EP #35_ Bike Lanes In LA Are Getting... Better Well, Really ...

Mon, Jan 23, 2023 1:43PM • 11:42

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

bike lanes, bike, la, city, ambi, adams, bike path, street, angelenos, evan, music, mobility, car, pedestrian, crosswalks, ride, talking, deaths, people, plan

SPEAKERS

Andres Fuentes, Ryan Fonseca, Blanca Morales, Takeshi Tawarada, Yolanda Davis-Overstreet, Evan Jacoby, Brian De Los Santos

Evan Jacoby  

[street ambi] No crosswalk here, so we're gonna go to this main street. [Evan says in background: I'm not loving this intersection.] Careful! [car honks] What the fuck?! [Evan in background: That was a red light and a half!] [car revving] Someone just took a red light, in the middle of nowhere. I saved Evan's life.

Brian De Los Santos  

That was scary. [music in] From LAist Studios, this is How to LA, where every day we're dropping some knowledge about this city. I'm Brian De Los Santos, and today we're talking about bike safety. I'm a be honest, real quick. I'm no cyclist, but tens of thousands of Angelenos use a bike to commute every single day. And as you can probably guess, it's pretty dangerous out there. The city has launched campaigns like Vision Zero and the Mobility Plan 2035 to try and make streets safer for folks to walk and ride. But bicycle fatalities are on the rise in LA. 2021 was the deadliest year this century for traffic collisions in the city. 294 deaths, and half of the people that were killed weren't even in a car. Many of them were pedestrians. 17 were on a bicycle. So today, I'm checking out some of the things city officials have done to make LA streets safer. And testing out some of the new bike lanes with How to LA producer, Evan Jacoby. We're talking to some experts about what it takes to get them installed, and what more needs to be done. [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  

[street ambi] We are in Culver City and we're about to ride some of the Metro's rideshare bikes. [beeping sounds] I got my bike. Which way do we go?

Brian De Los Santos  

We headed towards a two mile stretch of West Adams Boulevard between Fairfax and Crenshaw.

Brian De Los Santos  

[street ambi] Well, here goes my cardio for today.

Ryan Fonseca  

Road deaths are not inevitable. They are preventable. Cities and governments should do everything they can with policy, with engineering, with education, and enforcement to really reduce and ultimately eliminate traffic deaths.

Brian De Los Santos  

That's Ryan Fonseca.

Ryan Fonseca  

And I report on transportation and mobility.

Brian De Los Santos  

Ryan's been following all the traffic safety measures that have been put in place over the last few years.

Brian De Los Santos  

[music in] Can you give us like a moment in time where we're at with these like zero traffic fatalities right now?

Ryan Fonseca  

Over 100 more people were killed this past year than when Vision Zero started. So that kind of gives you a sense of, of really the city's inability to reduce deaths, which is the goal of that program. I think one of the biggest things that I hear from advocates, from even some city leaders, is just that the city hasn't actually invested in the program. LADOT has been asking for kind of increased budget for a while now to address the safety issues. They often don't get the money that they ask for.

Brian De Los Santos  

Critics say LA hasn't spent nearly enough money on the problem. For example, New York City has spent more than a billion dollars on its Vision Zero program. And it appears to be actually working. Here in LA, we've only spent a few 100 million, and the difference is clear. [to Ryan] What about the Mobility Plan?

Ryan Fonseca  

Yeah, so that plan was actually adopted the same year that the city adopted Vision Zero, back in 2015. It's called Mobility Plan 2035. And it sort of has some similar goals; there's a little connective tissue there. [music out] It basically envisions a city with a more connected bike network, more pedestrian enhancements and pedestrian plazas potentially, bus only lanes, and just kind of a more friendly, more walkable, safer city, trying to incentivize people to drive less and choose to walk or choose to bike somewhere. Unfortunately that, what we saw was we're nearly 10 years into this plan, and according to some data some advocates sent me that they pulled from the city's archives, roughly 3% of the plan has been completed so far. It's gonna take another 200 years for them to finish this plan at that rate.

Brian De Los Santos  

[street ambi] Even though the changes have been slow, there is stuff happening. New bike lanes in West Adams, Culver City, and along San Vicente and Wilshire. And this summer, they broke ground on a new bike path through South LA. So we want to check out what some of these changes actually look like on the ground. [bicycle bell] And y'all should see me. I look like such a dork. I've got Evan's microphone, like the big fluffy kind, taped upright inside his backpack, which I'm wearing like kangaroo style across my chest.

Evan Jacoby  

[street ambi] We're about to hit Washington and National where there is a dedicated bike lane, and it has like cones where it is sectioned off just for the bike users. We have a sign that says how do you feel about bike lanes? [someone in background: Hate 'em!] Oh, someone said we hate 'em. [shouting] Why? Why do you hate 'em? Someone said we hate 'em. Interesting- from a car though, from a car.

Brian De Los Santos  

We're riding through this kind of dangerous corridor, or at least it used to be. LA's Department of Transportation says this strip has seen way more deadly collisions than nearby areas. Last year, the DOT took away two car lanes and turned them into bike lanes. They added more crosswalks with those blinky lights on the ground, too.

Evan Jacoby  

[street ambi] We're back on the bike lane on Adams. Cars aren't super close to you but you feel the [car revving] the foosh. I mean, I love this. I love being able to enjoy my street like this. I just, when we were like squeezed in and next to like a pedestrian or car, I tense up, but I would do this more often. Hell yeah. It beats getting stuck in traffic sitting in the car.

