October was a great month to be a walker or cyclist in Culver City. The first week of October was International Walk to School Week and several schools in the Culver City Unified School District participated by holding events that week.
Culver City Girl Scout Troop 4645 kicked off the month of activities with a bicycle-safety event at Linwood Howe Elementary School on Oct. 1. The troop prepared safety and repair demonstrations, set up an obstacle course for kids to try out their skills and a Culver City police officer was there with a speed gun to measure how fast kids were riding.
At their meeting on Monday, Oct. 3, the city council of Culver City made an official proclamation in support of International Walk to School Week. Linwood Howe Elementary School principal Amy Anderson was joined by students and Girl Scouts at the meeting to meet with the city council and commemorate the occasion.
The city council didn’t stop there. On Oct. 5, International Walk to School Day, councilmember Andy Weissman joined students and parents on a walk to El Marino Elementary School. On the other side of town, Mayor Micheal O’Leary joined a crowd of 200 students, parents and teachers from Linwood Howe, who had gathered at city hall to parade to school that morning. At the school rally, the mayor led the students in a cheer and emphasized how important it was that they were making the effort to walk or bike to school.
Oct. 9 was the date for the third CicLAvia, where residents from all over Los Angeles came out to enjoy a day without cars on the streets. The Culver City Bicycle Coalition led a ride to and from the event. On Oct. 30, the Culver City Bicycle Coalition hosted the monthly family ride, with a costume parade through the streets of Culver City. We finished our ride at Culver City High School, where the robotics team was holding their annual haunted house fundraiser.
For more information on events like these in the future, be sure to keep an eye on the CCBC website.
Possibly the most important news in October was the award of a $500,000 Safe Routes to School grant to Culver City, which will be used to fund education, safety and encouragement programs at all K-8 campuses in the school district (the five elementary schools and Culver City Middle School). The grant was a result of an effort by members of the Culver City Department of Public Works, including Helen Kerstein, John Rivera and Gabe Garcia. When asked about the grant, Charles Herbertson, director of Public Works for Culver City, replied, “The City is very pleased to have been successful in this very competitive grant process for a Safe Routes to School non-infrastructure grant. This grant will give the city the funding it needs to develop a number of programs to promote safe routes to schools, provide training and develop special enforcement programs all geared toward making walking to school both safer and more fun.”
Unfortunately, this non-infrastructure grant does not include funds for badly needed street improvements in and around Culver City schools, such as bike lanes and safer crosswalks around campuses. Even with the support of residents, students, parents, teachers and principals in the school district, and after holding several public outreach meetings, the Department of Public Works was unable to move forward this past summer on a grant application that included plans for street improvements. Objections came from a small, vocal group of residents who felt it was better to make no changes, rather than to accept outside funding for changes we can make now for the benefit of current students, as well as for students in future generations. The members of the Culver City Bicycle Coalition applaud the efforts of the Department of Public Works to make Culver City a safer place to walk and ride, and we hope that the residents of Culver City will offer more support in the future.
Bike Safe, Bike Smart! is a weekly column to promote responsible cycling by providing information, education and advice about riding. It’s written by members of the Culver City Bicycle Coalition (CCBC), a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. The CCBC hosts a family ride each month. More information, go to ccbike.org.