Politics & Government

ERNC Votes in Support of Bike Lanes on Colorado

None of the 20 Colorado Boulevard businesses council members spoke to express active opposition to the plan.

The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council voted, 12-0, Tuesday night to support a proposal by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to install buffered bicycle lanes on the stretch of Colorado Boulevard between the city limits of Glendale on the west to Pasadena in the east.

ERNC Faith-Based Director Andrea Anderson was the only member of the council’s board to abstain from voting. There were 13 members present at the ERNC’s monthly board meeting at Eagle Rock City Hall.

The vote followed a lengthy public comments period during which 28 people spoke in support of bike lanes and four spoke against the proposal that is part of the 2010 City of Los Angeles Bicycle Master Plan encompassing 469 square miles of L.A.’s roadways.

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The ERNC will now send a letter to the DOT, informing the department of the council’s vote of support for bike lanes along Colorado Boulevard. The motion to support the DOT’s plan was proposed by Treasurer Ashley Atkinson, an avid bike rider herself. Initially, the motion included a request to the DOT to review and improve delays caused by inordinate amounts of time commuters spend waiting on two critical intersections on Colorado during peak traffic hours—Eagle Rock Boulevard and Sierra Villa. But Atkinson subsequently accepted a “friendly amendment” to her motion proposed by Sub-District 1 Director and Communications and Government Relations Co-Chair Baker Montgomery to “separate the two issues.”

Some 80 people attended Tuesday night’s meeting, many of them standing against the walls and in the stairwell of the recently renamed Arthur K. Snyder Community Room honoring the legendary NELA councilman who died last year.

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In a brief statement recounting her correspondence with DOT bicycle officials as well as summing up the pros and cons of bike lanes, Atkinson said that the department has presented the ERNC with the option of removing one travel lane on both sides of Colorado Boulevard and replacing it with a buffered bike lane. There is no option for “sharrows”—or a lane to be shared by both motorists and bicyclists—Atkinson said.

The only neighborhood stretch of Colorado Boulevard where it will be possible to have three motor travel lanes as well as bike lanes is the portion of the roadway from Eagle Rock Boulevard to Sierra Villa, Atkinson said. Unlike the rest of Colorado, that section has no medians, which means there’s enough space to slightly narrow but retain the existing travel lanes while creating bike lanes at the same time.

Besides the crossings at Eagle Rock Boulevard and Sierre Villa, the Colorado Boulevard crossing on North Figueroa Street will also be impacted by the installation of bike lanes, Atkinson told the meeting. The Highland Park Neighborhood Council will be assessing the impact of the proposed Colorado bike lanes on Figueroa at its monthly board meeting on Thursday, April 4, Atkinson said.

Former ERNC President Stephan Early, who teaches English at Eagle Rock High School, called the DOT plan “a step in the right direction, fomented by TERA to make Eagle Rock more civil” and accommodative of bicyclists and pedestrians. “Nothing makes me more incensed than stopping my car so somebody can cross the street—the long haul across Colorado,” Early said.

Several people at the meeting, including Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society President Eric Warren, pointed out that the proposed changes to traffic on Colorado have been the culmination of exhaustive outreach efforts to make the roadway more pleasant for pedestrians as well as relatively safer for motorists and bikers alike.

“I think it’s time we looked at a boulevard that’s for everyone and not just for arterial communication,” Warren said.

Despite the overwhelming support, Robert de Velasco, a Colorado Boulevard print shop owner, accused the ERNC as well as the office of Councilman José Huizar of insufficient outreach efforts. “None of us were notified in time,” said de Velasco, who had submitted a lengthy signature petition to Huizar’s office at a well-attended March 27 public forum on bike lanes, held at Occidental College. Added the entrepreneur: “This is all a sham—you all should be ashamed.”

ERNC Vice President David Greene told the gathering that he and Montgomery visited some 20 businesses along Colorado Tuesday and that all the people they spoke to either supported bike lanes or were not against them. The only exception, said Greene, was Glenn Tritch, part of the family that owns Tritch Hardware. Tritch expressed opposition to pelotons—a collective body of numerous bicyclists riding together and hogging up to two lanes, Greene said. He also wanted bike riding on sidewalks to stop and LAPD enforcement of bikes violating traffic rules.

Greene gave Eagle Rock Patch the following list of the businesses he and Montgomery spoke to—a question mark after their names implies they were “interested in learning about the lanes, but did not express a specific opinion,” while a "Yes" denotes an enthusiastic response:

• Trader Joe's—Yes
• Boyer Cleaners—?
• Cacao Mexicatessen—?
• Tritch Hardware (Glenn Tritch was concerned that pelotons might take up two lanes; he wants riding on sidewalks to stop and LAPD enforcement of bikes violating traffic rules).
• One's Liquor—Yes
• Petit Beaujolais—Yes
• Comics Vs. Toys—Yes
• Daybreak Health Foods—Yes
• Permanent Records—Yes
• Columbia Auto Body—?
• Swork—Yes
• Dave’s Chillin-n-Grillin—Yes
• BMPP @ Five Line—Yes
• Four Café—?
• Purple Twig—Yes
• Brownstone Pizzeria—?
• Peekaboo Playland—Yes
• Eagle Rock Community Acupuncture—Yes
• Colorado Donuts—?
• Puppy Love—?


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