Andres Fuentes  

[street ambi] Well, besides actual cars going into the bike lane, I seen that for sure, and it's wild, bro. My name is Andres Fuentes and I live around Barry Avenue. It's still good though. At least everybody can have a wave driving and like riding safely, at least.

Evan Jacoby  

[street ambi] How about we take a quick five second drink of water somewhere...

Blanca Morales  

*Aqui estamos, les ofrecemos este pastelitos de carne con papita.

Brian De Los Santos  

This is Blanca Morales. She was selling yuca fries and Salvadorian pastelitos de carne on the corner of Ridgeley and Adams.

Blanca Morales  

*Tambien panes con pollo, y carne asada.

Brian De Los Santos  

So yum!

Blanca Morales  

*Si gusta le pongo mas curtido alli.

Brian De Los Santos  

Anyway, I asked her about the changes she's noticed after they painted the bike lanes just a few feet away from her booth. *Estoy curioso, si haz visto accidentes o si haz visto a gente en la bici que se caiga, o no se que? She told me that the drivers she sees aren't careful with the bike lanes.

Blanca Morales  

*Si pues, hay muchos accidentes aveces, y no respetan las lineas. A veces hasta me han insultado, voy cruzando la calle. Y pos no respetan ni las luces, y es un poco dificil asi.

Brian De Los Santos  

It's happened to me as a pedestrian, she says. She's gotten yelled at just because she's crossing the street. [street ambi] We are pulling up to a climbing gym. We think that we might be able to talk to some cyclists there.

Takeshi Tawarada  

My name is Takeshi Tawarada, I live in Jefferson Park right next to West Adams.

Brian De Los Santos  

We kind of put Takeshi at a climbing gym parking lot. I saw you driving in with your bike. How long have you been commuting to your gym this way?

Takeshi Tawarada  

The past six months-ever since the new bike path came in?

Brian De Los Santos  

Are there dedicated bike lanes on your commute here? Or, is it always like dodging cars for you?

Takeshi Tawarada  

It used to be dodging cars, but on West Adams Boulevard, I think they just put in a new bike lane last year. So I was super pumped about it because for me personally, it takes me straight from point A to point B, on a really safe bike path. [music in]

Brian De Los Santos  

A lot of people love these new bike lanes, but we know that it's not a perfect solution. You heard that person shouting earlier that they hated them right? Angelenos, myself included like to get where they're going fast. And let's be real. Anything that slows down traffic is kind of annoying for folks, even if it might save a life. Adding bike lanes to communities has even caused some people to try and recall their council members. That actually happened to Mike Vaughn. And a few years ago. And after the complaints, some of those new bike lanes disappeared. It's been a little over a year since those bike lanes were painted in West Adams. So I'm a little curious, is there any real evidence they're working?

Yolanda Davis-Overstreet  

This is just the top of the iceberg of what's happening in the community, but also individuals that are stepping forward to be a part of the solution. [music fades out]

Brian De Los Santos  

That's Yolanda Davis-Overstreet.

And I am a mobility justice strategist. And I played an instrumental role in the reconfiguration of the Adams Boulevard Safety Project.

Brian De Los Santos  

Yolanda is the person responsible for getting these bike lanes installed in the first place?

We're putting our lives on the line when we pull our bikes out of our homes, or our garage to simply do what LA is trying to tell us to do. Let's get on bikes, let's use public transit. Well, how can we do that if it's not safe?

Brian De Los Santos  

I just want to take a second to specify something kind of important. We're not just talking about the Sporty Spice's out there wearing spandex and training for the Tour de France. We're talking about everyday Angelenos, who rely on bikes to get around the city.

These Bike lanes are not gentrification. These bike lanes exist number one to save lives-Black and Brown lives in particular, because in most cases, we live in disenfranchised communities. And therefore, we have crumbling sidewalks, streets that have not been repaved, nor do we have many crosswalks or traffic lights. Adams Boulevard was on the list for years as a High-Injury Network. I welcome bike lanes because I had to, from a child, put my bike on the back of my car and take it to where a bike lane exists in order to ride my bike, or to go to the marina, you know, or the beach path, or something like that to feel safe. This biking thing it's here, and it's us. And let's embrace it and maybe you can go out and get you a bike, and you know, get out here and ride with us. [music in]

Brian De Los Santos  

Vision Zero's goal is to eliminate traffic events in the city by 2025. The target for the Mobility Plan is a little bit more conservative at 2035. But either way, we've got a lot to figure out. LA's got new management coming in after this election. They'll have to tackle this issue in some way or another. [I'm not loving this intersection.] [car speeding by, a long honk] Careful. While we wait and see how they're gonna handle it, maybe we should all try to slow down a bit. Don't go running those red lights like that guy did. And get off the phone! Let's avoid hurting someone, yeah?

Brian De Los Santos  

I'm pulling back where we started our journey. Excited to get off this bike. [music out] Let's get her back in. [ jamming the bike in] Do we push a button? [button sounds] [music] All righty y'all, Evan and I are kind of tired from all that biking and near death experiences. So we're gonna go chill. This is How To LA, I'm Brian De Los Santos. If you want to keep hearing stories about this city, do me one small favor and leave us a review. It helps us decide what to cover next. That's it for today though, nos vemos maNana. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.