally meat and potatoes, but it helped a group of people get home a tiny bit faster.
The only reason I looked into these signs was because a reader e-mailed me asking "what's with these signs?" So I looked into it and here we are.
So, please, e-mail me, tell me what you want, tell me what issue you're passionate about. Maybe we'll find something we can both agree on and I'll work on helping to find a solution. I invite anyone to do this. It's zach@laist.com
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Skateboarding is not a crime.
You cannot isolate skateboarders as a nuisance to pedestrian traffic, because that would be unconstitutional to give one group (bike riders) special preference of another group (skateboarders). Also as the comments have noted... Bikes are just as capable of running people off the sidewalk.
(Funny that nobody is defending roller blading)
Here in Redondo Beach, we have the problem of too many long distance bicyclists who don't obey traffic rules. They want to be a car and ride IN traffic, but then they want to be a pedestrian and run stop lights. Its so bad that the city has installed these huge light up signs to warn the bikers that they are being tards.
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I have mixed feelings about the singling out a particular mode of transit, since I both Rollerblade and bike and have friends who skateboard. However I agree it sucks to have all modes banned if only one of them received complaints.
About the Redondo Beach thing, I used to ride down the mixed use path there, but as I got into going faster and further I quickly realized I'm better off on the street. As much as I love cycling I have to agree, if a cyclist wants to go 20 mph though Redondo they should be on the streets, and there are bike lanes on adjacent roads.
Where paths are supposed to be bike only however, I really wish people didn't walk four abreast blocking the whole thing when it's supposed to be for through traffic. When I politely ask them to let me through they often give me a cold stare like how dare I. I really just avoid the beach bike path all together now.