Last Thursday, on July 28th, City of Lights did the first of a series of presentations around the Bike Plan and bikeways 101 for low-income cyclists at the LA Conservation Corps’ Headquarters High School. There were 15 attendees. The 18-24 year old youth who attended all lived or worked in parts of South and East LA. In pop-ed style, after a brief explanation of bikeway terminology, we broke out into conversation with the youth about their experiences in biking, in which many expressed speeding traffic, truckers, a lack of bike lanes, and feeling so unsafe that they had to get back on the sidewalk.
Allison and Andy presenting at the Conservation Corps
The youth then drew out on a map of Downtown and South LA what destinations they frequented, the routes they took, and the streets they wished had bike lanes. After this, they voted on their top priorities of the list of over 10 streets. We hope to revisit the Conservation Corps soon to gather more feedback from other cyclists/students. The gathered feedback will be submitted to the Department of City Planning and DOT.
Youth marking up the maps!
This is part of a bigger effort of City of Lights’ to bring more participatory, inclusive bike planning to low-income cyclists who may be riding every day, but unaware of the bike plan or how to voice their concerns. We hope to partner with other organizations in high need, low-income neighborhoods, to do similar workshops, so that a local, diverse bike movement is grown!
Dominique--A lucky winner in raffle after presentation!!
August 3, 2011 at 7:50 am
[...] 4th Street Bike Boulevard. The LACBC’s City of Lights partners with LA Conservation Corp to work for more bike lanes in South L.A. The LAPD responds to an uptick in Downtown bike collisions by urging cyclists and drivers to get [...]