Traffic and Parking Commission deliberates over the five Pilot program bike routes.

The Beverly Hills Traffic & Parking Commission recommended to Council three corridors for possible bike-friendly improvements – an action that suggests our city is taking seriously its obligation to plan for cycling. Council action on implementation may come in a June study session. Now the bad news: this split Commission declined to recommend the two most congested routes, and a majority of three commissioners expressed concerns with two of the three routes they did recommend. Let’s recap this important advisory vote.

The Traffic & Parking Commission last week took public comment on the five corridors identified by the Bike Plan Update Committee for potential bike-friendly improvements. The routes: Beverly and Crescent drives (north-south), Charleville and Carmelita (east-west), and a late add-on Burton Way [map]. This hearing followed the preparation of a feasibility study by transportation consultant Fehr & Peers last November and two public hearings in April. Today the full Commission met in special session to determine the committee’s recommendation on these routes to City Council. (Read more about the Pilot, our analysis of the feasibility study, and our critical take on the process that got us here.)

Note that the Council is not bound by this recommendation.  Though only an advisory body, this Commission plays an important vetting role. It also gives the cycling public an indication of how the political winds may blow over bike-friendly improvements here.

After a brief introduction by Transportation planner Martha Eros and a feasibility study presentation by Fehr & Peers engineer Sarah Brandenburg, the Commission turned the hearing over to public comment. Sixteen members of the public addressed the Commission (about two-thirds being residents) and eleven spoke generally or specifically in support of the Bike Route Pilot program. Commissioners Jeff Levine, Alan Grushcow, Lester Friedman, Andy Licht, and Julie Steinberg (Chair) listened very attentively. (That’s the virtue of a small city.)

Public Comment

• Alexis Lantz, Policy Director for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, bicycled across town from Silver Lake to hail the effort and to recommend that the city reconsider bicycle boulevards, roundabouts, and other traffic-calming measures not addressed here but that make city streets safer. (Full disclosure: Better Bike is a LACBC affiliate member organization, but we’d agree regardless!)
• West Hollywood Transportation Commission member David Eichman praised the Beverly Hills effort as he spoke to support regional connectivity. He stressed the need for cooperation in “creating more safe bicycle routes” across the Westside and added, “We’re excited that you’re looking at making Beverly Hills bike-friendly, and a Carmelita route would pick up where West Hollywood lanes leave off.”
• A north side resident urged the commission not to approve any routes because “they are very unsafe and are a threat to our property values” and would slow traffic. “A lane [sic] on Carmelita would create an unforeseen hazard at our driveway and invite outside people to use our private areas.” (Note: only sharrows were proposed for Carmelita.)
• Another north side resident said that “parking traffic” spillover from the business triangle offices and a nearby church was a nuisance on Carmelita, and that tour bus traffic and motorists created “unsafe and dangerous” conditions as she pulled out of her driveway. “We moved here to be in a residential neighborhood, not a 24-7 bike route,” she added.
• One north side resident said he “totally rejects all of these routes and disagrees with the findings,” calling school-related congestion at Rexford & Carmelita “dangerous” and said that sharrows on Carmelita would invite out-of-towners, cause accidents, and precipitate litigation against the city because cyclists don’t obey stop signs. “People would suffer a major loss of our property values,” he said.
• A south side resident said that she liked Beverly Hills because “you can do errands by bike, but it’s terrifying.” Commenting on an earlier remark, she added, “Instead of concern for property values, I’d think they would want an environment that is safer where they could bike with their children and parents.” [Zing!]
• One resident rejected property values as a criterion but bemoaned the “arrogance and self-entitlement” of cyclists. Saying he’d been “flipped off,” he concluded, “There’s no reason to provide these people with that attitude with bike routes.”
• A south side resident said, “I live and work here and represent a community that doesn’t own a car, so [to us] bike-friendly is important.” Conceding that she herself was not an experienced rider, she said that she rode her bike to this hearing but called the experience “scary” and praised the Crescent route (though preferring a bike lane over sharrows) and added, “I don’t get why it turns down [Reeves] but that’s cool.”
• A north side resident identified Crescent between Santa Monica and Sunset as “the most heavily-traveled corridor to and from the Valley” but objected to a bike route. “This is not a commercial district or mixed-use but a resident neighborhood already taxed with traffic – and we pay our taxes.”
• A West Hollywood resident cautioned that he does stop at stop signs when he bikes to work in Beverly Hills but said that many do not. “Outreach and education for cyclists and motorists is important” and sharrows merely communicate to riders and drivers “what’s already in state law,” he said. He added, roads are made for all road users regardless of mode of travel and cited a study that showed property values actually increased with proximity to bike lanes.
• One north side resident said he was “interested in bike lanes” for north Crescent and Beverly drives as an avid rider. Some drivers treat Beverly as a 4-lane thoroughfare, he said, so calming traffic and tamping down motorist misbehavior was a good idea. “Bike lanes there might take space out of the road.” Carmelita, however, was “unnecessary” given the light overall traffic there.
• Another north side resident said she “won’t ride a bike but I’m for bike routes.” But she argued for a “reduced scope” for the Pilot, adding that north Beverly Drive traffic is too fast and tourists already detract from the beauty of the neighborhood. (“Reduced scope” was not described further.)
• South side resident who “fully support bike lanes” said that cycle commuting was growing in popularity and she herself had experienced bike accidents when her business partner and cousin “were hit by cars.” She said lanes would encourage kids to bike, so “why can’t we create safe conditions for them?”
• South side resident and self-proclaimed avid cyclist who understood the concern said that people will take their own route from A-to-B but that he prefers bike lanes particularly for routes “connecting through town.” He suggested we create lanes to join existing West Hollywood lanes with those in Century City.
• One non-resident lamented what he heard to be a “bicycle witch hunt” and said that he finds the streets here to be inhospitable to cyclists in his decade riding here. “I’m a stopper, he said, asking, “Why Charleville? There are stop signs every 100 feet and many cyclists don’t stop. To cross town I’ll drop down Doheney to Olympic.”

With public comment wrapped up, we were off to the races!