Category Archives: Bike Infrastructure

Sunday Funday: Tour of Santa Monica with LACBC

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July 1 @ 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Join us and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) for the first Sunday Funday of the summer season! We’ll be enjoying the cool coastal air as we are joined by our LA County Affiliate LACBC for this excursion to explore our own Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway and share a preview of the amazing improvements planned for the Safe Streets for 17th Street & Michigan Ave project — and so much more!

We’ll be starting out at the 26th Street / Bergamot Station on the Expo Line meeting at 9:30 AM, rolling at 10 AM. There will be stops and water breaks along the way and is a perfect way to meet people, explore hidden gems and discover new neighborhoods. Facebook RSVP here for Sunday Funday!

Come one, come all! This ride is a no-drop ride led by Santa Monica Spoke with LACBC Ride Marshals. Riders should be able to keep a 10 MPH pace, and cover about 10 miles.

Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update: Airport2Park!

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The City of Santa Monica is updating the 20 year Parks and Recreation Master Plan and has been hosting meetings with the community throughout the summer. The last planned event is this Sunday at the Summer SOULstice Festival – 11am to 1pm.

We encourage you to share your input via the online survey that will be ending soon! This is a great opportunity for all of us to give input and to reinforce community support for more open space and to replace Santa Monica Airport with a Great Park when it closes in 2029.

What kind of park do you want to replace the airport? Let the City know! Miles of protected bike and pedestrian paths? A Bike Campus with public bike repair facilities — a BMX track? How about coffee and snack concessions for people walking, biking and enjoying the park?

The online survey that will take 5-10 minutes and will ask you to drop pins on a map for your favorite beach and park and give feedback about existing recreational programs. Near the end of the survey you will be asked about LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. This will be your opportunity to drop a blue pin to focus on the Airport and put your ideas for a GREAT PARK!

Here is the LINK to the SURVEY: https://app.maptionnaire.com/en/3892

Join us in supporting a Great Park at SMO: More recreation? More Sports? More Nature? More Open Space? This is your chance! Do the survey!

For more information about about the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, here is an update: http://www.canyon-news.com/future-of-parks-in-santa-monica/78530

City Council discusses Strategic Mobility goals tonight.

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Tonight, Santa Monica City Council will have a study session on the City’s Strategic Mobility Goals and the Big Blue Bus. We believe investments in safety must be a key component of our City’s mobility strategy. Together with community partners we have formed the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance to promote 10 principles condensed here:

  • No traffic fatalities are acceptable. Traffic collisions must not be brushed aside as “accidents”: collisions are predictable and therefore preventable.
  • Invest resources to improve equity. Our mobility and transportation systems should be safe and ensure commitment to serve as a model of 21st Century constitutional policing.
  • All students and children have a right to walk, bike or scoot safely to school.
  • Our mobility and transportation systems should equitably serve Santa Monica residents and all those who study, work or visit in our community
  • Our transportation system should generate zero emissions. To reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and to help strengthen our community, we need a Big Blue Bus (BBB) system to be popular, efficient and financially sound.
  • Streets are our largest public space. Street planning should integrate mobility and place-making to enhance social, economic and cultural opportunities, as well as our well-being needs.
  • Streets are essential environmental systems. We need to design our streets as critical components of our environmental and natural ecosystems so they contribute to safeguarding water, air quality and climate resilience.
  • Community co-creation is essential to enduring change. Diverse community voices are critical for identifying core values and the vision for transformative change, community stakeholders must be engaged from inception to completion of all projects.
  • Data drives decisions. We need to invest in robust, transparent collection and analysis of data which is essential for understanding what the tradeoffs are and to help provide transparency when challenging decisions are made.
  • Plan our city and mobility together. Policies on housing, open space, community facilities, commercial development, public spaces, and other land use policies should give priority to clean, affordable and sustainable mobility as it has a profound impact on our mobility options and choices.

We need safe streets, designed with infrastructure that supports sustainable environmental eco systems that are safe, livable and welcoming to all. That’s the commitment of the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance and is outlined in our Principles for Safe, Livable and Sustainable Streets in Santa Monica.

Email City Council at: council@smgov.net to tell them you support strong commitments to safety and environmental sustainability listed in the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance – Principles for Safe, Livable and Sustainable Streets in Santa Monica. 

Santa Monica Spoke Update Meeting: Vision Zero

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SM Spoke MeetingSunday, November 19th
Doors open at 9:30am with coffee, bagels

Arrive by 10am – get a bonus*

10:15AM – Short discussion style presentation about local projects, BAP update, Volunteer opportunities / Operation Firefly.
– time for input and questions.
– VISION ZERO, what is it? why is it important, Vision Zero Draft Planning Document

Event info HERE
RSVP@SMSpoke.org

*those that arrive by 10am will get the bonus gift bag

 

Action Alert: Safer Streets LA

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CallToAction6thStreetSq.jpgSanta Monica Spoke joins LACBC and Los Angeles Safe Streets Advocates to call on Councilmember Ryu to Make 6th Street Safety Improvements

Walking or biking on 6th street between Fairfax and LaBrea feels like walking next to a highway. Cars, encouraged by the design of the roadway, consistently speed, and crashes are a frequent occurrence. Children and families who walk and bike to school, work, museums, and health centers must traverse broken glass and metal detritus left behind by vehicle collisions.

In 2012, a 74-year-old woman was hit by a car and killed while walking near the intersection of 6th and Hauser. Since then, two more of our neighbors’ lives have been taken by dangerous roadway conditions on 6th street between Fairfax and La Brea. The time for redesigning this section of 6th street is now.

If you don’t already know bike and pedestrian initiatives and projects are being opposed by organized groups of influence like https://keeplamoving.com/ and http://fixthecity.org/
We need to show our human power, rally support for improvement that will help our city connections. Some of you may be familiar with the deplorable conditions that the 4th street “Bike Route” in Los Angels is currently in, 6th street has the potential to be a safer alternative. If nothing else we need to show our power in numbers in support for road diets and for councilmembers who support them.

For the past five years, community leaders have been focused on this problem, completing community walks, town halls, and meetings to work out a traffic design solution that would make the street safe for all to use. This ultimately led to the September 2016 unanimous vote by the Mid City West Council’s Board of Directors to implement a reconfiguration of 6th street between Cochran and Fairfax.

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This would slow traffic by reducing the road to one lane in each direction, and allow for bike lanes and enhanced pedestrian crossings. Despite this vote, and the fact that the project is shovel-ready, Councilmember Ryu has consistently delayed taking action.  He has now proposed an alternative plan for 6th street, which would merely install left-turn pockets at certain intersections, leaving other dangerous intersections untouched.  

Please call, tweet or send a letter to David Ryu asking him to take action on safety and infrastructure improvements on 6th Street. On Saturday, October 21, we encourage folks to attend a community meeting about the project to make your voice heard.Â