It is very easy to let the callous practice of American highway engineering dominate our minds when we want to advocate for safer, more economically productive, streets in Los Angeles.
From the My Figueroa project, the Riverside Drive bridge reconstruction, to the bike lanes on Cypress Park and Avenue 28 – the modest gains we’ve made in recent years still have an entrenched culture and practice of road building to overcome.
Our surface streets are worth more than a car-only sewer pipe. We’ll make more money per acre of public infrastructure off them if they are friendly to bikes, buses, and pedestrians. We’ll be happier people if they are quiet and safe. Our local government was founded to provide “the good life” to all citizens – let’s not settle for what is being pushed upon us by the technocrats in City Hall and Sacramento.