Madeline Brozen, the Program Manager for the UCLA Complete Streets Initiative, spoke on Wednesday February 29 on the UCLA Campus. The event was meant to emphasize the importance of making the UCLA campus more bike friendly. Such accomplishments are visible in places like UC Davis, which is considered the most bike friendly campus in the US.
UCLA has a few challenges like the major arterials and huge traffic volumes that surrounds it. Adjacent to our campus is also the highest intersection in the entire city at Wilshire and the 405 where 120,000 cars per day go through the intersection. Such challenges mean that it will take a combination of factors to make UCLA a bike-able community.
Highlights of Madeline’s talk:
a. Have a website where people can share the bike routes they take to campus. For example, Westholme although it has sharrows it is a very steep 3 block climb. Many bikers have to find alternate ways to get to campus.
b. Protected infrastructure is central for new riders. MIT has cycle tracks that provide more protection for cyclists. The use of innovative treatments is a great way to provide for people of any cycling ability.
c. The lack of a cycling network is an issues that is bigger than UCLA. The city of Los Angles and the neighboring communities need to work with UCLA Transportation services to ensure that any investments we make on campus are mirrored in the community.
d. We need to encourage people to bike. At University of New England each freshman who does not bring a car gets a free bike. The costs associated with this program are outweighed by the benefits.
e. Enforcement of rules has to involve both people on bikes and people in cars. For example, in New York City kids a radar gun to track car speed. They also have a campaign for people on bicycles: “Don’t be a jerk.” Both sides are made aware of their parts in cyclist safety.
Madeline ended her presentation on a positive note:
“Dream big, we haven’t solved all problems, we need to all stay dedicated to create a bicycle friendly UCLA and Los Angeles.”
To view Madeline’s PPT, please click here