Enjoying a Beautiful Sunday
Shall I let you in on a little secret?
Despite what you may think from reading my musings, I really don’t cycle all that much, and certainly not on a daily basis. I walk to work, so that takes out a big reason to ride, and the one regular drive I take weekly is too cumbersome to go by bicycle. I am probably best grouped into the class of “weekend warriors.” I take my bicycle to the streets of Los Angeles in off hours and do my best, like the rest of weekend warriors, to maintain a shred of whatever conditioning I may have had in my twenties.
This kind of riding must be far and away the dominant mode in Los Angeles. The L.A. Times pointed out last week that only 9,000 people in this city of millions regularly cycle to work. (The Times says an additional “50% of L.A. adults ride a bicycle ‘sometimes,'” whatever that means.) If I somehow have to square that number with the widely given “one-percent” mode share, which would mean at the very least 30,000 total riders, the remaining 21,000 cyclists must be pursuing goals other than commuting. I’d like to think those other riders are doing grocery runs, but I can say with some certainty that they’re not. I almost never see any other cyclists when I wheel my Bullitt to the market, even to the Trader Joe’s near UCLA, where you’d think there would be tons of cyclists. So what to think? I have to assume that the balance is made up of “recreationalists,” those riders who soak up the sun and warmth of Southern California with little other purpose. In other words, people who mostly ride bicycles just about like me.
Of course, the city council’s approval of the bike plan last week may help change that. Or maybe not. I recognize the vote as a “victory for cyclists,” but I have to be skeptical of its unanimous passage. If the plan actually did anything, there would have been a real fight, with vitriol and venom, the likes of which NY City is having right now. I’ll believe the effectiveness of the plan on the day we convert street parking or travel lanes to protected bicycle lanes, when we start having protests on, say, San Vicente or Wilshire Boulevard.
Whatever the case, I wanted to post a little video I made yesterday about one of my favorite rides, a seventy-mile loop that took me from West L.A. to Latigo Canyon Road in Malibu and back again. We had perfect outdoor weather, some of the best of the season so far, and it was a great day to go into the mountains:
If you’re curious, here’s a map of the route.
Examined Spoke 
I’ve quickly checked out the four page article you link to and the tiny fraction of the now closed comments that are highlighted are the last ones i’d read if i had the time but it makesme want to conlcude m ycomments for however many years perhaps here with an observation about dtla.
A friend fo mine regularely walk across twon as the b ars are closing- and i stand with him as he waits for his bus. I was absolutely thrilled when I notoiced the engine was turned off during it’s break at this stop and before icould finishi onwdering if this was true city wide not noticed by me somehow yet he said no, he was ther ewhe nthe doctor in a home upstair had had a real fit, and gotten them to for her address onlly no longer idle.
IF we banned cars the buses would be so much more efficeint- the time spent outside my window nearly continously at red lights would neaerly vanish as hte signals could cycle far faster there being actual gaps in traffic that would trigger them instead of just however long to lessen teh line backed up as is the rule. Teh cost of labor and fuel would go down a lot as well.
teh only reason they run there engines at red lights is to avoid pissing off cars should they not start as well. same goes for cars that run there engine needlessly at red lights- as if you need a hybrid to not do that!
I believe litigatin can require these steps and more though. The air is far too toxic and it’s onlyh lack of official measurement htat has people breathing it. If I leave my window open it’s lineid with sut when i return- and i’m presently hoping ot have time to bring whatever action is necessary to address this issue- for me it’s actually not the invisible stuff that’ ssmall and not even monitoried at the station despite itbeing the most important thing to police, it is the old fashioned stuff we breeath while pedaling, onlyh i’ts 24×7 in my apatment not jsut during commutes i’d be exposed to it had ia not evacutated as soon as i could despite paying rent there now for months beyodn that while iconsider my options lest i bcome a major parrt of th eproblem just surrendering it to someone who would waste the standing not jsut thre health living or retning it only.
The research even caught my eye when i wasn’t loooking- about tgall building concentgrating pollution. At the law library and online yo can find senate hearing about access- but now we know it’s the entire valley not just sick buiilodings and even nice areas with multmillion dollar homes.
THe santamonica homes with smog scrubbing roof tiles are hilarious- the smog over the ocean was stunning when i was lsat there early in the morning.
