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It's envisioned as a map "outlining a system of bikeways that will get you anywhere in the city" and it's not the one being currently done by city officials. Angered over the sloppy process that has become the now-controversial Los Angeles Bicycle Draft Plan, a group of bicycle community organizers called the Bike Working Group has come up with their own plan.
"The Backbone Bikeway Network will get you from Downtown to West LA, Crenshaw to Valley Village, and LAX to Hollywood," explains Alex Thompson on his Bikeside Westside blog. "The Backbone doesn’t have neighborhood level detail, because that’s not what a citywide system is for - this system gets you 5 and 10 and 20 miles across town. It goes on major streets - arterials - unlike the proposed Bike Plan, and it gets you within striking distance of major destinations like Dodger Stadium and City Hall."
Once you leave the major network, then you use the neighborhood network, whatever that may be, Thompson explains. The working group's criticism of the city's draft plan is that it fails to see the big picture and doesn't really add much to the city.
"The Backbone doesn’t lack vision, but it demands political will," writes Thompson. "At $8,000 per mile of bike lane, striping this network would cost next to nothing. However, it will take political will to stand up to the status quo who don’t want to come to the bike party - it’s an ambitious plan." Maps of the Valley and South L.A. will be released in coming days.
