Monthly Archives: April 2012

Spoke Meeting tonight: Tuesday, April 24th, 6:30-8:30pm

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What:     Santa Monica Spoke Community Meeting
When:    Tuesday , April 24th
Where:   Colorado Community Room, 502 Colorado Ave (corner of 5th & Colorado)
Time:      6:30pm – 8:30pm

Agenda Discussions:
– Update on Metro Light Rail Bicycle Advisory Committee by Barbara Filet & Kent Strumpell.
– New and up coming bike infrastructure and the Bike Action Plan with Lucy Dyke, City of Santa Monia.
– Traffic diversion plan for cyclist and Q&A on current policies with Sgt. Thomas McLaughlin SMPD.
– New campaign “Bring CicLAvia to SM & the Westside”.
Plenty of bike parking on the patio.

Siemens Sustainable Community Awards

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Congratulations Santa Monica!

Our Bike Action Plan stands out as “cutting edge”.

Thanks to our biking community and the input that helped to make it all happen!

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is being honored for its integrated planning efforts based on its Sustainable City Plan (SCP). Sustainability strategies developed through the SCP are woven into all of the city’s planning documents, particularly the 2010 Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), which integrates land use and transportation planning activities. Santa Monica has been on the forefront of adopting a Green Building Ordinance and has recently adopted a cutting-edge Bicycle Action Plan.

Integrated Planning

Other initiatives pursued by Santa Monica include:

  • Creative Capital — arts and cultural retention and development
  • Consolidated Plan — affordable housing development
  • The 2008-2014 Housing Element
  • The Historic Preservation Element
  • and many specific plans for all parts of the City, all promoting sustainable development and multi-modal strategies.

Santa Monica also partners with the business community in programs such as “Buy Local,” “Business Greening,” and an effort called the Santa Monica Alliance, which promotes sustainability in terms of maintaining healthy businesses.

Meeting tonight: BERGAMOT Designing the Districts

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Monday, April 23rd – tonight! Bergamot Design the Districts, Open house 6-7pm, Workshop 7-9pm
Tuesday, April 24th.  Santa Monica Spoke Meeting, 6:30-8:30pm, 5th a& Colorado, info to follow 

BERGAMOT, Designing the Districts

The City of Santa Monica invites you to the fifth Bergamot Area Plan workshop, where you can help design a district-wide concept that merges previous community input to transition the former industrial areas into a creative and sustainable mixed-use destination.

Please join us tonight, April 23rd starting at 6PM at the Civic Auditorium, East Wing, (1855 Main Street) to discuss:

·         STREETS: craft street design concepts that unify the area by incorporating new amenities for pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles, as well as a variety of public open spaces.
·         URBAN FORM: provide input on the shape and scale of the built environment. Define areas for conservation as well as reinvention to complement the districts’ unique character.
·         GROUND LEVEL EXPERIENCE: weigh-in on urban design principles that create an engaging and successful pedestrian atmosphere.

Your input, specifically on bicycle circulation and design is needed for this important Santa Monica planning effort.  Staff will host an OPEN HOUSE starting at 6PM to provide a preview of planning concepts and ideas. The COMMUNITY WORKSHOP portion of the evening, which includes a presentation and small-group discussion tables, begins at 7PM.

We hope to see you there!

To learn more about the project, please visit the website at www.bergamotplan.net.

Santa Monica Bike Learning Campus Opens Sunday 4/22

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Sunday 4/22 Bike Campus Opening Event

This Sunday we will celebrate the Grand Opening of the Santa Monica Bike Campus. This bike campus facility is an off street facility that is to be used by cycling instructors and the community to practice street cycling skills in a car free environment.

We will celebrate the opening of the Bike Campus on Earth Day with lots of fun, festivities and education. There will be a Beach Bike Rodeo* aimed at middle school students and their parents, food, and raffle prizes. A coordinated collaboration with the City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Bike Center and Santa Monica Spoke we will have bike safety checks with LCI’s (League of American Bicyclist Certified Instructors) at the different stations to teach safe bike traffic skills and obstacle avoidance techniques and to demonstrate how the community can use this great benefit to practice and improve their cycling skills on their own. You can bring your own bike or borrow one of ours.

