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NYC Wants to School LA on Traffic...With Bicycles
Photo by @sevenphoto via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
New York City wants to teach Los Angeles a thing or two about traffic. Specifically, NYC's transportation commissioner and California native Janette Sadik-Khan wants to inspire Los Angeles to make the same bike-friendly changes her city has in order to make traffic safer and less congested for everyone.
On Sadik-Khan's resume are some pretty cool achievements; since her April 2007 appointment:
New York has completed 200 miles of bicycle lanes, designed new roadways to improve safety, created public plazas, and brought car-free summer streets and weekend pedestrian walks to some of the city's 6,000 miles of streets and highways. Last year, traffic accident deaths fell to an all-time low as bicycle commuting rose 35 percent.
She'll be talking about her work in at her alma mater, Occidental College, tomorrow evening in their annual Dungan Lecture on Energy and the Environment, then really pedaling the point home at 12:45 p.m. on Friday, when she joins Oxy's president, alumni, students, and faculty on a three-mile bike ride from the campus to the Highland Park Gold Line Station, then on to City Hall by light rail to meet with Mayor Villaraigosa to talk about using green solutions to reduce our traffic congestion. And, oh man, do we need it--we're home to the country's worst commute.If biking, walking, and other green ways to reduce congestion and get around town are your thing, you might want to check out the LA StreetSummit, which runs all day Saturday and is free and open to the public.
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