Chair of Metro Board says "I see bike racks!"

Ara Najarian, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metro and the Mayor of Glendale, wrote a post for the Metro's blog, The Source, defending the Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park Transit Oriented Development against claims that it failed to accommodate cyclists. First of all, I'm pleased that he is paying attention, I'm also pleased that he responded to the criticism of the Metro's most recent foray into the land of TOD. But I'm distressed that he took information from his staff at face value and that he failed to notice that it merely confirmed my charge, that the Metro's new transit-oriented development being built just west of downtown Los Angeles falls short of the LA Municipal Code minimums for bike parking. Regardless of the requirement, the Metro's "zero bike facilites" at the Phase I component is insufficient. It fails.

Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park TOD Phase I, the initial phase of a two-phased development effort, will contain  90 units of affordable rental housing above approximately 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and residential, retail and commuter parking.  The commuter parking will consist of 100 spaces, partially funded by Metro, that are intended for use by Metro Rail commuters.  The total development costs for Phase I is approximately $45 million.  The second phase of the development will be constructed directly over the Metro Rail station entrance, and will be comprised of 82 affordable housing units, a retail component and associated parking.

Phase I will have a residential element, a retail component, and a full complement of commuter automobile parking but no bike racks, no bike lockers, no bike room. This is completely unacceptable. No matter how you spin it, this fails. Najarian explains, in his blog post, that for Metro commuters, the Phase I location is an inconvenient location for bike parking so the Metro plans to include it in the Phase 2 project. What about the people who live in Phase 1? What about the people who shop at the Phase 1 retail? Has nobody at the Metro ridden a bike? Cyclists should have bike parking available in all locations. There is commuter automobile parking in Phase 1, why not for cyclists?

Phase 2 will purportedly include the bike racks and lockers, but based on the Metro's most recent performance at the Eastside Extension and the Hollywood & Vine TOD, the public has little reason to expect anything other than bike parking as an after thought, if at all. The current Metro standard is to install bike parking where it fits, not where it belongs. That must change.

It is the ultimate demonstration of hubris that the Metro elects to pass on bike parking on Phase 1, instead postponing any accommodation in its declaration "Bicycle parking was chosen to be designed into the second phase of the project, which provides bicyclists with the same convenient access to the Westlake/MacArthur Park subway portal and multiple bus lines serving the station. Both bicycle lockers and racks will be placed in a visible location."

I stand by my original charge, that the Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park Transit Oriented Development fails to accommodate cyclists. All promises of any pie in the sky schemes must be tempered by reality. Are they on paper or are they vague verbal commitments? Does the Metro have any Bike Parking standards that the public can rely on or are we limited to  vague verbal commitments? Does the Metro include any reference to bike parking in its real estate contracts with its development and operational partners or does it rely on vague verbal commitments.

The bottom line is this, the Metro considers bike parking as an afterthought, not as an intregal element that gets positioned in the early stages of planning. That must change.

Metro repeats the TOD mistakes of the past

LA's cyclists just got snubbed by the Metro again, this time at the Metro's Westlake/MacArthur Park Transit Oriented Development (TOD) which broke ground on Monday, promising safe and affordable housing, economic development, improvements to the subway station and nearby streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, street trees and underground utilities. Whew! Where will all of this goodness end?

Missing from the long list of elements, including 172 units of housing and 30,000 sq. feet of retail is any hint of accommodation for cyclists. No Bike-Room, no Bike-Repair, no Bike-Share, no Bike-Shop, no Bike-Lockers, no ride-your-bike-home if you live here, ride-your-bike-to-the-station if you take the Metro, no ride-your-bike-to-the-stores if you shop here, nothing.

The basic tenets of TOD projects are simple. 1) Accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians. 2) Connectivity and traffic calming. 3) Balanced mix of housing, shops, schools, public services. 4) Parking Management strategies to reduce land allocation to automobile parking. 5)  An environment that is convenient, comfortable, and secure with features including common space, washrooms, vendors and Wayfinding and multi-modal navigational tools.

It's very simple.  With a budget of $45 million there is no excuse for the Metro to fall so short and yet, once again, it does. Phase I of the MacArthur Park Metro Apartments project promises 100 automobile parking spaces for the Metro passengers alone. This in addition to the parking provided for the tenants and the merchants and the shoppers. Yet, nothing for the cyclists?