Ribbon cutting ceremony at 12:30 with Mayor Richard Bloom
Bike Rodeo Classes, raffles, food and festivities from 1:00-3:00pm
Information on how we can  “Bring CicLAvia to Santa Monica and the westside”
At 3:00pm  Santa Monica Spoke will host another “Ride the BAP” to see and discuss more of the recent and upcoming bike infrastructure implementations.
We also hope to have our SMPD Bike Liaison Sgt McLaughlin in attendance.

The Santa Monica Bike Campus is located on a section of roadway no longer used that connected two parking lots just east of the beach bike path at Dorothy Green Park where Ocean Park Boulevard ends at Barnard way. The campus is painted with road markings and obstacle courses for teaching bike education classes and includes signage with instructions for self guided learning. It is painted with simulated vehicle lanes, street signage like stop signs, sharrows, crosswalks and bike lanes. It is used to teach lane positioning and obstacle avoidance as part of the curriculum of the League of American Bicycling’s Smart Cycling.

The facility is the first of its kind in Los Angeles. It is a dedicated space used to teach the road portion of the Confident City Cycling Skills by LCI’s (League Certified Instructors), as well as by the community with the self guided instruction signage and online videos. The area can also be used by local schools to teach bike skills in a safe space before introducing students to real traffic. This campus has long been envisioned by bike advocates in Santa Monica, Ron Durgin, GM of the Santa Monica Bike Center and Planning Commissioner Richard McKinnon, (BikeIt Day ) as well as us at Santa Monica Spoke. Last Year the City demonstrated its commitment to education by hosting a three day instructor training for League of American Bicyclist Instructors Certification. Santa Monica Spoke’s Director Cynthia Rose, Bryan Beretta and Mihai Piteu were certified as instructors along with a few members of the local community and 4 members from the City. We believe having an engaged City staff knowledgeable in cyclist rights and responsibilities as well as the many other skills learned in this training was a catalyst that helped us create a great Bike Action Plan that will serve the community well into the future. The City now offers monthly bike skills classes paid for by a safety grant coordinated by SM Bike Center’s Ron Durgin. The Confident City Cycling Classes, free for participants are taught here in Santa Monica, and also in West Hollywood and Burbank.

With the opening of this bike campus we can also hope to facilitate a traffic diversion program advocated by Santa Monica Spoke. This campus could now be used for bike education diversion program like Portland, OR or in Huntington Beach for bicyclists cited for moving violations like running stop signs and red lights to riding on sidewalks. In these programs, not unlike traffic school – a traffic safety class for cyclist is offered as a less expensive alternative to higher punitive penalties. But more importantly it offers offenders education instead of fees to help correct their behavior. Spoke had been working with former Cheif Jackman, exploring the implementation of such a program here in Santa Monica. We look forward to seeing this continue with the new Chief of Police Jacqueline Seabrooks.

“Bring CicLAvia to Santa Monica and the Westside”
We will launch the campaign to bring this hugely successful Los Angeles event west. You will be able to sign up to get involved or just stay informed.  We will have a map for you to help us in suggesting a route.

We are looking forward to a wonderful event this Sunday and hope you can join us to celebrate this next piece in the puzzle as we create a safer, more bikeable and walkable community.

*co-sponsored by Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District PTA Council

 

Triple Bike Rack Legislation – we need your support

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A February Action Alert push to get legislation introduced in Sacramento to make it possible for transit agencies across the state to install triple bike racks on buses of all sizes. Unfortunately legislation was not introduced, but we are not giving up hope. LACBC is working with the Transit Coalition to draw attention to how important this issue is to people who bicycle and use transit in Los Angeles County.

We need your help! Please email Assemblymembers Bonnie Lowenthal and Bob Blumenfield with this simple form. They both represent communities is LA County and are on the Assembly Transportation Committee. Take a moment to contact them today and let’s increase bike capacity on our buses!

Background: Bike racks on buses are filling up, but current state law prohibits objects that extend too far from the front of a bus. Although several bus agencies already have triple bike racks, these are technically in violation of the law. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and the California Highway Patrol have come up with a legislative solution that would maintain safety while allowing triple bike racks on buses. Now is the time our elected representatives need to step up and introduce Metro’s bill so that stakeholders can discuss it and enable it to get passed.