NEXT L.A. / A look at issues people and ideas helping to shape the emerging metropolis. : Peddling a Two-Wheeled Lifestyle

An international magazine for bicycle aficionados wanted to open a bureau somewhere in the United States that captured the essence of the emerging cycling culture.

Its pick: Los Angeles.

“If you are talking about biking as a way of life, there’s no better place to be than in the city,” said Dylan MacDonald, 29, the new U.S. editor of Bike Culture magazine. “And L.A. is really beginning to wake up to the environment, and the fact that they really feel cut off from one another” in a car.

His magazine, a British quarterly available at bike shops for $8 an issue, caters not only to bike fans and fitness fiends, but also to the urban cyclist, commuters who ride their bikes to work or to run errands.

MacDonald, in fact, has biked the pristine Malibu Creek State Park and the Hollywood Hills since he moved here from New York in February, but says the best rides are his jaunts to the store in his Hancock Park neighborhood.

“To me, it’s the ultimate fusion of recreation and transportation,” he said.

He cites efforts by the city of Los Angeles to build bike lanes Downtown, and by other public agencies to install indoor bike racks for their workers. And he says the new, albeit much-delayed, Blue, Green and Red lines are evidence that people will rely less on their cars.

“L.A. has all the ingredients,” he said. “It’s not going to be a revolution, but it’s going to be a revolution in slow motion.”

So why not some other city, such as Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis or Denver? MacDonald considered them all, but found those urban areas restricted by weather or size.

“I don’t think I can get the pulse of America” in those cities, he said. “I need to speak for the country, in a sense. It sounds snobbish, but you can only do that in New York or L.A.”

And he has tried the Big Apple, only to get into “tons” of minor crashes with cars.

“L.A. feels like a safer place,” he said. “They tend to obey rules more than New York drivers do.”