I had to get brown rice from a Filipino market. Just had to.
None in Lakewood. Had to go to Cerritos.
No problem.
Left on Paramount with a bike lane. Just had to worry about making my way across 4 lanes to a bike lane.
Go north on Paramount till I reach South St.
I ride South St. Wide wide street, bike lane in a block.
Maybe one tight area, but mostly smooth sailing.
That is till I reach the Lakewood-Cerritos boundary on the same Street.
A cacaphony of bad and bicycle hazardry ensued.
That nice cushy bike lane devolved into this below:
I was so intimidated by traffic breathing on me that I went on the sidewalk.
And still found it difficult.
Again, continuing the themes in why No One F*cking Bikes of there being little room on streets for bikes, combined with high-speed traffic, and there being virtually no room for bikes on sidewalks.
This Is Why No One F*cking Bikes: Lakewood, CSULB, and the Cambodia Town Strip
The theme of the areas above: tight sidewalks, tight streets.
And not the tight as in the good tight, as in the oh-shit-I-can-lose-a-limb-kind of tight.
I think the tightness of the streets combined with sidewalks is just one of those things that make it difficult to bike.
I wish there was simple signage that told drivers to simply expect bicyclists. Expect, expect, expect. Acculturate, acculturate, acculturate. To...biking as a legitimate form of transport on the street.
I've divided this post into 4 sections based on the sections of the city I passed through yesterday: Lakewood, CSULB, Cambodia Town in Long Beach, and Bixby Knolls.
Here's a map of the spots, I took my shots.
Ver Lakewood, Long Beach en un mapa más grande
Now that I've been commuter-biking for over 3 years now, I've learned the "easy streets" to take. Easy streets being the streets with a lower volume of traffic, generally, the two-way, residential streets. Unless those easy streets are dark and or bumpy (as in Westwood), to avoid any hassle, I will usually opt for that.
However, most people do not do what I do. Out of convenience, personal safety, they will take the main, busy streets --- usually riding on sidewalks.
Inevitably, in Lakewood and Long Beach, bicyclists will run into streets that have no room for bikes at all (less you want to take the lane and have a line of 10 cars breathing on your back at 40 mph), as is the case on Carson Street in Lakewood and Anaheim St. in Central and Eastside Long Beach.
Lakewood
In Lakewood, there's Carson Street, which actually has a bike lane around the Long Beach City College area, but offers not much else to the West of that approaching Lakewood. To the West of that is a tight sidewalk and 3 lanes for cars to run at least 40-50 mph.
Check out how little room there is for any bicycle to fit; believe it or not, but this street actually leads into a bike path, though many pedestrians at LBCC do not seem to know what the markings of the bike path mean.
Carson & Obispo, Lakewood, CA
And not the tight as in the good tight, as in the oh-shit-I-can-lose-a-limb-kind of tight.
I think the tightness of the streets combined with sidewalks is just one of those things that make it difficult to bike.
I wish there was simple signage that told drivers to simply expect bicyclists. Expect, expect, expect. Acculturate, acculturate, acculturate. To...biking as a legitimate form of transport on the street.
I've divided this post into 4 sections based on the sections of the city I passed through yesterday: Lakewood, CSULB, Cambodia Town in Long Beach, and Bixby Knolls.
Here's a map of the spots, I took my shots.
Ver Lakewood, Long Beach en un mapa más grande
Now that I've been commuter-biking for over 3 years now, I've learned the "easy streets" to take. Easy streets being the streets with a lower volume of traffic, generally, the two-way, residential streets. Unless those easy streets are dark and or bumpy (as in Westwood), to avoid any hassle, I will usually opt for that.
However, most people do not do what I do. Out of convenience, personal safety, they will take the main, busy streets --- usually riding on sidewalks.
Inevitably, in Lakewood and Long Beach, bicyclists will run into streets that have no room for bikes at all (less you want to take the lane and have a line of 10 cars breathing on your back at 40 mph), as is the case on Carson Street in Lakewood and Anaheim St. in Central and Eastside Long Beach.
Lakewood
In Lakewood, there's Carson Street, which actually has a bike lane around the Long Beach City College area, but offers not much else to the West of that approaching Lakewood. To the West of that is a tight sidewalk and 3 lanes for cars to run at least 40-50 mph.
