Featured – Better Bike

Time to Get the Complete Streets Process Back on Track

November 30, 2020 Mark Elliot

Beverly Hills is midway through a multi-year mobility planning process called ‘complete streets.’ The goal is to take our auto-dominated city into the 21st century (albeit a couple of decades late) by making our streets accessible to all road users regardless of mode choice. Yet after five public events and $150k was spent to create a draft complete streets plan, only a few NIMBY scarecrows were able to bring it all to a halt last December. We need to get back on track to bring our city into the mobility present. You can help!

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The Bumpy Road to a Failed Mobility Planning Process in Beverly Hills

August 23, 2020November 30, 2020 Mark Elliot Complete Streets, Complete Streets plan process, Robert Wunderlich

City of Beverly Hills has been talking about updating its Bicycle Master Plan (1977) since 2010. And for nearly a decade the outdated and moribund plan was left for dead by city officials. With Metro grant money hanging in the balance, city council revived the planning effort by folding it into a larger complete streets plan in 2017. But after a couple of public workshops in 2018 it has again languished. This time it was done-in by a few NIMBY scarecrows. They derailed a two-year planing process despite hundreds of supportive public comments. Let’s take a look at how a perfectly good draft complete streets plan has remained bottled-up ever since.

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Halfway to one Complete Street (if not a ‘Complete Streets’ Plan)

August 20, 2018August 20, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments bicycle lanes, Complete Streets, Complete Streets plan process, Santa Monica Boulevard

As we approach the upcoming complete streets workshop this Wednesday, a full ten weeks will have passed without a single word about the process from consultants Iteris or Alta Planning. Gotta wonder if our complete streets consultants aren’t off chasing other business. In the meantime, progress continues on Santa Monica Boulevard: eastbound bicycle lanes are striped bright green. Folks we are halfway to a complete street!

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Bike Skills via WeHo Bicycle Coalition & Mid City West CC

June 8, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments

Our friends over at West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition are plugging bicycle safety classes for mid-June. If you haven’t brushed the rust off of your street skills in a while, this is a great opportunity to become reacquainted with the rules of the road and safe urban riding tips.

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Complete Streets workshop #1 Recap

March 14, 2018June 8, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Alta Planning, Complete Streets, Iteris, recap

The first Beverly Hills complete streets process community workshop was held on Monday, March 12th, to kick off the drafting of the city’s complete streets plan. This is the first step in the creation of a complete streets plan. Here’s my recap.

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Traffic Citations Reach Record Lows in Beverly Hills in 2016

December 7, 2017June 8, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments analysis, BHPD, data, monthly traffic report, Traffic and Parking Commission

From 2008 (when the department made data available) though last year, police report that 3,805 people have been injured on city streets in collisions. Most concerning, the data show that the most protected travelers, auto occupants, suffered record-high injuries – so many that it pushed the overall injury totals to record highs too. In this post I crunch police data for citations to show that enforcement of traffic laws has withered on the vine.

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Collision Injuries Reach Record-Highs in Beverly Hills in 2016

December 5, 2017April 11, 2019 Mark Elliot 0 Comments analysis, BHPD, data, monthly traffic report, Traffic and Parking Commission

The holiday season always makes me mindful of the year drawing to a close. It has produced some noteworthy developments, including the involuntary retirement of incumbent councilmember (and bicycle lanes opponent) Nancy Krasne. And the succeeding multimodal-friendly City Council approved high-visibility bicycle lanes for Santa Monica Boulevard

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Complete Streets Comes to Beverly Hills

August 19, 2017 Mark Elliot 0 Comments

Those of us waiting for Beverly Hills to update its Bicycle Master Plan may soon have cause to celebrate. On this, the 40th anniversary of the plan, which was adopted in 1977, the city appears poised to give it a refresh – and more! We look at the complete streets plan process and see what’s in store.

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Bike With Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse This Sunday!

August 16, 2017June 8, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments

Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse has notched a win for public outreach with her Walk With the Mayor initiative. You can’t miss 80-100 people wearing her favorite orange as we parade through the streets starting 8:30am every Monday.

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Back on the Priority List: The Beverly Hills Bike Plan!

January 20, 2016June 8, 2018 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Aaron Kunz, Beverly Hills bike plan, John Mirisch, Lili Bosse, Nancy Krasne, Santa Monica Boulevard Reconstruction, Susan Healy-Keene, Willie Brien

Among the ignominious developments over the last year in Beverly Hills, surely the one of greatest interest to bicycle riders was City Council’s decision not to include a bicycle lane on Santa Monica Boulevard. But on its heels came another decision: to step away entirely from an update to our 1977 Bicycle Master Plan. But we called it out!

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Developer’s Rash Tree-Felling Highlights Hazards for Riders (Editorial)

December 21, 2015May 6, 2023 Mark Elliot 0 Comments Beverly Hills Courier, Beverly Hills Land Company, Lyn Konheim, Parcels 12 and 13, safety, Santa Monica Boulevard

The Beverly Hills Courier, the perennial champion of anti-Metro hyperbole, has rotated its turret toward toxic contamination on Santa Monica

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‘Police and Community Together.’ At the Coffee Shop!

December 14, 2015December 15, 2015 Mark Elliot 0 Comments BHPD, coffee

Perhaps nowhere is it better to be a cop than here in Beverly Hills. Find one of our finest in a cozy booth in a comfortable local restaurant near you.

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