SoCal Sharrows

About a year ago, Long Beach christened their first sharrows in Belmont Shore on 2nd Street. Now there are sharrows popping up throughout the LA Basin. Dan Gutierrez has photographed many of these installations and shows why all sharrows are not created equal.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56977&id=1574017310

The Promise of a Cycling Lifestyle

(For various reasons I have had several unfinished posts sitting in my queue on Blogger. This is the third of three old posts that I am finally finishing.)

I have been trying to get more involved with bicycle advocacy to promote cycling as a lifestyle; as a way to reduce our use of automobiles as primary transportation. To that end I have been supporting events related to the Long Beach Bicycle Master Plan. I also read the book, Pedaling Revolution, by Jeff Mapes.

Jeff presents a pragmatic view of how we can convert our American car culture into a more bicycle-centric culture that promotes better health, reduces dependence on foreign oil, and improves many aspects of our social structure.

Read the book (please).

Will cycling be safer?

About 1-1/2 years after Dr. Christopher T. Thompson caused two cyclist to smash into the rear of his luxury sedan by slamming on his brakes after passing them on a residential road, Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington sentenced Thompson to 5 years in prison. There have been a lot of discussions on the internet about the incident, Thompson's trial, his conviction, and his sentencing during this time.

Bob Mionske, an attorney and former pro cyclist, has written the best piece that I have seen to date on the topic. Bob closes his blog entry by writing:

"Clearly, it’s time for some real leadership on making our commons safer for all who use them. Although Judge Millington was speaking directly to Los Angeles when he called for improved protection for cyclists, this isn’t just a Los Angeles issue—it’s an issue everywhere. Is Los Angeles ready to provide that leadership? Is your community ready?"

To me, it's clear that as cyclists, we must work with local and state governments to improve the ability of automobile drivers and cyclists to co-exist on our streets. The city government of my current hometown of Long Beach is very actively trying to improve the city's infrastructure to make this co-existence happen.

I will be doing as much as I can to help.

Sharrows in Long Beach

(For various reasons I have had several unfinished posts sitting in my queue on Blogger. This is the second of three old posts that I am finally finishing.)

Saturday was the official opening of the "sharrows" in Long Beach. Sharrows are green-painted lanes in the right-hand lane of traffic. These lanes denote where cyclists are legally allowed to ride (whether painted or not) per the California vehicle code.

Of course, since most motorists don't know (or maybe even care) about California vehicle code as it applies to cyclists, the sharrows are a great way of showing people where cyclists can legally ride. My main hope is that automobile drivers start to understand cyclists rights and that cyclists using the sharrows obey all traffic laws.

Speaking of Global Warming

I wonder how the current Southern California firestorm affects global warming?

I wonder if the weather conditions that led to the current Southern California firestorm are a product of global warming?

By noon today is was 90ºF with less than 10% humidity with wind gusts over 25 MPH -- prime brush fire weather. Of course you need an ignition source to start the fire. I heard that a smaller fire today on Palos Verdes peninsula was started when a power pole transformer exploded. It definitely doesn't take much though. Someone thoughtlessly throwing a cigarette out of their car window will do the trick for starting a brush fire that will burn thousands of acres and dozens of homes.

Why Commute by Bike?

There are a lot of ways that all of us can help save the planet. Here is one.

They're Fixin' the Road

A couple of days ago I was driving to work (late -- long story) and I got stuck in traffic on PCH because of some road work. It looked like they were re-striping the road so the only thing that I really thought about was that it took me 30 minutes to drive 1 mile.

A day later I was riding on the same stretch of road when I noticed that part of the shoulder on the northbound lane was "chewed up" in the way that they normally do when they are going to repave the road. For those of you familiar with the area, this is the stretch of PCH north of 2nd Street / Westminster Blvd up past Loynes Drive.

By coincidence, I found out at a (Long Beach) city forum that CALTRANS decided to repave that section of PCH. My question is, "Why!!!???"

I can think of a lot of other roads of sections of PCH over which CALTRANS has jurisdiction that need repair much more than that section of road. Is this really the best use of our tax dollars? Doesn't California have a significant budget problem?

Of course, this is all water under the proverbial bridge since they already started chewing up the road. I just wish that somehow the would do a better assessment of the roads so that they can set better priorities.