Soapbox – Better Bike

Scott Epstein for Los Angeles City Council District 5 in 2022

June 25, 2021January 14, 2024 Mark Elliot Scott Epstein

Here is some good news for Westside riders: Scott Epstein is running for City Council in district 5 in the 2022 Los Angeles municipal election. Better Bike is happy to endorse him. Scott was a longtime boardmember, transportation commission chair and executive chair of the Mid City West Community Council before stepping down to run for city council. We support him because he brings more than policy expertise to job; he will bring a new perspective on multimodal mobility after 12 years of ambivalence from current councilmember Paul Koretz.

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What We Won’t See in Beverly Hills: City Manager on a Bike!

October 26, 2019May 6, 2023 Mark Elliot

We really have to hand it to City of Santa Monica. City officials took seriously the ‘Vision Zero’ goal of street safety and incorporated it into every aspect of city business. That city is so committed to safe, multimodal mobility that it has spent years refashioning streets to include bicycle lanes and even protected lanes to keep the modes separate. The safe-mobility message comes right from the top. City Manager Rick Cole not only pressed for those changes but he (figuratively speaking) walks the walk by promoting those changes to the public.

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Santa Monica Leads, Beverly Hills Hardly Follows

October 18, 2019September 20, 2022 Mark Elliot Aaron Kunz, City of Santa Monica, Complete Streets plan process, Susan Healy-Keene

Santa Monica continues to be a regional leader when it comes to supporting multimodal mobility and enhancing street safety. It has installed many miles of bicycle lanes (included protected bikeways) and has emerged as a municipal leader with development policies crafted to put a lid on new vehicle trips downtown. Not least, City Hall is working with the community advocates to bring Vision Zero principles to bear on the transportation planning process. What about Beverly Hills?

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Concerns About our Complete Streets Process

July 12, 2018July 25, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Complete Streets

My letter to the Traffic and Parking Commission regarding the state of our complete streets planning process. There will have gone ten weeks between the last event (the walk audit) and the upcoming workshop on August 22nd without any substantive communication with the public. It seems like we are midway through a singularly unimaginative complete streets process.

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SM Boulevard Project In Flux But Bike Lanes Are Still on the Table

April 1, 2014May 19, 2023 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Eric Bruins, Eric Weinstein, Ryan Snyder, Santa Monica Boulevard Reconstruction, Tish Laemmle, Victor Omelczenko

City Council in study session today received some answers from city staff to March 4th questions about ballooning cost projections.

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New York City’s Transformation

January 30, 2014September 18, 2023 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Complete Streets, Janette Sadik-Khan, Michael Bloomberg, New York City

Over the past decade New York City has been transformed from a hardscrabble city where motorists practically had the run

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Blue-Ribbon Winner: Public Input!

January 30, 2014February 9, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Barry Pressman, blue-ribbon SM Blvd committee, Howard Fisher, Iteris, Psomas, public participation, Santa Monica Boulevard Reconstruction

With the Santa Monica Boulevard Blue-Ribbon Committee having wrapped in late January, our recommendations will go to Council for consideration

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Small Town Advocacy in BH: Opportunities & Constraints

September 6, 2013November 12, 2023 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Alan Grushcow, Andy Licht, editorial, Jeff Kolin, Jeff Levine, Julie Steinberg, Lester Friedman, public participation, Santa Monica Boulevard Reconstruction

If you want to advocate for a policy change in Beverly Hills, take some comfort that we’re a small town

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Measure J: We Can’t Support It

October 29, 2012May 6, 2023 Mark Elliot 2 Comments LACBC, Measure J, Measure R, Metro, Move LA

Measure J, the initiative on the Los Angeles County ballot to extend the voter approved half-cent transportation sales tax, has

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Wrench-in-a-Box: Getting Started in Bike Repair

September 20, 2012September 20, 2022 Mark Elliot 0 Comments bicycle retail, co-op

When I came across a for-sale listing on Bike Portland for a bike repair turnkey operation, I realized two things:

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Beverly Hills: Falling Down on Execution [editorial]

September 14, 2012May 18, 2015 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Beverly Hills Transportation Division, City of Pasadena, Information Technology, Traffic and Parking Commission

“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” That tireless slogan is often uttered by policy pushers when

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Motorists: What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?

September 4, 2012September 4, 2012 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Mr. Rogers

What do you do with the mad that you feel When you feel so mad you could bite? When the

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Who Holds Beverly Hills City Hall to Account?

July 29, 2012April 11, 2019 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Beverly Hills City Hall, Beverly Hills Courier, Beverly Hills Public Works, Beverly Hills Transportation Division, Beverly Hills Weekly

We’re simply not getting the best from our staff. Anyone who works with City Hall on a regular basis will

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Bike Wrenching: Craftwork for a Post Fix-It Nation?

July 27, 2012January 23, 2019 Mark Elliot 0 Comments

The New York Times recently published an essay titled, A Nation That’s Losing Its Toolbox. The toolbox here is metaphorical:

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Let’s Stop the Clock on Bike Routes in Beverly Hills [Editorial]

July 3, 2012 Mark Elliot 2 Comments Beverly Hills City Council, Pilot program

Stop the clock on bike routes? For two years we have urged City of Beverly Hills to move with dispatch

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