Bicycle Policies in Los Angeles - Research Paper Example

Bicycle policies in Los Angeles In Los Angeles, there is a non-profit organization known as Los Angeles County BicycleCoalition, abbreviated as LACBC. It is comprised of more than 1500 members who engage cyclists through education, outreach, and advocacy across the county. It was founded in the year 1998 by Ron Milam and Joe Linton, who were bicycle advocates. The organization was formed with the aim of bringing together the various bicycle communities in a united mission of improving the environment of bicycling and the value of life for the whole region. Despite the reputation of Los Angeles being a car-centric region, LACBC has become one of the bicycle advocacy non-profit organizations that are most wide-reaching and innovative in the country (Smart 190). The members of the organization have played a key role in helping the growth of cycling movements in Los Angeles. The vision of the organization is on the improvement of the existing environment in Los Angeles for the purpose of enabling safe navigation of the Los Angeles County streets for all the cyclists including the recreational, commuter, women, families and the low-income citizens. The organization accomplishes its vision in the campaigns through the assistance of the strong volunteer network from the members, and it has increased the infrastructure of the bicycle throughout the eighty-eight cities in the county. The mission of the LACBC is to build a more bike-able and better Los Angeles by bringing the various communities together with the aim of improving the quality of life in the communities. Its vision entails making Los Angeles a good place for the day by day bicycling throughout the year. People live in more vibrant, healthier communities where there is plenty of clean air and the streets both safer and quieter for everyone. More families, children, and women ride their bikes and are thankful for the opportunities they have to enjoy their city and their neighborhoods (Shi 130). All people, from various origins and cultures, are enabled to ride their bikes safely and conveniently everywhere. Above all, LACBC is bestowed with the responsibility of making policies for the bicycling events. While carrying out its duties of policy making, it encourages installation of parking lots for bicycles at locations that are visible and with high traffic at all County, State, and Federal facilities found within Los Angeles City, for the purpose of meeting or exceeding the bicycle parking standards in the City. The organization also conducts outreach to identify the needs and solutions of bicycle parking. Lastly, it develops and implements bicycling parking standards citywide. The policies that are developed by the LACBC first aim at improving the infrastructure. The organization strives to make sure that all the roads are designed, constructed, planned, and maintained to enable all the people with riding abilities can efficiently and safely use them for cycling. Public roads comprise of the basic bicycling network. This therefore implies that improved roads are important to people who ride bicycles. The organization advocates for land use, development, and infrastructure policies that enable the formation of bicycling communities (Helm 321). The infrastructure policies involve several sections. The first section is separated bicycle infrastructure. In some limited situations, bike lanes may bar the capability of the skilled cyclists to attain their peak speeds and efficiency. This resembles the impact of most devices that control traffic on the mobility of most skilled and fastest users of any type (Zavestoski Stephen and Julian 215). However, bike lanes make cycling readily accessible to a lot of people, and the benefit outweighs further the minor inconvenience that is incurred by the limited number of traffic tolerant and highly skilled cyclists. Therefore, LACBC organization supports the infrastructure that encourages and attracts the people who are less confident to ride bicycles. The second section entails complete streets. Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition recognizes that people are entitled to facilities that put up with various bicycling capabilities. Therefore, it supports roadway designs and complete street policies that comprise of the best practices for sparrows, bike lanes and separated bike paths and lanes to serve all road users better. The third section involves policies concerning sidewalk riding. The organization states that until the environment where all calibers of people with various abilities and of different ages feel safe when riding on the street is availed, riding on the sidewalk in a manner that shows respect and assures safety to pedestrians should be allowed. Pavement markings and signage should be used to indicate clearly the places where the sidewalk is banned to avoid inconveniences when riding (Polcer 179). The fourth section of infrastructure policies involves trail access. The organization rules that all people should be entitled to utilize their local trails and parks. The access, whenever possible, should be availed equitably to people riding horses, hiking, and bicycling and the organization also supports creative solutions that help in increasing access to all the users. The fifth section of infrastructure policies comprises of the bicycle parking. According to LACBC, all people who ride bicycles require parking facilities. The presence of convenient and secure short-term and long-term bike parking at schools, restaurants, retail, transit stations, workplaces, and other destinations is very important. When siting and designing a bicycle parking, one should adhere to the guidelines such as the Crime Prevention through Environmental design and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals’ Bicycle Parking Guide. Again, the organization supports all the programs and policies aimed at providing quality facilities for bicycle parking. In the infrastructure policies, the organization is also concerned with land use and development. Since the bicycle is a better locomotive for short distances, the leaders in Los Angeles are supposed to recognize that the communities who mostly use the bicycles need land use patterns that are supportive and that locate the destinations within easy distances for biking (Polcer 200). The organization supports transit-oriented and infill development that helps in the creation and providing an environment that is conducive to bicycling, transit, and walking. The mitigation of transport impacts for the development is required to support infrastructure that is friendly to walking, biking, and transit. Parking reform is a very crucial prerequisite to creation of an urban environment that supports bicycling. Lastly, data collection is the seventh section in the infrastructure policies. Good decision making needs accurate and complete data to offer information to policy and investments decisions. Therefore, LACBC encourages the collection, examination, and dissemination of bicycle collision, usage, theft, injury, and other data that is related to safety. How the policies are working The implementation of these policies has been helpful since it has promoted law enforcement. In the implementation, the organization supports reasonable enforcement and consistent interpretation of the traffic laws of California State for the purpose of providing predictable and safe movement on the roadway. All agencies in the law enforcement are bestowed with the responsibility of educating their officers on the cyclists’ rights and responsibilities. As the organization