Category Archives: News

Complete Streets Plan Draft is Posted: We Need Your Input

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City of Beverly Hills has released the draft Complete Streets Plan for public review and feedback. We need your help to make this the best plan on the Westside. But we have a long way to go.

The draft plan is 240+ pages of community context and best practices that begins to point the way toward safer streets, but the draft is relatively light when it comes to substance. Look past the pictures, tables, colorful charts and icons to see that the infrastructure, policy and program options comprise only 30 pages. Just three additional pages suggest the proposed implementation.

Despite its heft, this draft is light on vision: it doesn’t even begin to suggest what the bikeways network should look like. Beverly Hills is already a decade or more behind our municipal neighbors when it comes to striped lanes and measures to calm motor traffic. What I see in this draft plan are half-steps and some equivocation over the safest and most efficient crosstown routes. Where is the ambition?

We who ride Beverly Hills streets have a job to do: We must make sure that the final complete streets plan reflects our hard-won seat-of-the-pants wisdom about how to navigate this city safely.

So mark your calendars for THIS WEDNESDAY May 8th at 6pm at Beverly Hills City Hall to hear a presentation from city consultant Iteris. We had great support for Santa Monica Boulevard lanes but we need to get this band back together!

Come to share your perspective on the draft plan. You have your ideas about mobility and we need them in the final complete streets plan.

Please download the draft plan and give a close read to these sections of the technical report:

  • Chapter 7: Recommended infrastructure (p. 85)
  • Chapter 8: Recommended policies (p. 101)
  • Chapter 9: Recommended programs (p. 109)
  • Chapter 10: Implementation plan (p. 115)

Have a few minutes to add a few comments to the online version of the draft plan? Find it here: http://completestreets.beverlyhills.org/draft-plan-technical-report/

There is much work to be done in order to make the final complete streets plan the roadmap to safer streets that we need. Otherwise we will be stuck with only more well-illustrated shelfware. And the shelf is too crowded already!

Got any questions? Give me a shout!

Complete Streets Draft Plan is Out!

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City of Beverly Hills has finally released a draft Complete Streets plan! Transportation consultant Iteris and bike-planners at Alta have posted a two-parter for our review: a 43-page executive summary and a 200-page technical report. Now is time to get busy! Sharpen that pencil and get ready to provide your hard-won local knowledge so that the final complete streets plan is as good as it can be. Continue reading →

Recreation and Parks Commission: Bicycles Ain’t Our Thing

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Recreation and Parks commission this January formally decided to abandon the bicycle safety and training program the city undertook in 2015. Every month at a city school a trainer was on hand to educate children about bicycle safety and to provide hands-on ride-safe instruction. But the sessions were under-attended so it came as no surprise when the program was put on hold in 2017. More recently the commission showed little interest in revisiting the program. That was just the latest sign of the commissioner’s lack of enthusiasm for pro-bike park policies. Continue reading →

Beverly Hills Puts the Brake on Shared-Mobility Devices

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Beverly Hills City Council adopted a total ban on shared-mobility devices effective immediately. The sweeping action came at a special meeting called 24 hours prior. The ad-hoc regulation targeted device companies like Bird and Lime but would ban all ‘dockless’ devices (including motorized bicycles). The action prohibits any device from being placed in any public right-of-way or on public property, operated in any public-right-of-way or on public property, or offered for use anywhere in the City. Penalties include impound and fines. Read the press release. Continue reading →

Collision Injuries in Beverly Hills Sill Reach for Record Highs in 2017

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Nearly 5,000 road users have been injured on Beverly Hills streets in the eleven years that our police has been disclosing monthly traffic data. That’s about ten crash injuries every week – enough for the state’s Office of Traffic Safety to rank our city among the most dangerous small California cities for those who walk, bike and drive. And it is especially dangerous for seniors. This dubious distinction reflects the both city’s lack of multimodal planning and the declining enforcement of traffic laws. Continue reading →

Mark Your Calendar: Complete Streets Workshop #1

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Better Bike invites you to attend the Beverly Hills complete streets visioning workshop tonight, Monday, March 12th at 6:30pm. This event kicks-off a planning process for which our alternative mobility community has long waited: the preparation of an actual complete streets plan 40 years after the city adopted our first, and only, Bicycle Master Plan. Continue reading →

Beverly Hills City Council UNANIMOUSLY OKs SM Blvd Bike Lanes

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In an incredible turnabout tonight, all five Beverly Hills councilmembers agreed to include bicycle lanes on our segment of Santa Monica Boulevard. The unanimous vote demolished the specious claims put forth by NIMBY opponents. And it recognized the solid arguments brought forth by forty speakers and scores more comments from proponents of safe multimodal mobility. In sum, bicycle lanes not only make riders feel safe, they actually make us more safe. Continue reading →

Santa Monica Boulevard Bicycle Lanes Come Back to Council

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Back in 2014 Beverly Hills City Council disappointed riders, active transportation boosters and safe-street advocates when it could not summon just three votes to incorporate bicycle lanes on tomorrow’s Santa Monica Boulevard. Despite hundreds of written comments and scores of speakers, all calling for lanes to increase rider safety on the city’s busiest transit corridor, councilmembers John Mirisch and Lili Bosse then could only hope in vain for a third vote to stripe a bicycle lane. Lanes seemed to be off the table for Santa Monica Boulevard. But hold on! Continue reading →

Is a Mandatory Bike Helmet Law the Answer?

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State Senator Carol Liu

State Senator Carol Liu recently introduced a bill that would require every bike rider regardless of age to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. Though a well-intentioned safety measure, SB 192 and its helmet mandate has spurred a backlash among some riders and several established statewide bike advocacy organizations. Why the opposition? Why not mandate helmets for adults?

Beverly Hills OKs Bike-share Feasibility Study

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Beverly Hills City Council recently gave its preliminary OK to city bike-share and authorized a feasibility study to explore the merit of a 50-bike system. We’re following Santa Monica’s lead here: it has tapped vendor CycleHop to implement a ‘smart bike’ system (as we previously reported). Should we piggyback on that contract, would this be a significant step forward for mobility in Beverly Hills? Or would it be only a tourist amenity for the ‘golden’ triangle?

TPC Commissioner Alan Gruschow Passes

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We are very sorry to hear about yesterday’s untimely passing of Beverly Hills Traffic and Parking Commission member Alan Grushcow. In our experience working with transportation officials at City Hall, Commissioner Gruschcow distinguished himself as a near lone voice for bike safety in the city. And he was always a voice of reason on the commission dais.

Bike Share for Beverly Hills?

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Santa Monice bike-share system promo

In study session this week, City Council deferred to February a discussion about our city’s possible participation in a regional Westside bikeshare program. (Ours would piggyback on the coming Santa Monica system.) It’s very early for a substantive discussion about our participation, but that the question even comes up might herald a new approach to multimodal mobility for Beverly Hills. With new(ish) bike lanes on Burton and Crescent and Mayor Bosse strongly behind a bike-friendly city, are we turning the page on our auto-centric past?

Santa Monica Boulevard Meetup This Monday

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City of Beverly Hills will reconstruct Santa Monica Boulevard in the coming years. Do you believe the boulevard should be made safe for travel by bicycle? Do you agree that this regional backbone route should reflect ‘complete streets’ principles when rebuilt? Join Better Bike, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and local riders in organizing around a proposal to put bike lanes on Santa Monica. Mark your calendar: Monday, December 22nd from 7-9pm at the Beverly Hills Public Library south meeting room. Read on for more details!