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Councilman Gil Cedillo is holding the first of two “community input” meetings on the North Figueroa Street bike lane plans the LADOT drew up 2 years ago. The meeting is taking place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at Nightingale Middle School (3311 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90065). Come to this meeting to support bike lanes!
Can you remember 2008 or 2009? Those were the years the effort to get bike lanes on North Figueroa Street began in earnest.
Years later, after a bike plan fight, contentious community hearings, dozens and dozens of bike rides and parties, petition drives, and online chatter in support of bike lanes … here we all are.
Nightingale Middle School is an appropriate place to hold this meeting: in 2012 a group of students lobbied then Councilman Ed Reyes for safe bike access to their school and in their community.
The LA County Department of Public Health recommends bike access to fight obesity and related diseases.
Some reasons to support bike lanes on North Figueroa Street:
- Like York Boulevard, we expect the North Figueroa bike lanes to reduce car crashes amongst all road users by 30%.
- A bike-friendly street is a business-friendly street.
- Active transportation, by either walking or riding a bike to get around, is a verified means of reducing exposure to many of the leading causes of death in Los Angeles County (heart disease, motor vehicle crashes, stroke, diabetes, suicide).
- Childhood obesity rates (~27% of kids in CD1 are obese), and adult obesity rates (~25%), in Council District 1 can be reduced by improving bicycle and pedestrian access in communities surrounding transit. Obesity and Related Mortality, 2011, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
- Bike lanes and better walking facilities combat the rising rates of clinical depression. The Figueroa Corridor has a primarily Latino population (about 70% Latino) – rates of clinical depression have increased from 7.1% to 12.4% since 1999 in the Latino population. The LA County Department of Public Health recommends: “Physical activity can help reduce symptoms of depression; engage in regular exercise, like daily walks or other physical activity”.
- Bike lanes would safely connect Highland Park to the LA River, Elysian Valley, Glendale, and Burbank via the LA River Bike Path. At the Cypress Park end of N. Figueroa, a bike bridge connecting the LA River Bike Path to Figueroa is being built alongside a refurbished Riverside Drive bridge.
An idea worth endorsing – the intersection of Figueroa and Loreto as envisioned by Figueroa For All
Are the plans drawn up by the LADOT good enough? Heck no! Here are some of the additional things the folks at Figueroa For All would like to see in the plans:
- Curb ramps at all four corners at Avenue 26, Amabel, Avenue 52.
- Crosswalks at all corners at Avenue 26, Avenue 28, Loreto Street, Ulysses Street, West Avenue 37, East Avenue 43, Woodside Avenue, Sycamore Terrace, South Avenue 54, North Avenue 54, Arroyo Glen or Piedmont, La Prada.
- Pedestrian plazas at Marmion/Pasadena & Figueroa; York & Figueroa; La Prada & Figueroa.
- A special commission to improve Avenue 26 for walking and transit and the flow of peak hour traffic in the morning.
- Coordination with LAUSD schools to install bike parking on campus; create programs to get staff, faculty, and students riding or walking to school; ensure safe streets around schools.
The meeting is taking place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at Nightingale Middle School (3311 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90065). Bring your family and friends and let’s show Councilman Cedillo what support for safe streets looks like!
There are THREE Facebook Events to choose from for this meeting:
one created by Flying Pigeon LA