Bike L.A. 2050 Bike Safety Through Visibility
Bike L.A. 2050 would like to make biking a safer, healthier option for commuting in L.A. through the use of highly visible public monitoring of bike traffic. To launch the project, bike counters with digital displays will be installed in high traffic locations in Los Angeles to improve awareness of the number of bicyclists using the streets and bike lanes. These digital counters have been installed with much success in cities like Seattle, Portland and in several European cities in Sweden, Denmark and Germany. They are highly visible beacons that have proven successful in broadcasting awareness to drivers, pedestrians and other bikers and help improve the visibility and safety of bicyclists on city streets.
What are some of your organization’s most important achievements to date?
We have been involved in a number of projects focusing on urban mobility and the interface with cities and the built environment. Marc Alt was founding Executive Director of the Green Parking Council, a non-profit organization which is seeking to transform parking into a platform for innovation to support bike sharing, car sharing, electric car charging infrastructure, green building standards and re-inventing parking as a force for good in cities. Marc has also worked with some of the leading companies in the automotive, architecture and engineering fields on urban mobility projects, including the launch of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.
Please identify any partners or collaborators who will work with you on this project.
We would like to partner with numerous bicycling advocacy groups working in L.A. on various aspects of bicycle transportation and urban planning, community advocacy, access and safety. We would also like to partner with L.A. City, L.A. County Department of Public Works, the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition, LADOT, CicLAvia and many of the other advocacy groups that are passionate about raising awareness about bicycling safety and improving access to safe biking on city and county streets.
Please explain how you will evaluate your project. How will you measure success?
Using measuring devices from companies such as Eco Counter, actual metrics of increases in numbers of bicyclists on city roads will be captured and reported. Baseline and target metrics will be established in partnership with the city and county's master plans for bicycling.
How will your project benefit Los Angeles?
Increasing the visibility of bicyclists will improve the safety of biking in L.A. and will in turn lead to more people feeling comfortable choosing to commute via bicycle.
What would success look like in the year 2050 regarding your indicator?
By 2050, a large network of monitoring devices and sensors would be installed throughout the L.A. region, both stationary counting devices and mobile sensing devices via bike-mounted sensors, mobile apps on cellphones and other open source counting, measuring and monitoring devices. This open data would be aggregated and made available to the public and to L.A. County to integrate into existing and future smart city traffic monitoring programs, allowing bicycle traffic to be included in city and county-wide realtime traffic monitoring programs.
The biggest success indicator would be increase in public awareness of bike safety, a measurable reduction of bicycling accidents involving vehicles, improvements in human health and well-being due to increased outdoor activity, reduced vehicle miles, improved air quality and a sense of wellbeing and community that has been documented in cultures that use bicycles for commuting.