This significant failure is disturbing for several reasons:

1) It furthers demonstrates the need to overhaul the Metro, to engage in a bit of silo-shaking and to get the Metro's Real Property Management, Operations, Planning and Executive Departments in sync. The Real Estate department repeatedly enters into uninspired relationships and leaves it to Operations to make it happen, a scenario that recently failed miserably at the Metro's Hollywood & Vine project. The Metro's Bike Manager is in the Planning Department but based on the implementation of bike facilities Hollywood & Western or on the Eastside Extension, it's evident that Planning is far from relevant. Through it all, the Executive Department rides herd on departments who love press conferences and ribbon cuttings but who play hot-potato with the street level responsibilities and accountability.

Metro: Bike Parking is the standard. Put out a new press release, this time replacing "100 parking spaces for Metro customers" with "Secure Bike Parking for 100 Cyclists!"

2) It demonstrates the need for the Metro to get in touch with the community. This neighborhood, as much if not more than others, needs safe and secure bike parking. To fail to recognize the demographics of MacArthur Park is downright cavalier. To fail to understand the needs of the neighborhood is simply irresponsible. Dan Koeppel, in his insightful Bicycling Magazine "Invisible Riders" article, takes the reader on a journey into the lives of cyclists who simply ride to stay alive, to earn money, and to support their families. These days we call them the Workforce Cyclists. Koeppel visited with them in MacArthur Park as he researched his article. They die on the streets in numbers greater than any other demographic. They ride bikes that are the key to their economic survival. They need safe and secure bike parking.

Metro: Know your neighborhood. Revise those Phase I plans and make sure there is a home for cyclists at the Westlake/MacArthur TOD, both casual and membership.

3) It demonstrates the need for the Metro to develop standards. Somehow, real estate deals get brokered, developers partner up, plans get drawn, contractors get hired, materials get purchased, projects get built and somewhere long after the ribbon cutting, the Metro's Bike Planning department comes wandering along asking "Is there any room left for the cyclists?" First and foremost, any Metro projects need to include cyclists and pedestrians as the premiere user groups, not motorists. From the beginning, there must be standards for accommodations that specify ingress, egress, storage for casual, membership, and long-term bike parking, and security standards that include basic Crime Prevention Trough Environmental Design (CPTED) standards.

Metro: Develop and Implement design standards. Lose the ineffective one-sheet and develop robust design standards and requirements that apply to all Metro projects.

4) It demonstrates a need for the Metro to account for its choice of partners. MacArthur Park Metro Apartments is a joint venture between Metro, McCormack Baron Salazar, Los Angeles Housing Partnership and Polis Builders. McCormack Baron Salazar also developed the Hollywood & Western TOD project with the Metro, a project that still has 50% vacancy on the ground floor five years after completion. The recent brouhaha over the homeless encampment, the lack of supervision and maintenance, the empty Metro Bike facility and the missing bicycle racks leave one wondering "What does it take to ruin a relationship with the Metro?" Perhaps its not the choice of partners but instead the lack of oversight, either way, surely the hope of the future is not more of the same.

Metro: Develop and Implement oversight standards for property management. Real Estate to Planning to Operations to Partners to Executive, there must be some accountability.

5) It demonstrates clearly the need for the Metro to take responsibility for its impact on our communities. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is responsible for much, much more that transportation. The Metro's every move sends a ripple through our communities with tremendous land use impact. It is imperative that the Metro accept this huge responsibility and use its financial gravitational pull to draw the many agencies, authorities, departments, developers, and constituent groups into its sphere of influence so that we collectively work together to not only move people but to add character and substance and value to the places we enjoy at the ends of our journeys.

Metro: Be a good Steward! You own the land, you move the people, you control the money, and you have the authority. With all of this power comes equal, if not greater, responsibility.

This is an incredible opportunity for the Metro to establish a commitment to greatness, to pause and to reevaluate the Westlake/MacArthur TOD, and to reconsider the omission of cyclists in the planning mix. It's a small but significant adjustment that sets the tone for the future. Opportunity taken, we're established a standard for excellence; opportunity passed, we've cast the die for mediocrity.

It's up to the Metro.