Flooding on the Streets of Eagle Rock

I have only been back in Eagle Rock for one day and already my visit starts with a splash! (Pun absolutely intended)

Unfortunately Eagle Rock, along with the rest of Los Angeles, isn’t very well equipped for rain. The streets, aside from being poorly maintained and excessively wide, are made even more dangerous and inconvenient when it rains– poor flood control.

Not the worst puddle in Eagle Rock, but still inconvenient

Not all streets need to be as flooded as they are though. By the intersection of Hepner Ave and Loleta Ave this is what the situation looked like when I stepped outside:

Water unable to enter the storm drain because leaves and other debris are covering access

Move the leaves, dirt and trash and water can flow into the storm drain again

And across the street at the other storm drain:

Too many leaves blocking the gated drain so water accumulates surrounding the drain, causing this situation

It only took me a minute to clear the drain so that water could flow, and reduce the flooding of the street.

And finally, here is a video

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Difference Between LA and Copenhagen Bridges

“Not enough space for bicycles on existing streets,” this is a common argument against providing bicycle infrastructure on Los Angeles streets, as it is in most cities with low cycling rates. This argument is subjective and ‘enough space’ simply depends on where the city’s priorities are. Here in LA, a typical street may look like this:

Image via Google Maps

Or from the street level, like this

Street view of Fletcher Drive bridge. Image via Google Maps

These pictures of Fletcher Drive, a typical Los Angeles street in appearance and width, show that cars easily dominate the majority of the available space and pedestrians are left narrow sidewalks.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be like this, to have a street dominated by cars while there are minimal provisions for pedestrians and zero provisions for bicyclists. If anything, walking and cycling should be prioritized because these modes of travel are more accessible to people of all ages, of all incomes, of all abilities.

So where am I going with this?

I recently watched a video demonstrating how Copenhagen has achieved its high cycling rate of over 30% of trips by bicycle. One thing in particular caught my attention during the video, this bridge:

Dronning Louises Bridge

The Dronning Louises bridge in Copenhagen looks very similar to the Fletcher Drive bridge in Los Angeles and appears to be similar width. According to estimates off Google Maps it is revealed that the streets (not including sidewalks) in fact are quite close in width, Fletcher is about 51ft wide with conservative estimate and Dronning Louises is about 54ft. However, the big difference is that cars, bikes, and pedestrians have all been fairly distributed space in Copenhagen and cars dominate on Fletcher Drive, as they do all over Los Angeles. (If you look closely at the picture above you may also notice that on Dronning Louises bridge the car space was reduced from two to one travel lane in each direction by extending the width of the bike lanes.)

And what happens when space is more evenly distributed? More people choose to cycle or walk.

Some may remember bicyclists did temporarily reclaim space on the Fletcher Drive bridge without compromising the number of vehicle lanes, but this was short lived and the guerrilla bike lanes were removed. We could easily make conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians more pleasant in Los Angeles, it’s just a matter of allocating space more equitably.

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This is Eagle Rock When We…

…choose to make the car king, when we endorse driving by making 1-mile trips to the store behind a steering wheel.

There are no excuses for driving as much as we do, and those of us fortunate enough to live in Eagle Rock and Highland Park are blessed with very walkable, bikeable communities. Not to mention the almost perfect weather year-round and exceptional transit services for Northeast LA…

The power is really within us, the people of the community. Politicians and car lobbyists may push, but considering the majority of traffic in Eagle Rock is local, we can make our home a quiet, safer place with nicer air. All we need to do is change our habits. If you make more of your local travel without a private automobile, you are contributing to a more pleasant, livable Eagle Rock. What kind of Eagle Rock do you want?

One that looks like this

Credit to Waltarrrrr, originally from his blog http://www.highlandpark.wordpress.com

Or one that looks like this

When LA was graced with cicLAvia on 10-10-10

This may seem unattainable but all it takes is getting out of your car and supporting a less car-centric community.

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Updated: Room For One More Park in Eagle Rock?

The space looks so accessible, fun, safe, tranquil, timeless, enjoyable, and natural! View from Fair Park

Not long ago I posted about a space I thought could be converted into neighborhood parkspace. Now that it has rained a bit, the area isn’t quite as dusty and dry and it sort of resembles a park now! Such an unfortunate reality that this great space is inaccessible.

Harsh reality, a view from Linda Rosa with the fence

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Not Your Typical Suburban Street

When one hears the word ‘suburb’, great tracts of land with single family homes in an isolated area, with a car dependent population springs to mind. While not all suburbs fit this description it is fair to say the ‘suburban’ image many of us have exists for a reason. Why do I mention this? While I am away from Eagle Rock for this school semester I have been living in the Bay Area. In Point Richmond there’s a new suburban development that is built around a large regional bike and pedestrian path The Bay Trail, contrary to suburbs many of us are familiar with.

In the video below I ride most of the Bay Trail portion through this suburban development. While there are improvements that could be made to the path in the video like: maintaining the path, provide the path priority at intersections (and not all the unnecessary stop signs), create better crossings (perhaps raised crossings). I feel like the concept of a shared bike/ped path through a suburban development raises interesting points to think about like– should we designed new developments to provide bicycle infrastructure? Should we reconfigure designs for sidewalks so that they can be shared between cyclists and pedestrians without conflict? If bicycle paths that resemble what is observed in the video were provided on city streets would conditions be safer for cyclists? (Obviously design at intersections determines how safe the cycle path will be).

Any thoughts on what is in the video? Any place in Eagle Rock or LA where you would like to see this? We know how to make the infrastructure to provide safe facilities for cyclists as is evident in the video, lets make more!

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Bicycles and Eagle Rock II

No bike parking at Target

...But plenty of space!

All Star Lanes seriously needs to upgrade the bike parking.

Eagle Rock Boulevard bike rack

And lastly, proof that someone at LADOT is a Nine Inch Nails fan (picture is technically in Glassell Park)

Ever ride in the 'BIKE LAИE" and listen to NIИ ?

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Bicycles and Eagle Rock

(I feel bad, I want to write more walking related posts. I almost feel like I’m writing a different blog when I write about cycling, Unfortunately ‘Bike Eagle Rock’ doesn’t have the same ring as ‘Walk Eagle Rock’.  But I kid, I look forward to posting some ‘walking’ when I return to Eagle Rock… after all, that’s how this blog started– not being able to contain the pleasant, and not so pleasant things I saw while walking around town. But in the meantime…. here’s a post about bicycles and Eagle Rock.)

I know it is common to see things when you look for them, but somehow I feel I am not the only one who has noticed more people cycling around town. Perhaps I am suffering from a dose of Mikael Colville-Andersen, but I think the bicycle is a great tool for bettering the social fabric of urban living…. bicycles have a way of making cities more interesting than cars do. So, I present to you, the faces of Eagle Rock cycling, and their bikes:

Yosemite and Norwalk

Eagle Rock and Yosemite

Colorado

Yes it is legal to ride on the sidewalk in Los Angeles. With so few people walking, you can’t blame these kids for turning the sidewalk into a cycle track. Glad to see kids independently moving around with the power of their legs. Let’s hope everyone is riding safe.

Eagle Rock and Addison

Looks like this fellow is just taking a rest at one of the few places where one can sit without ordering a drink or waiting for a bus. The bicycle is ready whenever this man wants to get going to his next destination.

Eagle Rock Boulevard

 

Casper and Colorado

 

York and Eagle Rock

Everything you need to know about LA: Gas prices, and the city hates walkers. The solution? Right in the middle of this picture.

On Oakgrove

Next we’ll look at the parked bikes of Eagle Rock!

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