Pedals and PCs : Officials Tackle Traffic With Commuter Computers, Bike Parking

The latest weapons against Los Angeles traffic jams are bikes and bytes.

Transportation officials began using both Friday as they opened a place in Long Beach for commuters to park or rent bicycles and a site in Compton where commuters can sign on without traveling to work.

Both the Bikestation and the Televillage are a few steps from the Blue Line trolley. And both are prototypal projects that could easily be built along other transportation corridors if they prove popular, according to transit planners.

“This is this country’s first trial of telemobile strategy. And we’re starting it here,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke as the first computer messages were being tapped out on the dozen-screen Compton workstation.

Nine miles to the south, the bicycle center was being hailed as the first of its kind in the country, also.

“It’s an idea that’s very common in Japan and Europe. I just thought it was practical to try here, too,” developer John Case said as the first two-wheelers were being hung on hooks in the 150-bike enclosure.

Commuters who pedal to the center at 1st Street and the Promenade can park all day for $1 and catch the Los Angeles-bound trolley. Bikes will also be available for rent to arriving Blue Line passengers who want to explore the beach city.

The corrugated-steel center--designed by West Los Angeles architect Fernando Vazquez around bicycle frame-like supports--includes a coffee kiosk and changing rooms.

Bikestation manager Fred Khammar said the center will include a bike sales and repair shop that will help defray its operating costs. But $230,000 in grants from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city of Long Beach and the federal government will cover the first 18 months of operation.

Federal grants and county sales tax revenues are paying the $559,000 cost of the telecommuting center. Along with computers, equipment at the site in the Compton Transit Center at 300 N. Willowbrook Ave. includes a video-conferencing studio, private workstations and TV equipment for the production of educational programming.

Use of the computers will be free until May 31. After that, Televillage membership will cost $10 a year for adults and $5 for students. The fee will include basic computer instruction and access to the Internet.

The center will open doors to low-income residents who have lacked access to computers until now, said Compton Mayor Omar Bradley. “We in Compton have waited a long time for this,” he said.

Both sites opened with plenty of hoopla--and hyperbole.

“Some of this technology is better than what we’ve got in our own building,” said Televillage visitor Linda Bohlinger, deputy chief of the MTA, whose new $145-million headquarters opened just six months ago in downtown Los Angeles.

Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. traveled by bicycle and Blue Line to the Bikestation in less than two hours from his Studio City home. He pedaled through a red ribbon to open it for business.

Opening day visitors gave both places a thumbs up.

“With a bike service facility here, this might fly,” said cyclist Dino Tiritilli, a 40-year-old Long Beach salesman, at the Bikestation.

“This is the first I’ve ever been on the Internet. I’ll be back,” said 11th-grader Titus Stevens, 16, of Centennial High School, at the Televillage.