Check out how little room there is for any bicycle to fit; believe it or not, but this street actually leads into a bike path, though many pedestrians at LBCC do not seem to know what the markings of the bike path mean.
Carson & Obispo, Lakewood, CA
This Is Why No One F*cking Bikes: Take One
Every time I tell or show people that my main mode of transportation, rain or shine, is a bicycle, people give me some kind of "damn" or "wow" type reaction.
It's like an accomplishment to be a commuting bicyclist. I don't think it should be, particularly, when roads are flat and the weather here in Southern California is almost always ideal, and the city of Long Beach isn't that large (unless you're traveling from North to CSULB or something).
Yet all the concessions made for cars with little for bikes has made biking Long Beach and LA an accomplishment.
I think it's obvious as to why lots of people don't bike in LA: it's dangerous.
But what does "dangerous" mean, and what does that look like while on a bike?
I can immediately think of narrow bike lanes, the fact that cars moving anywhere from 40-50 mph on LA streets are usually inches within bicyclists, even on streets with "sharrows" or "bike lanes."
For me, "dangerous" while on a bike means I have to think too much about every move I make.
I have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure some speeding right-lane driver with little concern for my left shoulder doesn't skin me or take my left arm with him. When I'm on Cahuenga Boulevard en route to Universal Studios, I know I have to pedal quicker and harder if I feel the drivers behind me are pressuring me to go faster or get out of what they think is their god-given birthright to the road.
In contrast, when I drive, there isn't too much thought about every move I make. Virtually every street is open to me. Most drivers (erroneously) think the road belongs to them.
Bicycles have a right to the road. It is the goddamn mot$#$@#$@ law.
I've said this for a while now, and I'll say it till I'm blue in the face.
But the hard reality is I know that if I bike on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, a street which leads into bike lanes to Cal State Long Beach and below, drivers are still going to tailgate and pressure, and honk at me to get off the road.
Most drivers do not know or probably even care about this, that is until something tragic happens --- usually incidents that happen in silence, least if you don't keep up with this blog.
One Thursday afternoon, I decided to bike from school at Cal State Long Beach to my parents' home in the Valley. I decided to take pictures of all the things that made it tough to bike.
And it began with...
1) Bad to non-existent bike parking.
I began my morning early looking to stop for some food at my local drug store, only to barely find parking for my bike.
Yes, there was a bike rack where I could only lock up one bike wheel. As you can see above, my U-lock, can only wrap around one wheel - I usually use the U-lock to wrap both a wheel and the bike frame. Not going to going to cut it when biking is my main mode of transportation or just in general.
Though the mini-mall in which this Rite Aid was located could proudly say they had one bike rack, it also loses points because shoppers couldn't see whether part of their transportation investment is about to be taken.
I ended up having to use one of those cement poles that my u-lock barely fit around.
2) Holy goddamn narrow ass lanes
The above photos, probably everyone's worst fear when first getting on a bike: facing pressure from drivers:
My mom and my sister, newly minted bicyclists...not happening, unless in a big group.
The above photos taken in North Long Beach and the city of Vernon, where you ride side by side with big rigs.
3) Easy to get lost
Tell me if you can see anything distinctive in this photo.
Nothing?
Anything?
Bueller?
I ride what is known as the flood channel or the Bike Path from Compton at Del Amo ave to its end in Vernon.
The Bike Path is a bit like a biking freeway. You have two lanes going in either direction, and you must know your exit.
Way back when, the first time I ever rode this "biking freeway", I was actually lucky to be with someone who knew a little something about biking (and that she had a blackberry).
The above is supposed to be the part of the "biking freeway" where the rest of the route goes into San Gabriel, which is not really where you want to go if you want to go towards LA. You have to exit the "biking freeway", make a left on a narrow sidewalk/bridge, and re-enter the bike path.
Compare this to freeway signage; my friend Daniel put it best, "they want you to find these things." Unfortunately it doesn't appear that way when riding the Los Angeles River Bike path.
4) Merging anyone? Bike lanes that lead into nothing but traffic.
As I was riding through Universal City, I was trying to ride Lankershim Boulevard. Behind me a rush of traffic. However, I had to cut through 2 lanes with automobile traffic rushing behind me at 40 MPH in the dark. It took me a good 2-3 minutes before traffic cleared up for me to merge over to my desired lane.
More tours, more photos, coming, when I have time.
Let's make biking less of an accomplishment, shall we.
