Bike Friendly City?

[The fingers]

Do you live or ride in a city or state designated as "Bike Friendly" by the League of American Bicyclists? Do you feel the designation is accurate, or just political window dressing designed to get our votes? Do we need to put additional pressure on the establishment to improve safety for all, or are we to be content knowing that some progress has been made? Any and all opinions and/or ideas greatly appreciated in view of recent tragic deaths in my area.
Offered to give thanks for and to raise awareness of the Ghost Bicycle placement program worldwide.
http://www.bikeleague.org/

[HAROX]

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[The fingers]

Looks like gold or platinum is what we need to shoot for!

[Kingfish]

My State is ranked #1 ~I'm so jazzed!

But my City is just plain ol' pooper-duper Silver-level; not that great for being known as "the bicycle capital of the Northwest". What's with that?

Shifting gears, KF

[cal3thousand]

Cool to see my school listed as Gold as expected, the bike paths will get you anywhere you want to go in Santa Barbara (UCSB)

Sucks that Los Angeles / Culver city is not even anywhere on the map although Culver City / Marina del Rey have a couple good bike paths running East-West

[The fingers]

My best friend bikes in the mountains above Goleta, he had some amazing wildfire photos from a few years ago. When the roads were closed because of the fires, he rode up there and took pictures of the hills on fire and they didn't stop him because he was on a mountain bike. He laughs at my electric bike, I don't think he knows about what some of the forum members here are doing with them. Next time he visits, I'll let him take a test ride around the block, show him some off road videos, and he will become the next grinning convert. Speaking of UC, the one near me had a mass ride that turned into a mess ride because of the cops. (? a bike friendly silver city?) I hear Davis,CA is also a cycle town. Anybody?

[GMUseless]

My state is ranked 47. One year we made 50.

We have guys like this driving weapons: http://blog.al.com/live/2009/01/patrick ... uilty.html

Also worth nothing, the first cyclist this guy killed (Larry McDuff)...his wife was killed on a bike just two years before.

[The fingers]

Any ghost bike memorials there? None shown at ghost bikes.org, but anyone can put them up, or register them at their website. They are a very effective tool to soberly remind all of the tragedy which occurred at that location. I was planning to put one up recently, someone else responded quickly, so I sent an e-mail with the date and the name of the deceased to add it to the registry. If a white bicycle is there, passers by can leave flowers and ponder the frailty of life. Thanks to all!

[cal3thousand]

My best friend bikes in the mountains above Goleta, he had some amazing wildfire photos from a few years ago. When the roads were closed because of the fires, he rode up there and took pictures of the hills on fire and they didn't stop him because he was on a mountain bike. He laughs at my electric bike, I don't think he knows about what some of the forum members here are doing with them. Next time he visits, I'll let him take a test ride around the block, show him some off road videos, and he will become the next grinning convert. Speaking of UC, the one near me had a mass ride that turned into a mess ride because of the cops. (? a bike friendly silver city?) I hear Davis,CA is also a cycle town. Anybody?

Yeah Davis ranks right up there. Had a few friends from NorCal that biked a lot to get around.

[The fingers]

On the news today, a bicycle rider got killed on Bastenchury Street in N. Orange County after being hit by two cars. The first car reportedly fled the scene and the second car stopped. A man in his twenties was killed, upon what looked like a BMX type bicycle. Another Ghost Bike needs to be erected in OC, the second for the county this summer; the first being on PCH across from Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach. We need more drivers to be aware of us on the road, but before someone dies in an accident. I think more Share The Road signs are needed. I'm going to see about making some bright yellow-green signs and tack them up at notorious pinch points along my route. Bet bike-friendly cities like Davis, CA. and others probably have lots of them; If I get arrested or get a summons for littering if I'm caught, I don't care!

[The fingers]

Southbound PCH @ Entrada Drive in Santa Monica, on 7-11-12 @ 11:pm a female bicycle rider, 29 year old, was killed when hit from behind bya a hit & run driver. Another Ghost Bike please. The carnage continues.

From BikinginLA:
"This is the 33rd cyclist killed in Southern California this year, and the 10th already this year in Los Angeles County; it’s also the second cycling fatality in bike-friendly Santa Monica.

And the 8th fatal bike-related hit-and-run — nearly a quarter of all cycling fatalities in the seven-county Southern California region.

Even worse, this is the 13th SoCal bicycling death since June 1st — a horrifying, deplorable rate of one rider killed every 3 days for the last six weeks.



Fatalities by county: Ave. 2005 – 2009

Los Angeles 24.2

Orange 13
San Diego 8

Riverside 10

San Bernardino 7.4

Ventura 4.6

Santa Barbara*** 1.8

Imperial .4"

[cal3thousand]

Northbound PCH @ Entrada Drive in Santa Monica, on 7-11-12 @ 11:pm a female bicycle rider was killed when hit from behind bya a hit & run driver. Another Ghost Bike please. The carnage continues.

That's horrible. I hope the person that ran away gets caught.

[The fingers]

Hit & run drivers are cowards!

