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Transit Committee to Consider Allocating $2.6M To Bike Programs

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Bike racks
Photo by elsief1 via the LAist Featured Photos Flickr pool
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Photo by elsief1 via the LAist Featured Photos Flickr pool
The transportation committee tomorrow will discuss the Department of Transportation's report on its proposed 2010-2011 allocations for available funding from Measure R. The measure, which set aside roughly $40 billion over the next three decades for upgrades to transportation and was estimated to create over 210,000 new construction jobs, was approved by voters in November 2008.

Among their recommendations included allocating $2.6 million to bicycle programs, including bicycle lanes, bike-friendly streets, bike racks and sharrows. The DOT suggested $1.1 million for bike lanes, $825K for street safety improvements, $300K for bike parking, $250K for sharrows and $200K for bike program staff salaries. If approved, the funding will also be applied to the recently-adopted Bicycle Plan, which came under harsh criticism from bicyclists for not allowing enough opportunities for comments from the public and bike community and for proposing mainly popular surface streets for bike lanes.

The report also recommended spending $2.6 million on pedestrian safety programs, including safety improvements to streets near schools, installation of traffic signals and lighted sidewalks.

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