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Maroon dots mark bike rack locations | Map via LACBC
Maroon dots mark bike rack locations | Map via LACBC Often legally parking a bicycle is very hard to do, and beyond that, sometimes it's even hard to find a tree or pole or something to lock your bike to. In Pico-Union at the CARECEN day labor center, there are about some 50-100 Spanish speaking cyclists who use the center daily to find work and yet little bicycle parking is to be found.
Enter City of Lights, a program by the nonprofit L.A. County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) that "empowers Latino immigrant cyclists through community building, bicycle advocacy, and education." City of Lights last year held a campaign to get 40 racks installed in the Pico-Union and Westlake neighborhoods, which are predominately Latino, and today is celebrating the installation of bike parking at the day labor center.
"Advocating for bicycle infrastructure in all areas of the County, not just affluent areas, is the key to making Los Angeles safer and welcoming for all cyclists," said Jennifer Klausner, Executive Director of LACBC, about the gap in bicycle infrastructure and safe streets for low-income immigrant cyclists.
A recent UCLA study concluded that Los Angeles has 20,000 working-class cyclists called “invisible bikers” who “tend to ride alone, often intermingled with pedestrians on the sidewalk, and without lights or reflective clothing.” It also noted that poorer sections of the city have more dangerous intersections and a number of other related problems.
Fentanyl and other drugs fuel record deaths among people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County. From 2019 to 2021, deaths jumped 70% to more than 2,200 in a single year.
