Date:         Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:34:58 -0230
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: metropolitan cycling was Vanagon emissions
In-Reply-To:  <9689900.10421.1254508841878.JavaMail.mcneely4@127.0.0.1>
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I'll second that.  The only problem with getting around LA on a bike is that
it's a big place - it could be too far.  No need to take the freeways,
though.  Unlike many other suburban areas (I'm thinking of New Jersey,
actually) where it can be very hard to find a route from one community to
other except the highways, because residential areas are deliberately
designed to funnel all traffic onto roads that are pretty nasty to bike or
walk on.



Joy


On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 4:10 PM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Don Hanson wrote:
>
>
>   On the other hand, one would not long survive trying to get around
>> the LA
>> area by bicycle..Nope!  Imagine riding through the normal gridlock on
>> any of
>> the freeways on your bike...doing 20-25mph (a easy sustainable pace
>> for a
>> fit road cyclist) past literally hundreds of thousands of fuming and
>> stationary drivers...You would very soon be a victim of road rage..
>> "If I am
>> stuck here in this traffic, that frikken' lycra-clad bike f-- is not
>> gonna
>> go anywhere either"   And on the rare occaisions where traffic is not
>> stalled, the drivers are so exhuberent that they could give a crap
>> about
>> some cyclist on the shoulder...No Mercy for bikes there..and no public
>> transportation either.
>>  Happy friday
>>  Don Hanson
>>
>
> Can't really speak for LA concerning utility of using a bike from
> personal experience, but two friends who live there use bikes for most
> day to day trips.  I haven't asked them, but I doubt that they ever get
> on a freeway with a bike.  Fact is, in most jurisdictions it is illegal,
> as well as downright stupid behavior.  To bring in California's more
> northern metropilis, my daughter commuted between Oakland and Berkeley
> by bicycle for a couple of years, and didn't use the freeway there.
> Like I have learned the surface streets of the cities I navigate most
> often, bicyclists learn them as well.  In most cities, most folks who
> are not long-distance commuters can get by for most day to day
> excursions within 5 miles of home, and who needs a freeway for that?.
> Even suburbanists like myself can mostly do that.  When I have been in
> LA, I've seen more bikes on the streets than I do here in Oklahoma,
> including Oklahoma City.  For myself, I do a lot of walking to the
> library, shops, and so on.  Oklahoma drivers seem to see a target on
> bicyclists, and there are no bike paths in most Oklahoma cities,
> including my suburban one.
>
> My wife was flabbergasted when a coworker said she could not get home
> from work in a snowstorm because the freeway would be clogged and
> dangerous.  Bonnie asked the woman why she didn't take an alternate
> route, and she said she didn't know any.  She lived a quarter mile off a
> through surface street that runs between the suburb where they worked
> and her city neighborhood.  Every day, not just in snowstorms, that
> freeway clogs with folks driving from the city to the suburb and
> vice-versa, while reaching either takes half the time on the streets.
>
> David Mc
>