You may remember that Long Beach installed some Bike Boxes last December, on Second Street at Marina and at Bayshore. And as with all questions of bike infrastructure, reception among cyclists and advocates was mixed. The boxes were lauded by some as important improvements sure to increase cyclist safety. Others saw the boxes as a welcome sign that the city was taking steps to support cyclists, even if they weren’t sure the boxes would actually improve things. Still others decried the boxes, thinking them counterproductive, sure to make things more confusing and more dangerous for cyclists.
All of these opinions are currently moot, because with the recent resurfacing work on 2nd, the Boxes (and all other road markings) have disappeared.
While we wait to see whether the boxes make a return, researchers at Portland State have studied the effects of Portland’s many recent bike box installations, and they have concluded the bike boxes improve safety. Read this detailed post at bikeportland.org to learn all about the study and its findings, and let us know what you think about Bike Boxes.
Lee, September 22nd 2010 |
Tags: infrastructure
Posted in Current News, Uncategorized, advocacy
Long Beach artist Trace “Tres” Fukuhara will unveil his bike rack art creation on Saturday, August 21 at 1:00 p.m. The rack will be located in front of the Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse (320 Elm Avenue near 3rd in the East Village). All are invited to be there to celebrate the unveiling.
To get a sense of Fukuhara’s artistic vision, be sure to cycle by his delightful Pacific Wind Arts garden located at 2095 Martin Luther King Avenue (corner of 21st).
MichaelB, August 18th 2010 |
Tags: bike rack, fun, infrastructure
Posted in Featured, event
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the first bike corral in Long Beach takes place Wednesday evening… timed perfectly to dovetail with the monthly Long Beach Cyclists general meeting. Don’t miss either one!
This month LBC meets in the East Village—at Utopia Restaurant (First Street and Linden Avenue). We meet at 7:17 p.m. In addition to addressing various items on the LBC agenda (advocacy, education and community), we will be present to celebrate the inauguration of our city’s first bike corral. You’ll have an opportunity to say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ to Charlie Gandy, Sumire Gant, Courtney Aguirre and other behind-the-scenes City representatives who have helped turn this idea into reality.
What IS a bike corral, you say? A bike corral means that a stall formerly used to park ONE car is converted into an area that now can accommodate MANY parked bicycles. From the point of view of local business owners, it is an adjustment to existing parking infrastructure which allows MORE potential customers to find a nearby space.
Utopia Restaurant, the Village Grind Café, City Grounds LBFG (the fixed-gear bike shop), and other businesses near the intersection of First Street and Linden Avenue stand to benefit from the construction of this bike corral. If Long Beach’s first bike corral proves popular with cyclists and with local businesses, it is possible that City planners may duplicate or adapt the model in other business districts.
So… be sure to join us for our regular monthly meeting—held this month at Utopia’s—and you will automatically be at the right time and right place to join in the festivities of the bike corral inauguration.
MichaelB, August 1st 2010 |
Tags: bike corral, infrastructure, meeting, parking
Posted in Current News, event, meeting
You may remember that Long Beach installed some Bike Boxes last December, on Second Street at Marina and at Bayshore. And as with all questions of bike infrastructure, reception among cyclists and advocates was mixed. The boxes were lauded by some as important improvements sure to increase cyclist safety. Others saw the boxes as a welcome sign that the city was taking steps to support cyclists, even if they weren’t sure the boxes would actually improve things. Still others decried the boxes, thinking them counterproductive, sure to make things more confusing and more dangerous for cyclists.