@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:42

Life on the street as a CYCLIST How safe are we? Join Los Angeles Bike Coalition in Conversation

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If you live in a major city and you ride your bike, you know that you have to share the road with a lot of other vehicles. And that's why there are organizations out there to help create policies to protect cyclists and also to make make sure the cities are using their real estate Wells that people could really enjoy life on a bike

https://www.la-bike.org/ #activism

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@EliAkiraKaufman
Eli Kaufman
@EliAkiraKaufman · 0:23
Hi Deborah, it's Eli Kira Kaufman from the La County Bicycle Coalition. I think I'm all figured out in swell interview. Looking forward to seeing your questions and to see you in person at our next bike salon this Wednesday in the the arts district in downtown La. Okay. I'll keep my eyes open for your questions and excited for the conversations ahead
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:26

@EliAkiraKaufman

Hey, Eli. So the first question I have is really your passion for biking and when it started and what city you started biking in? And then please follow up with what's the burning issue right now that you're really hending to and how can we understand it from the perspective both of the city and of the cyclists? So we get both sides. I'm really looking forward to understanding deeper. Thank you so much for being on swell. Bye
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@EliAkiraKaufman
Eli Kaufman
@EliAkiraKaufman · 4:44
I experience the lack of peace on the street afforded to me and my 13 year old son, ASA, every time we bicycle commute to his school. And our choice to embrace the many benefits of bicycling really shouldn't come at any risk to our well being. But the fact is, La is in the midst of a traffic epidemic that's shattering lives at high speeds and in slow motion across generations
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:09

Devon - advocate

Yes. So what I do is I work with the local chapters. So the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition not only functions within the city of La, but the whole county. So we have chapters in Santa Clarita, Glendale, Burbank, Santa Monica, Culver City. So we have local chapters there where we organize rides and also advocacy. So that goes from culture rides to infrastructure. So there's the fun, and then there's the policy stuff that people get involved with
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 3:20

Ory the civilian cyclist

And so for listeners who know what La is like, it's kind of a mixture of towns and you drive everywhere, so you're not quite familiar with the kind of the bicyclist view of where you're driving through or riding through. So it's nice to kind of know where you're going. At least for me, there's a bit of apprehension about just biking aimlessly and not knowing where you're going to end up. There's a safety issue, I have to tell you
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:28

Anthony’s new to LA

Maybe you can hear it. If not, I'll give you a summary afterwards. And to encourage folks to get involved with making La more bike full, more equitable, safer, healthier place first, I guess I'll introduce Yuval, this is his place. And he's a board member for Lapdc. And Yval, the first question we're asking our board members to share and then another board member and Tiffany is here as well
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:06

Yuval - host of event

It's been a tough journey to get the government to understand the value of having safe biking in the city. And in a perfect world, all of us will be able to jump on a bike, head west, get to Santa Monica in about 45 minutes from now without risking the life. But right now, this opportunity is not available and most of us have to sit in traffic and don't understand that the solution is so simple
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:08

Josh on board

There's no reason why you should have to get in your car in a city that generally is flat, where we have 330 days of Sunshine in a wet year, which no one has seen in how long? I don't know. A long time. So anyway, thank you all for being here. And if you haven't already signed the Healthy Streets Initiative and you're a City of La resident, please sign it
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 4:58

Sunset 4 all / Bike Dads

And just remember, we're freaking good. Some of you do, some of you take the land, you know you do. Okay. So even a room full of choir, there's not that many people who feel comfortable riding 3 miles on a bike. Now, something that I learned as a dad and a dad is that 84% of the trips in la that are less than 3 miles Are taken by car
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 4:17

Jimmy Lizamo - activist - bike maker

What I've been good at ultimately is from the street level up, get people excited about engaging with bicycles and bicycling and equity in their city to transform and see a new La in La. That is hard for a lot of us to imagine because we've been so indoctrinated to doing everything in one specific way and so much money has been bumped into doing that one thing in one way that is so destructive to us and to the world
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:54

Owner of Detroit Bessie’s bike cafe

So part of my goal in having this space is showing people that it's okay to ride your bike, whatever that bike is, even if it's falling apart and you have one pedal. We've started working with trying to get wholesale accounts with bike vendors to provide bike Pardes for folks as well. We see a lot of commuters come through the restaurant, and they're not even there. They just want to help to fix their bikes
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 4:00

Diego cardoso MTA

Before we all jump into our cars, can you tell us your name and the work you did? Diego Cardo. So I was the executive officer of the planning Department and the Department that oversaw what we call active transportation and active transportation dealt with, among other things, bicycle infrastructure, walking and connectivity to the transit system through first and last mile investment. A lot of people wonder what's the time frame between an idea and its final execution when it comes to bicycle and pedestrian safety?
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@kylecrossman
Kyle Crossman
@kylecrossman · 3:07
We were talking about something in my class last quarter, and bike lanes are great because all you have to do is paint the road and then if it doesn't work, you can just take the paint off. If it does work, it's amazing. It was a super cheap option, stuff like that
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:26

@kylecrossman

But it's so important to have new minds and new outside the box thinkers to come into these drafting rooms where they're looking at policies and saying, Wait a second, guys, this is so much easier than you're making it. I met a guy named Anthony who I just spoke to for a second on this thread who's in transportation 40 years younger than Diego, and it's just interesting to have all these people in one space to talk
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