I had to find out about Los Angeles’ “bike to work week” from a co-worker, this is ironic to me because everyday, since I was in elementary school has been bike to “work” day for me. I even spent a few years as a bike messenger in Seattle where everyday was ‘bike at work day.’ I once calculated that I’ve ridden well over a 100,000 miles by bike yet this is still how I usually find out about this PR feel good holiday when co-workers feel compelled to hunt down the one bike commuter in the office and inform them that it’s “Bike to Work Week!” I have to wonder if African Americans find out about Black History Month in a similar fashion, but I hope not.

Papers nationwide have been filled with gushing articles about all of the financial, ecological, and fitness benefits of cycling to work.  And, while all of this is true, there is a lot of fine print that gets left off in all of the hype.  The biggest issue that gets glossed over is safety and it appears that in most of these articles that the admonishment to wear a helmet instills all new riders with a magic safety force field. This lie works for both the politicians who don’t want to alienate driving voters with new cycling awareness education and vehicle lanes converted to bike lanes and it works for cycling advocates who promote the myth of instant safe urban cycling.

Neither, the LA County or the State of California Bike to Work websites had any information or links for drivers or cyclists about urban riding classes, rights and responsibilities of cyclists and motorists, or even references to the relevant motor vehicle code. It seems as if all are hoping that free bagels and Starbucks coffee during bike to work week will distract cyclists from noticing that there isn’t money for bike lanes or motorist education in next year’s budget either.  What would happen if, for arguments sake, a 1,000 motorists decided to give up their cars tomorrow and bicycle from the Westside to Downtown along one of the already clogged arterials like Pico or Olympic?  Imagine the delay and anger? Where would they all park when they reached their offices downtown? How many accidents would there be?  When you imagine such a scenario you don’t picture the idyllic and civil Amsterdam bike commute, you imagine chaos.  City roads can barely handle the vehicle traffic they are being deluged with, let alone an influx of new riders and drivers who can barely keep from killing each other.

From my observations Los Angelinos aren’t buying it, as I didn’t see a single additional cyclist on my rides this week. If Los Angeles wants to see the benefits of reduced auto traffic by getting more folks to commute by bike they will have to spend the money on education and infrastructure to make cycling safe. Hilly, cold, and rainy cities like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco have tons of urban bike commuters. While flat, warm, and sunny Los Angeles has almost none and the difference is investment in real education and infrastructure instead of lip service.

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Marcus Brown is a resident of Los Angeles, CA. He is an avid cyclist and watcher of all things political.

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