BIKING IN THE WILD WEST-Looks like they’ve got us surrounded, pardner … them pesky Complete Streets are creeping right up to the border of town!
First it was Long Beach, and then Temple City, putting in those outlandish Protected Bike Lanes.
But now they’re hitting closer to home: Santa Monica just opened its first protected bikeway -- and they’re threatening that it won’t be their last!
This is a short one, serving just one block of Pico Boulevard, but it helps nanny-state students through a risky stretch between the high school and Main Street -- and it also connects a number of significant bikeways already in place: the Main Street bike lanes themselves, the Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway (aka “MANGo”), and the beachside bike path.
If this kind of dangerous thinking doesn’t stop soon, there’ll be even more of those happy, healthy people enjoying the streets and spending money in all those local shops and eateries.
What were they thinking?
And they’ll stop at nothing: like I said, another protected bikeway is planned, in this case to connect the coming light rail station to the Pier, the bike lanes and walking paths along Ocean, and the green bike lanes on Broadway.
With all the physical ,social and economic vitality these so-called “human-speed networks” will provide, Santa Monica might start makin’ us look bad up here in LA.
Don’t know what we can do about it…some weirdos have suggested copying Santa Monica’s devious little plan, but that’s just crazy talk…ain’t it?
So I guess we’ll just whine some more about traffic. That’ll show ’em.
(Richard Risemberg is a writer. His current professional activities are centered on sustainable development and lifestyle. This column was posted first at Flying Pigeon.) Photo: SantaMonicaNext. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 92
Pub: Nov 13, 2015
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