It's like an accomplishment to be a commuting bicyclist. I don't think it should be, particularly, when roads are flat and the weather here in Southern California is almost always ideal, and the city of Long Beach isn't that large (unless you're traveling from North to CSULB or something).
Yet all the concessions made for cars with little for bikes has made biking Long Beach and LA an accomplishment.
I think it's obvious as to why lots of people don't bike in LA: it's dangerous.
But what does "dangerous" mean, and what does that look like while on a bike?
I can immediately think of narrow bike lanes, the fact that cars moving anywhere from 40-50 mph on LA streets are usually inches within bicyclists, even on streets with "sharrows" or "bike lanes."
For me, "dangerous" while on a bike means I have to think too much about every move I make.
I have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure some speeding right-lane driver with little concern for my left shoulder doesn't skin me or take my left arm with him. When I'm on Cahuenga Boulevard en route to Universal Studios, I know I have to pedal quicker and harder if I feel the drivers behind me are pressuring me to go faster or get out of what they think is their god-given birthright to the road.
In contrast, when I drive, there isn't too much thought about every move I make. Virtually every street is open to me. Most drivers (erroneously) think the road belongs to them.
Bicycles have a right to the road. It is the goddamn mot$#$@#$@ law.
I've said this for a while now, and I'll say it till I'm blue in the face.
But the hard reality is I know that if I bike on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, a street which leads into bike lanes to Cal State Long Beach and below, drivers are still going to tailgate and pressure, and honk at me to get off the road.
Most drivers do not know or probably even care about this, that is until something tragic happens --- usually incidents that happen in silence, least if you don't keep up with this blog.
One Thursday afternoon, I decided to bike from school at Cal State Long Beach to my parents' home in the Valley. I decided to take pictures of all the things that made it tough to bike.
And it began with...
1) Bad to non-existent bike parking.
I began my morning early looking to stop for some food at my local drug store, only to barely find parking for my bike.
Yes, there was a bike rack where I could only lock up one bike wheel. As you can see above, my U-lock, can only wrap around one wheel - I usually use the U-lock to wrap both a wheel and the bike frame. Not going to going to cut it when biking is my main mode of transportation or just in general.
Though the mini-mall in which this Rite Aid was located could proudly say they had one bike rack, it also loses points because shoppers couldn't see whether part of their transportation investment is about to be taken.
I ended up having to use one of those cement poles that my u-lock barely fit around.
2) Holy goddamn narrow ass lanes
The above photos, probably everyone's worst fear when first getting on a bike: facing pressure from drivers:
- When drivers expecting to go 40 mph are breathing on you and honk at you for going too slow
- When drivers expecting to go 40 mph overtake you to assert that you don't belong on the road
- Drivers expecting to take up the full right lane with you just inches away; it doesn't pay at all to "be nice" on the road as a bicyclist, you have to take the FULL lane
My mom and my sister, newly minted bicyclists...not happening, unless in a big group.
The above photos taken in North Long Beach and the city of Vernon, where you ride side by side with big rigs.
3) Easy to get lost
Tell me if you can see anything distinctive in this photo.
Nothing?
Anything?
Bueller?
I ride what is known as the flood channel or the Bike Path from Compton at Del Amo ave to its end in Vernon.
The Bike Path is a bit like a biking freeway. You have two lanes going in either direction, and you must know your exit.
Way back when, the first time I ever rode this "biking freeway", I was actually lucky to be with someone who knew a little something about biking (and that she had a blackberry).
The above is supposed to be the part of the "biking freeway" where the rest of the route goes into San Gabriel, which is not really where you want to go if you want to go towards LA. You have to exit the "biking freeway", make a left on a narrow sidewalk/bridge, and re-enter the bike path.
Compare this to freeway signage; my friend Daniel put it best, "they want you to find these things." Unfortunately it doesn't appear that way when riding the Los Angeles River Bike path.
4) Merging anyone? Bike lanes that lead into nothing but traffic.
As I was riding through Universal City, I was trying to ride Lankershim Boulevard. Behind me a rush of traffic. However, I had to cut through 2 lanes with automobile traffic rushing behind me at 40 MPH in the dark. It took me a good 2-3 minutes before traffic cleared up for me to merge over to my desired lane.
More tours, more photos, coming, when I have time.
Let's make biking less of an accomplishment, shall we.
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