LA is special. I moved there because i needed a place that was large enough ot accomidate my temporary needs- and quickly discovered it was much more then that- it was bladrunners world realised.
it was a place forsaken- where only crazy people would choose to live given ia choice of better places.
i’m ont kididng.
unless you smoke cigarettes, want t o die, need tobe with cancer, it canj’t be justified
unless.. unless you clean the air you breathe- and i have not given up onthat but it’s looking doubtful evnethough i have 20 amps of unmetred electricity to work with i assume.
(and free hotwater as well)
it really isnt’ safe to bike here- the more yo0u exercise the more likel your blood levels wil be come fatal. walmart is now selling cans of oxygen though- and many wear cloth over there mouth- but more of us need to carry scuba tganks- ai b ought one in phx for oxygen man yman man y years ago andnevr used it. i bought another recetnly.
the more of us who carry our own air with us the more people wi ll ask why- and we might even manage to get it to an affodable level.
referendums might work- specifiying how many per 100,000 we want to die of pollution instead of something far more abstractas it’s noramlly regulated.
most people would say zeero of course.
we dont’ ahve to give them that chioce
we coudl say under 20
50 to 200
or as many as it takes to subsidise industry as options
hopefuly under 20 would win, and we could have pedidcabs from all over the world arrive in a matter of months as driving alone, driving witout capturing yoru exhaust in a tank and shipping it somehwere for proper disposal got banned as qujickly asth evotes could be counted.
we used to dump shit in lakes o=and rivers and the ocean- we STILL allow cars to just dump there exhaust into the air people are breathingjust feet away! and shed brake pads and have tires that also pollute incrediblywithout having to vacuum it up even once aday.
it’s really hardf to imagine how people in the future will believe a educated, wealthy, population didi amost nothing to change this for generatioins- for even just months after the news become passe’
if electric cars get 33 miles per gallon from the coal et c. they burn they need to be taxed accordingly and frankly they seem toviolate the future fleet efficiency requirements.
How much energy is green to use to transport oneself per day is what we should be talking about.
offsetting the amount the leaf uses with solar energy costs far more then the leaf even morethe nthe roads as well it consumes
very few people canafford to be green if they use more energy then an elecric bike consumes.
it’s just not possible to drive i a leaf more then ..well it’s njust not possible
it’s too expensive
the battries coudl power too man ybikes
someone who dirives leaf is far more evil then someone who withoutr an eductation bought a suv because it was all they could afford
what goes on in nyc HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT IS HAPPENIGN IN LA, especially in DTLA
distinction matters
on my bike ride to usc every day i eventually went into the showroom with all the led track livghting and no cars…
it was a chinese dealer of electric buses!!!
teh sweet girl manning thge desk was upset i didnt’ take the heavy literateure with me after she siad she couldnt’ disclose the specs i asked about lol
such buss shoudl be requiredwithin the downtown area
instead of there prior generation being auctioned off on publicsurplus.com unused fofr a fractioni of the cent on the dollar paid for them.
(not kidding liquid cooold nicad based transit vehiclesmet such a fate a few years b ack!)
motorised vehicles are not compatible with the downtow density
but lest i be a hypocrit the real solution would be to compress the pollution and drop the cans along the roadevery few mmiles in aautomated way for pickup byu waste management trucks tothen what pump into salt caverns or something
givne the waste it woudl barely bbenoicatle and a lot cheaper an cleaner then subways
i got alot of gray hair when i foudn out that subways dont’have an y acitvie ventialation- only the trains sucking in car exaust as they travel
the oen to long beach literally in tghe cetner of ht ehighway to better do that
it needs to be lifted up into th eair
for alot lessthen diggin theremainingi miles onotoheres not yet in use before they should advance any further
in nyc politicians complain about the lack of divderfisty of opinion in s cidentificy conlcusions wonce proven
are we really still at that level?
i dont’ think so
let s cience rule
let courst inteferne
los angeles houdl be bankrupted by class actions from those it’ s too late to save already
anyoen who lives here hsoudl be required to have a movie made of there informed consent.
and of course the children need to be evacuated untiol it’s safe to breath or provided iwht apparatus’s providing safe air.
i said th esame thing about the girls in ethnic cleansing by rape zones of this planet
there still being infected with aids in buld daily though….