Cycling tips from the Culver City Bicycle Coalition
Presented by Damien Newton for the CCBC
(This is the second of a three-part series on Culver City’s Policies for Livable Active Communities and Environment grant by LAStreetsblog founding editor Damien Newton. “First Step ran last week and a review of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Initiative will run next week.)
As part of their PLACE Grant, Culver City had to hold a series of public workshops to bring the public in to their transportation planning. The goal was to produce a popular Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative, but in Culver City the process also produced a new group of bicycle activists.
In June of 2010, the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Culver City Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative met for the fifth and final time. After a year and a quarter of public meetings, the committee was at the end of a long journey that saw the committee shrink from 20 people at the April 2009 hearing that kicked off the hearing process to just 10 at the last couple of meetings.
But some members of the committee weren’t willing to pack it in. Rather than getting run down by the long process to create a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan for the city, this group was just getting started.
“One of the things we were talking about during the meetings was ‘What are we going to do when the meetings are over. How can we make sure this plan actually happens,’” recalled Meghan Sahli-Wells, vice chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee.
As the process moved forward, a secondary conversation was occurring between some members of the committee and other interested cyclists, regarding how to move the ball forward.
“Many of us were hanging out after one of the meetings and we wondered why Culver City didn’t have a group like the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition,” said Jim Shanman, a founding member of the Culver City Bicycle Coalition, but not a member of the CAC.
Fortunately, help was close at hand. Dorothy Le, then the planning and program coordinator for the LACBC, regularly attended bike plan meetings around the county, including those in Culver City. “They approached me and I just said ‘go for it.’”
By the time the June 2010 meeting rolled around, a core group of four people – Shanman, Sahli-Wells, Darren Kessner and Howard Cohen – were ready to bring the coalition into being. They met for the first time less than a year ago, in September of 2010, and didn’t look back. What the primary goal of the coalition is varies depends who you talk to. Dino Parks, another of the founding members, commented that it is to “Advocate for the implementation of the Bike Plan.” Shanman isn’t as concerned about the Master Plan as much as he is “seeing consistent progress on behalf of cyclists.”
An important aspect of the coalition’s efforts is direct lobbying. Whether with council members, the city manager or city staff, they’ve reached out both to support the plan and other progressive transportation projects such as the city’s Safe Routes to School initiative.
And then there are the bike rides. Every month the CCBC programs a Sunday morning family ride highlighting a bike route, official or otherwise, somewhere in the city. Their most recent ride took place on the Ballona Creek Bike Path and on local streets, past a middle school before ending at an outdoor theater for a children’s play. The routes are designed to both provide safe, fun family rides and provide visibility to bring more people in to the rides.
Last, the group programs a series of bike valets, which basically provide free and safe bike parking at major events. In May, the group hosted a valet for the car show and has also hosted a valet in June at the Culver City Art Walk and the Eat Real Festival during Carmageddon Weekend. Up next, the coalition will valet the Fiesta La Ballona on the weekend of August 27.
But it’s still the advocacy for a better Culver City that drives the group. “More and more, people are riding their bikes,” according to Shanman. “The city is finally starting to make progress in creating facilities for them and we want to make sure that we don’t have gaps in that progress. We want things to keep progressing.”
The Culver City Bike Coalition is the third “local affiliate” of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, which previously formed chapters in Santa Monica and the South Bay. For more information on the coalition, including information on their next family ride or meeting, visit their website, ccbike.org.
Damien Newton wrote this story while participating in The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.
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. For more information, go to ccbike.org.