Transit Officials ‘Pay Lip Service’ to Bikes

City bicycle coordinator MICHELLE MOWERY, 37, is a former racer with the United States Cycling Federation. Competing in 30-mile races in which edging out opponents on the track held the key to winning, she is now using her skills to edge bicycles into the local transportation mix. She was interviewed by JOSEPH HANANIA.

We Southlanders remain blind to the potential for commuting by bicycle. We prefer to maintain a polluting, congested, alienating, community-destroying addiction to cars. Thus, less than 1% of Angelenos wholly or partially commute by bicycle, or less than one-third the percentage in New York and Chicago.

Why are we so far behind? Laziness. The city’s newly released bicycle plan hopes to provide incentives to help folks change.

First, some economics 101. The cost of commuting by rail is over $1 per passenger mile. It’s 68 cents by bus and 45 cents by car. Commuting by bicycle costs about a nickel a mile.

And yet, although we’re spending almost $50 million to transform the Santa Monica Freeway into a “smart corridor,” [to speed auto commuting], the city’s entire budget for the bicycle program is $3 million a year.

Is it possible we’re laying our bets on the wrong transportation alternative?

The biggest problem lies with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which essentially pays lip service to the bicycle commuting alternative. In truth, they don’t believe in it. They still think of bicycle commuters as funny people who wear pink lycra. So, they throw in a piece of the jigsaw here, another there, while failing to put in the key elements to tie it all together in a single system. And then, they proclaim the bicycle a failure as a transportation alternative!

Studies have identified two major obstacles keeping people from commuting by bike. Foremost is riders’ fear of getting hit by a car.

So, we’re creating 10 new miles of bike lanes per year, aimed largely at rendering contiguous the city’s 300 miles of existing lanes. This involves minimal laying out of concrete or blasting of tunnels. Mostly, it’s a low-cost striping of existing roads to accommodate bicycles.

Major current projects include creating a path along the Los Angeles River from Burbank to downtown, a second path from USC to the existing Ballona Creek path and an extension of the beach path north to the Getty Museum. How much of a difference can all this really make? In the late 1980s, Palo Alto instituted programs to increase bicycle commutership, resulting in a 50% increase in ridership with no increase in accidents. More cyclists on the road, they discovered, led to increased driver awareness of them and a falling accident rate.

There’s no reason to believe the same wouldn’t be true here.

The second major obstacle is inadequate parking and related facilities. Hughes [Aircraft], the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Department of Water and Power have helped blaze the way here, providing employee showers and lockers to store clean clothes. They also provide bicycle lockers, essentially a box with a door on each side in which a bike is stored. Eight bikes can thus be parked in a single car space.

The city of Long Beach this year similarly opened an MTA-funded bicycle valet parking facility at its Blue Line terminus. This is open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends. The free facility even has an on-site bike mechanic.

But the MTA has yet to install bike racks on the front of buses, as the Foothill Transit system has done. These racks were first pioneered in Seattle--L.A., as usual, lagging behind--and have not delayed the buses’ schedule.

Similarly the independently managed Metro Link allows commuters to take their bikes on trains during peak hours. Reportedly, 25 bikes at a time have used the train. Metro Link officials are even talking about putting in a car just for bikes, further increasing bike-rail commuting.

But MTA’s Blue, Green and Red lines ban bikes during commuting hours, despite the fact that these trains are plagued by inadequate ridership and empty cars. That ban is neither bike friendly nor particularly smart.

We’ve got some of the country’s dirtiest air; about half of the auto pollution comes each and every time we cold-start a car. So, what if we started leaving our cars home and using our bicycles on trips to the grocery store and the mall?

Local trips account for the majority of our cold auto starts. With a concerted effort here, we could substantially cut pollution.

Changing over is like giving up smoking. We can’t just talk about it; if we want cleaner air and healthier bodies, we’ve got to do it.

Bicycles are more than just recreational toys. The Japanese know that. The Europeans know that. Residents of the Bay Area, Santa Barbara, Portland, New York and Chicago know that. Maybe one day we Southlanders, who have better weather than any of those places, will discover that, too. HUGH WILLIAMS / For The Times Caption: Michelle Mowery rides to the Blue Line train stop in Long Beach, where she leaves her bicycle with a ‘valet service.’ ‘Bicycles are more than just recreational toys. The Japanese know that. The Europeans know that. Residents of the Bay Area, Santa Barbara, Portland, New York and Chicago know that.’ Maybe one day, we Southlanders, who have the best weather of any of those places, will discover that, too.’