observed, the following specific issues are misinterpreted: use of turn lanes on the left-hand side, riding side by side, controlling the lane, use of reflectors and lights, use of helmets, use of brakes and sidewalk riding (Helm 313). The reason for the misinterpretation is that in there is no law that prohibits side by side riding in California, bicyclists are capable of controlling any lane whose width is not enough to share with any motor vehicle, front light that is visible from the distance of 300 feet and rear reflectors are only needed at night, the use of helmet is required for the people who are under the age of eighteen years, the use of brakes is only required to enable the rider to carry out a one-wheel skid, and sidewalk riding is allowable unless it is barred by the local rules. The influence regarding lane position by the organization is one of the positive attributes of the implementation of the infrastructure policies. Since the organization supported application of CVC 21202 accurately and wholly, the implementation clearly allows the bicyclists to place themselves in a safe way within the lane that can’t be shared with another motor vehicle, but can accommodate another bicyclist safely. It worked to ensure that there is no law that prohibits side by side riding. The organization also recognized that driving is a privilege. Since operating a motor vehicle exposes the other parties to great risks, hence, the organization pointed out that licenses are required to ensure that the motor vehicle operators have the judgment and skills that are necessary for minimizing the probable harm to other people. The organization again supported a system that gives people a fair chance of obtaining a driver’s license, but also implements the obligations that arrive with privileges. The implementations of these policies have helped to reduce cases of hit and run (Sorensen 315). The organization supports laws that punish the offenders of hit and run collisions according to the devastations that they cause in the communities. When the offenders leave the scene of a collision is an explicit demonstration of the absence of judgment that is needed to operate a motor vehicle and the LACBC asserted that this should be the ground for revocation. In the implementation of its policies, LACBC ordered that the penalties for the offenders who leave the scene of a collision should be likened or more than the penalties imposed for drunk driving. How to Improve The implementation of infrastructure policies should also include optional bike registration. The best practices and the own experiences of LACBC with the local jurisdictions exhibit that compulsory bicycle registration is not cost effective and that it is unworkable. Therefore, LACBC should support the optional registration of bicycles with the training police national databases to use the national databases to help in recovering the stolen bicycles. Another positive impact is the inter-jurisdictional advantage (Sorensen 311). This has in turn facilitated coordination where bicyclists cross jurisdictional boundaries routinely just like the motorists. Each jurisdiction is responsible for the enforcement of California Vehicle Code accurately within its boundaries. LACBC encourages coordination among the agencies of law enforcement to make sure that the enforcement of laws is done fairly, consistently, and according to the best practices. Again, since the bicycle is a device that is remarkably adaptable serving many purposes for many people, LACBC should encourage the utilization of bicycles for both recreation and transportation and also encourage the people to embrace the various features and forms of the bicycles. LACBC should encourage the use of helmets since they are crucial safety devices that help in reduction of the harm that may arise due to particular forms of crashes. Though the organization promotes the use of helmet to be voluntary, it should be noted that the cities that have the best safety records in bicycling have correlated the use of helmets inversely. However, compulsory laws regarding helmets have led to the discouragement of overall bicycling, a factor that exposes the people who proceed with bicycling to more risk resulting from less safety in numbers. I have the belief that the current law tries to strike a substantial balance in the protection of minors while providing discretion to adults. The organization should, therefore, have the aspiration of creating a county where people will feel the comfort in riding with the helmets or without them. Hence, prioritization of programs, infrastructure, and policies that minimize the general risk to the people who ride bicycles is very essential. The other factor to consider concerns the E-bikes. As the popularity of bicycling increases, LACBC should support the devices that increase its accessibility to more people. It should also support the use of bicycles that are assisted by electricity, subject to meaningful regulation to provide comfort and safety to the people who ride traditional bicycles and other users of the roads and the paths. Recommendation policy My recommendation to the Los Angeles County Bicycling Coalition is solely focused on the state laws. Traffic safety is achieved when all users of the road operate in a predictable way under a set of clear and reasonable rules. The duty of state legislation is the promotion of livability and safety. The first element to consider is the vulnerable user laws. These include the people who are traveling by wheelchair; bicycles, motorcycle, and foot are specifically at the risk of collisions that result from driver error. It should support legislation that helps in the creation of a specific duty to increase caution around road users who are vulnerable. The second element to consider is the safe passing. Most of the adult bicyclist fatalities are caused by collisions where they are hit from behind. The LACBC should support the safe passing legislation that particularly teaches the drivers on how to pass people who are on bicycles correctly and the best speed and distance when and if it is safe to do so. It should also support education concerning universal mobility. The education programs are supposed to educate the people how to maneuver safely through different traffic conditions with competence and confidence, whether driving, walking or bicycling. The other element is transit integration. The bicyclist Coalition should support multimodal transportation and promote the sensible accommodation of bicycles on the public transportation. A designated space should be availed for folding and standard bicycles on all trains and buses, and secure parking availed at all transit stations. Generally, Metro should allow bicycle types that are non-standard and that don’t inconvenience or endanger other transit users, which is subject to the discretion of the operator. Work Cited Helm, Patti. Los Angeles Countywide Bicycle Policy Document. , 1994. Print. Sorensen, Paul. Moving Los Angeles: Short-term Policy Options for Improving Transportation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp, 2008. Internet resource. Zavestoski, Stephen, and Julian Agyeman. Incomplete Streets: Processes, Practices and Possibilities. , 2015. Print. Shi, Fei. "Research on Transport Subsidies for Public Transit and Cars." (2015). Print. Polcer, Sam. New York Bike Style. , 2014. Print. Smart, Michael J. "A Nationwide Look at the Immigrant Neighborhood Effect on Travel Mode Choice." Transportation : Planning - Policy - Research - Practice. 42.1 (2015): 189-209. Print. 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