AN OPEN LETTER TO LOS ANGELES

Dear Los Angeles,

I have a simple vision for LA that I think everyone should love; it involves bicycles. It begins with re-imagining as the bicycle paths along the rivers as bicycle highways. Then rezone the areas at along these highways and at their intersection to create "car-less" bike communities; allow for small shops restaurants and bars that serve the bikers that use the bike highway. Also necessary is the creation of easy on/off access ramps from these bike highways to these economic business zones and other intersecting bike highways.

One of the primary difficulties of creating a bike infrastructure on city streets is that it displaces lanes and parking spaces and people who depend upon cars and use those lanes and parking spaces understandably freak out. The police also freak out because they say it will increase emergency response times which freaks out old people who are worried about falling and not being able to get up, and it freaks out people who are worried about crime in their neighborhoods. All of this is completely and 100% understandable. But this is also why all these same groups should be interested in the idea of developing the bike paths along the river and developing bike communities along those paths because it's what requires the least amount of road displacement, and it also gets bikers off roads that drivers and emergency vehicles use. It's a win win win for all groups involved who move about the city.

It's also a win for the city itself. Yes it's good to get people to bike more rather than drive, but the real benefits comes to a city when people don't own cars. It's not just about filling up spaces in the roads, but it's also about filling the parking spaces. If people don't have cars, those spaces can be used by other cars or other things. By creating communities that support car-less life styles, the city can be more efficient with it's space. And by developing the areas along the bike highways and at their intersections, the city can be more economically productive.

It is also a win for the city because it is the most efficient in economic terms because most of the infrastructure already exists and is already being developed. There has been a significant amount of work to develop and improve and extend the bike paths along the river, but the designers aren't imagining these paths as bike highways. They only seem to think of them as "quality of life" improvements because wouldn't it be nice if people could leave the polluted congested dirt car worlds and bike along a river. The biggest cost would be construction the on/off ramps at the intersections, the bridges. But bridges designed for bikes are very different from bridged designed for cars and very large trucks. The bridges represent more of an opportunity, because it is very easy to design cool looking bridges that don't have to support massive amounts of weight. Bridges designed for bikes can be light, elegant and beautiful, and are easy to build. I suggest Los Angeles look to the Netherlands for inspiration on what is possible.

What's wrong with this idea? What prevents it from happening.