(A wide, comfortable beach bike path in Hermosa Beach. Photo credit: Richard Risemberg)
Many doubt that Los Angeles will reach levels of bicycling achieved in Northern European cities where 20 or 30% of trips are made by bicycle. Often people reason that Angelenos are simply too attached to their cars or that we suffer from some flaw that prevents more trips from being made by bike (“We’re too spread out” is a popular excuse).
Even among bike advocates there are many that believe bicycling for transportation will never be anything more than an niche activity, engaged in mostly by young, fit, and healthy individuals.
However, despite all the doubters and “realists” who suggest bicycling will never be a major viable form of transportation in Los Angeles, I don’t agree with this popular characterization of bicycling in Los Angeles. I still find myself thinking at times Los Angeles has the potential, promise, and even underlying demand to become a bicycling paradise. After all, Los Angeles used to be a city of cyclists, back in 1897 about 20% of trips were by bike. A direct, uninterrupted bicycle path from Pasadena to Downtown L.A. was planned and partially built in 1900. Take this excerpt from a Southern Californian newspaper as an indication of how people felt about bicycling in L.A.
“There is no part of the world where cycling is in greater favour than in Southern California, and nowhere on the American continent are conditions so favorable the year round for wheeling.” – 1897 Newspaper Article
Contrary to what many believe, Los Angeles has not always been car crazy. Despite our region’s notorious attachment to automobiles – where politicians use terms like “Carmageddon” to describe how hopeless our transportation system is with the temporary loss of a single freeway – people do still cycle in Los Angeles!
Below is some physical evidence of potential of bicycling in L.A., today, in the 21st Century:
This picture from the opening day of Long Beach’s first cycle track….
(Photo credit: Richard Risemberg)
…doesn’t look much different from this everyday bicycling in Malmö, Sweden.
This scene in Santa Monica, California…
(Photo credit: Richard Risemberg)
… bears a striking resemblance to this picture from Malmö, Sweden (where about 30% of trips are by bicycle) .
In South Pasadena, this woman parking her vintage roadster bike…
(Photo credit: Richard Risemberg)
…looks like she may have been cycling earlier in Amsterdam.
(Photo credit: Marc van Woudenberg)
These Crenshaw Boulevard cyclists…
(Photo credit: Waltarrrrr)
…would fit right in with this couple in Amsterdam.
(Photo credit: Marc van Woudenberg)
So what do you think? I think Los Angeles can return to its former glory and again be a cycling paradise. (If you need further convincing, check out this momentum magazine article “Los Angeles– Cyclist’ Paradise Regained“)
for all the perceived differences and hurdles, wherever I go, my presentations always boil down to the universal aspects of everyday cycling. So I’d say you’re right on the money.
what a wonderful post. It is entirely plausible and probable to me…. besides that cycling feels great, it even makes me happy to see cyclists on the street. Did you ever notice how cyclists always glow when they arrive at their destinations?
The difference in cyclists in Los Angeles and Amsterdam? The Amsterdam ones look a lot colder.
Seriously, suburban areas have the most to gain by bicycles. Being spread out makes walking too slow outside of distinct walking districts–the city centers of the small towns that sprawled out to become the megalopolis of the LA basin. Since bikes are about four times faster than walking they can easily transport you from walkable district to walkable district, and combine bikes with bike-friendly rail and you can go far.
That’s been my experience on the San Francisco Peninsula, where I can go almost anywhere on the 50 mile corridor from San Jose to San Francisco on my city bike. Most destinations are within 5 miles of a train station so I barely break a sweat. Bikes can help suburbia become more “walkable” and less car-dependent.
I totally agree. I flew into LA carless for the very first CicLAvia and was blown away at the difference from the 80s when I tried and failed to live in LA with only a bike.
When Angelenos adopt something, they do it with gusto and do it with style. This is great for LA and great for cycling as all the media Angelenos generate attracts new cyclists.
Here are more picks of LA’s bike scenes http://www.planbike.com/2010/10/carless-in-los-angeles-road-to-ciclavia.html
With careful planning to build biking infrastructure in the forms of lanes (both protected and unprotected), more parking corrals, and nurturing the next generation into a #BikeLA mindset through safe routes to school, LA is undoubtedly going to blow people’s minds when they look at the strides these next 20 years will take in cycling. All we need is the #PoliticalWill.
you made justice to los angeles, i just started my own wordpress account, my first post was arrival at los angeles, guess the posts are related, my experience was in a van and plain the second time, tough my first narrative is when i got to los angeles in my van, thanks a lot, this needed to be acknowledged, you gave the city the sprit it needed,