Presented by Damien Newton for the CCBC
What does the Bicycle Pedestrian Master Plan that was adopted last November look like? In short, nobody is 100% certain what a lot of the plan will look like when it is implemented. This is where one of the concerns with the plan comes into play. Many local connections are designated as either “Bicycle Routes” or “Bicycle Friendly Streets.”
Fortunately, the plan does give us some hints what a bicycle-friendly street will look like. The recently completed Downtown Connector is designated in the plan as a series of Bicycle-Friendly Streets and it contained a series of sharrows [shared usage of the road by bicyclists and motorists], bike route signs, directional signs and traffic-calming at the beginning and end of the connector. If every bicycle-friendly street in the plan is treated as the Regional Connector, Culver City’s road network might be almost unrecognizable in five years.
Second, the plan does give detailed project descriptions for both the five “Tier 1” bicycle and pedestrian projects called for in the plan. Below is the design of a bicycle-friendly street on Braddock Drive, a residential street between Sawtelle Boulevard and Irving Place. Braddock is the longest residential street in Culver City and despite it being a popular route for students, is also used as a cut-through when Washington Place is crowded.
The bicycle plan for Braddock calls for a lot more than just signage and would encourage bicycle riding by discouraging all but local traffic through the area, with the curb extension and by improving crossings for cyclists – two of the top mental barriers to new cyclists riding bicycles on the streets. But while the plan contains details for the “Braddock Bicycle Friendly Street” and four other bicycle projects, the minimum that is required to meet the bicycle-friendly street designation is road signs marking the street as a bike route.
A new series of bicycle and pedestrian counts were completed in May. While final results haven’t been released yet (Streetsblog will provide coverage when they are) city staff confirmed that even before much of the new infrastructure has been put in, the city has seen a modest rise in bicycling in the past two years. Ron Durgin of Sustainable Streets’ jokes that as more cyclists take to the street and more infrastructure is placed on those streets, “next time around we’ll really grind them” and create a more sustainable plan.
Anecdotal evidence also points to more people, both cut-through-commuters and residents, walking and bicycling on the street. “In general it’s improving, we’re seeing more and more cyclists on a daily basis,” reports Jim Shanman, a founding member of the Culver City Bicycle Coalition. “We’ve always had a steady flow of commuters, from the east and the south, but now we’re starting to see more Culver City residents riding on a regular basis.”
The pedestrian portion of the plan received a lot less scrutiny and staff time than the bicycling plan. One reason is because pedestrian projects are by their nature less controversial, as they don’t have to address conflict issues at the level the bicycle plans do. It is also partly due to the fact that with or without a long-term pedestrian plan, Culver City is a decent place to take a walk. Scott Wyant, a member of the city’s planning commission and of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan joked, “We were often referred to as the Bike Committee.”
Wyant was most interested in joining the advisory committee because he was concerned that pedestrian issues would be overlooked in the plan but when the final plan was unveiled, he expressed full support for it. “I’m happy with this plan. It’s a good plan that can do a lot for the city,” he said.
He contends that the makeup of the staff at Alta Planning, city staff and the advisory committee had a lot to do with why he feels the plan will work. “We had good people making the plan, who worked in good faith. In the end the plan was as good as the people,” Wyant said.
While cycling advocates and, to a lesser extent, pedestrian advocates, are very supportive of the Master Plan, there are some complaints when it is compared to some of the more progressive cities in the Southland, such as Santa Monica, Long Beach and Pasadena.
“In some ways, the projects are low-hanging fruits,” explained Dino Parks, a member of the plan’s Citizen Advisory Committee and of the Culver City Bicycle Coalition. “In no places are they talking about widening roadways or taking away a traffic lane to make space for bikes.”
In short, the city is willing to begin to make more space for bicycles and pedestrians but not to take the step of removing car capacity with the exception of some traffic-calming on local streets. Even in the city of Los Angeles, considered by many as the car-culture capital of America, the bike plan calls for removing some mixed-use travel lanes.
On the advisory committee, Parks had pushed for a radical reconfiguration of Washington Boulevard, which would have doubtless made things safer for cyclists and may have encouraged more people to bike on the congested east-west alternative to Venice Boulevard. However, the plan was “much to hot to touch,” he said.
Other complaints are that the city wasn’t willing to push the limits on what infrastructure was possible. Forget cycle tracks or separated bike lanes, as they’re more commonly called, Culver City wouldn’t consider signage reading, “Bicycles allowed full use of the road” because they aren’t part of the approved signage in the state of California. “Full use” signs are popular in Northern California and are used locally in Hermosa Beach.
Similarly, the city wouldn’t consider placing sharrows on streets that don’t have certain parking patterns to meet federal standards. Those standards are changing and Glendale is already placing sharrows on streets without curbside parking, but Culver City won’t consider any infrastructure that hasn’t been approved at the state and national level.
“We could have gone farther. There’s always going to be compromises and with any plan, you have to consider that there’s still a lot of people in the world that drive cars,” said Darren Kessner, a member of the Bicycle and Master Plan Advisory Committee.
However, this caution creates an opportunity for the city to take a leadership role going forward. “One of the things I would like to see is the city create its own design standards rather than choose from the soup of state and federal options that are offered,” says Meghan Sahli-Wells, president of the Downtown Culver City Neighborhood Association.
But even as he criticizes the plan for not being as progressive as he would like, Parks readily concedes that it is a big step forward for the city. “If all of those projects are implemented,” he said, “it would contribute to a more bicycle-friendly city and could be the nexus to encourage more people to ride and walk.”
Damien Newton wrote this story while participating in The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.
Join the CCBC at Fiesta la Ballona. Take advantage of the free bike valet hosted by Palms Cycle. Avoid the traffic and parking hassles by riding to the event and park for free. The CCBC will lead a family ride to Fiesta on Saturday, Aug 27.
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. Join them for their family bike ride the last Sunday of every month. For more information and to submit your questions, write: ccbicyclecoalition@gmail.com and visit their blog: ccbike.org.