[The fingers]

Another tragic death in this area. Alex Silva, 25 years old, was killed just before midnight om 7-12-2012 by a hit-and-run driver of a red sports car on Wilson Street in Rancho Cucamonga. (KTLA 5 News)
Ghost Bikes Los Angeles area notified.

[The fingers]

http://bikinginla.wordpress.com/ Another tragic death.

[cal3thousand]

Dropping like flies and it's a bit scary.

[The fingers]

Eight deaths in 14 days. Ghost bike volunteers can't keep up. At this pace will be a new record year. Waiting for any political response, hit & run drivers are out of control with frequent pedestrian deaths in the news also. Many bikes hit from behind, distracted drivers or deliberate?

[The fingers]

Metal reflective signs are available, but expensive. I'm looking at alternatives.

[The fingers]

Riding around in my F350 work truck, I see numerous drivers texting while driving in spite of laws forbidding this. I don't text while riding my bike, I believe it would be impossible to do so. Maybe these drivers are responsible for some of the accidents.

[neptronix]

Do they have any bikeways in los angeles? or any part of southern California outside of maybe long beach and Santa Monica?

Here in the mountain states ( Utah, Colorado etc ), bikeways are popular. Separate a slow moving bicycle from fast moving car traffic, and whaddya know.. less bicyclists are getting killed.

With all the money California has, you'd think they could put some in.

I grew up near San Luis Obispo, CA, and spent time out in LA. It seems that only the smaller cities, some very liberal parts of northern California, and college areas care about bikeability out there.

I was never interested in biking out on So Cal.. ride your bike on the side walk through sprawl, dodging homeless people, gangsters, and aggresive drivers? nooooo thank you.

[The fingers]

The old Pacific Electric (Red Cars) right-of-ways would have made great green belts/bikeways. Old rail lines diagonal routing and gentle grades are ideal for bicycles. Mostly, proposals like these are shot down in favor of commercial development which brings tax money in. A few small parcels were made into parks, as were land underneath Edison tower/power lines, and some have meandering trails for jogging and cycling.

[cal3thousand]

Do they have any bikeways in los angeles? or any part of southern California outside of maybe long beach and Santa Monica?

Here in the mountain states ( Utah, Colorado etc ), bikeways are popular. Separate a slow moving bicycle from fast moving car traffic, and whaddya know.. less bicyclists are getting killed.

With all the money California has, you'd think they could put some in.

I grew up near San Luis Obispo, CA, and spent time out in LA. It seems that only the smaller cities, some very liberal parts of northern California, and college areas care about bikeability out there.

I was never interested in biking out on So Cal.. ride your bike on the side walk through sprawl, dodging homeless people, gangsters, and aggresive drivers? nooooo thank you.

There are some paths through Los Angeles. I ride on the western most section of the LA river halfway to downtown which has a path.

The rest is, as you imagine mostly. But no sidewalk riding in the neighborhood streets and there are some major roads that have bike lanes (that apparently double as temporary parking spots ). Homeless people and gangsters don't bother bikers for numerous reasons. But the aggressive drivers are definitely plenty as well as the persons just not paying attention. This, I describe, is in the heart of Los Angeles with varying conditions across the greater LA area from light easy car free paths to sections that I wouldn't ride on my e-bike (It's not fast enough yet). Planning is key and Google Maps is requisite.

I think that the weather has something to do with the numbers of people being hurt and/or killed. Now is the time when the "fair weather" riders are out in addition to the seasoned riders increasing the chances that tragedy will occur. I think people (drivers actually) should be made aware of the season and that increasing numbers of bikers are out on the streets. They should drive expecting to cross paths with bikers while keeping an eye out for them.

[The fingers]

One fourth of my total commute is on river trail, the rest on streets with mostly bike lane. But with speed limits of up to 60 MPH and half of it riding at night, also two really narrow bridges to go over; I wouldnt consider it a totally bike friendly commute. Lots of people ride on sidewalks on busy streets, which has its own hazards. I hear they have to weld the ghost bikes together to keep them from getting stripped.

[The fingers]

for real:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=ghost+bike&start=97&num=10&hl=en&biw=1525&bih=657&addh=36&tbm=isch&tbnid=TUriG3T82AkCpM:&imgrefurl=http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/36/33_36_cartoon.html&docid=SpVRmWuTPB5NgM&imgurl=http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/photos/33/36/33_36_cartoon_i.jpg&w=580&h=423&ei=dJYVUJjDB8fBrQGyrYHIBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1217&vpy=121&dur=4230&hovh=192&hovw=263&tx=63&ty=215&sig=112108424554762920793&page=5&tbnh=142&tbnw=200&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:97,i:59

[The fingers]

http://bikinginla.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/man-walking-killed-while-walking-bicycle-in-lytle-creek-12th-bike-related-fatality-this-month/

http://bikinginla.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/breaking-news-cyclist-killed-by-suspected-drunk-driver-in-sunset-beach/



Courtesy of ghostbikesLA facebook page.