Los Angeles

“The greater Los Angeles area is a world-renown disaster when it comes to getting around.”

Santa Monica beach – Los Angeles. A bicycle path for active people

Los Angeles is known for the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, its diverse cultures and its perennial good weather that allows for endless summers and mild winters. Spanning over 500 square miles, it should come as no surprise that the greater Los Angeles area is also a world-renown disaster when it comes to getting around.

Work commutes in excess of 100 miles roundtrip are not uncommon in the City of Angels, and public transportation is a challenge when faced with connecting what is really collective of 30-odd small cities and governments all competing for resources. In recent years, however, the city has sought to redefine itself as a leader in bicycle friendliness. For example, the non-profit Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition formed in 1998 to “make all communities in L.A. County healthy, safe, and fun places to ride a bike through advocacy, education, and outreach.” Evidence suggests that this community-level involvement is working to a certain degree.

In a classic “chicken and egg” scenario, how can a city become more bike friendly and get more people out of their cars if it doesn’t have the infrastructure to not only support the change but also educate the masses on its benefits? For years, the answer seemed to be “it can’t.” However, the LADOT Bike Program which is run by the city’s department of transportation now boasts nearly 600 miles of bikeways, over 6,800 installed bike racks, and over 19,000 residents commuting to work by bicycle.

While an adoption rate of less that one half of one percent in a city of nearly 4 million people does not exactly scream “success,” Mayor Eric Garcetti has made cycling a priority. The $11 million METRO Bikeshare program launched in the summer of 2016 as a joint venture between LADOT and METRO. The program puts rack of shared bikes at the city’s METRO public transportation stops, and it is the first program of its kind to utilize a single point of payment across all transport methods. With rates ranging from $3.75 per 30-minutes to $20 per month, there are a number of options for METRO travelers to utilize the bikeshare program in their journeys.

Whether Los Angeles will become a mecca for cyclists remains to be seen, however, a city so diverse is arguably best-experienced on two wheels. Whether those wheels are shared or your own, well, that’s up to you.

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