Hollywood Car Share Stalls, Electric Bikes Debut

CityWatch, Apr 27, 2010
Vol 8 Issue 33

Bechir Blagui's vision for an electric community car-share program on Hollywood Boulevard is unfulfilled but his commitment to providing a sustainable transportation solution for his neighborhood is as strong as ever. As he continues the grapple with LA's unique bureaucratic landscape, Blagui came up with an innovation that has locals and tourists alike slowing down and smiling, Hollywood's first electric bike rental program.

Blagui's ongoing efforts to deliver on his promise to place electric charging stations on Hollywood Boulevard have only resulted in a frustrating journey down a bureaucratic rabbit hole, taking him to the Mayor's office, to the City Council, to the DWP, the LADOT, the City Attorney's office and Assemblyman Mike Feuer's office, none of which took him any closer to his original goal, an electric community car share program.

Along the way, Blagui visited other cities to survey the best and worst of their car share programs and in cities both small and large he found curbside charging stations, car share companies operating freely in a competitive market, and a customer base that demanded a variety of options. Inspired by a recent tour that took him from San Francisco to San Jose to Philadelphia, he returned to LA and looked for a solution, coming up with a program that had no obstacles, an electric bike rental program.



LA's City Council Transportation Committee has a long history of sustainable transportation discussion, most of which go nowhere. Meanwhile, on the streets, it's a local business operator who delivers electric bike rentals to Hollywood.

This simple success story of a local business operator with a fleet of electric rental bikes is significant for two reasons:

1) Mayor Villaraigosa's State of the City address of last week again referred to his unfulfilled vision of becoming America's Greenest Big City, this time with his proclamation of "a plan that once and for all makes Los Angeles the undisputed national leader in green energy and green jobs."

Time after time the people of Los Angeles watch LA's leadership talk the talk but when it comes to implementing sustainable business plans, it turns out that LA is the land of obstacles, not solutions.

Small businesses are a major part of our economy. They innovate and they create new jobs at a faster rate than larger organizations. The real change on the horizon will come from the bottom up, not from the top down, and if the Mayor and the City Council are serious about a green economy, they'll look at the Hollywood Rent A Car experience and they'll get busy removing the obstacles that have kept LA from developing the sustainable transportation solutions that are common in other large cities.

2) LA's high-altitude approach to transportation solutions makes for great press but the simply reality on the streets is personal. Simply synchronizing the services that LA already provides so that our streets are efficiently maintained, repaired, patrolled and enhanced is not only good for cyclists, it's good for local businesses, pedestrians, mass transit passengers and motorists. In fact, what's good for cyclists is also good for the community.

The lesson learned at Hollywood Rent a Car is one the Mayor might consider: When approaching the problem, take a look at it from the cyclists' perspective. It worked for Bechir, it might work for LA.

(Stephen Box is a cycling advocate and writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at Stephen@thirdeyecreative.net)

Dispatch from Down Under – Brisbane Bikeways

While on Walkabout Down Under, we were tickled to see that the Brisbane City Council has announced plans for the controversial $1.6 million CityCycle bike hire scheme. Locations have been announced for the first 80 bike parking stations and the project will roll out in the middle of 2010.

CityCycle will allow people to pick up and drop off bikes at stations located across West End, Kangaroo Point, the City Business District (CBD), Fortitude Valley, New Farm and New Stead. The network, designed to reduce inner-city traffic congestion and parking demand, will then be expanded to take in St. Lucia, Toowong, Milton and South Brisbane with a final complement of 2000 bicycles across 150 stations.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, LADOT Bikeways staff proudly announced plans to add bike lanes to a small section of Reseda Blvd. that they claim is almost 1.5 miles in length. Transportation Engineers indicate that the bikes lanes would feature a painted line indicating the edge of the bike lane as well as a stencil of a cyclist and the phrase "Bike Lane" placed at regular intervals.

Reseda Blvd. already has 2 miles of bike lanes to the south, approximately 4.5 miles from the beginning of the proposed bike lanes, which will run to the north. This "slight" gap in connectivity in no way impedes a cyclist from enjoying a bike ride on Reseda Blvd. and will, in fact, get a cyclist within 1.5 miles of Cal State Northridge!

Both projects have received criticism, with CityCycle critics claiming that the $300 AU deposit per bicycle for casual rentals and the $150 AU deposit for subscription cyclists was prohibitive and would discourage use. However, Bicycle Queensland Manager Ben Wilson said it was a "fantastic" scheme and rejected criticism. "Anyone who gets their head into first gear can use it very cheaply with the annual subscription," he said.

The LADOT came under criticism for committing to such a small section of Reseda and for projecting that it would take a full year to finish the engineering for the project with the bike lanes finally installed in late 2010. LADOT officials were quick to point out that the painted line on the street needs to be straight when the road is straight and it needs to curve when the road curves.

When pressed to account for the length of time it takes to get bike lanes painted on the streets of Los Angeles, LADOT officials rejected the questions as "trashtalk" and reminded the audience that the bike lanes would be supported with little signs that said "Bike Lane" and that is when the project starts to get very complicated.

Brisbane is a city of 2 million people and cyclists have access to approximately 396 miles of bike trails and bike lanes.

Los Angeles is a city of 4 million people and cyclists have access to approximately 193 miles of bike trails and bike lanes.

Brisbane features the King George Square Cycle Centre, Australia's first major end-of-trip facility for cyclists and pedestrians using active transport to the Brisbane CBD.

The Cycle Centre is available on a membership basis and has a number of features including 420 individual bike racks, male and female change rooms with a total of 35 showers, lockers, ironing/laundry service, excellent security and cycle access direct to the door via Turbot Street or Roma/Herschel Streets from the Bicentennial Bikeway or through Roma Street Parklands from the north.

Los Angeles features curbside bike parking in a quantity sufficient to ensure one rack for every 2 miles of street, which means if you ever see two bike racks together, it will be 4 miles until you see another!

As for the Bike Boxes, Colored Bike Lanes, Lockers, Showers, Bike Stations and other amenities that Brisbane cyclists enjoy, Angelenos will just have to travel more if they'd like to experience them. Sad but true!

If there is ever any doubt that City of Los Angeles lacks vision, one need only take a look at the LADOT Bikeways Department and those doubts will be dispelled.

See you on the streets!