Take Action to Support the City of Los Angeles Mobility Plan!

Please join us today, Monday June 15th for #MobilityMondayLA to show support for Mobility Plan 2035:

1. Email and call your councilmember (find your councilmember here) - sample below
2. Share/tweet that you did it! (sample tweet: “I just called @PaulKoretzCD5 to support Mobility Plan 2035. You should too! #MobilityMondayLA”)

Later this month, the Los Angeles City Council will consider Mobility Plan 2035, the first comprehensive update to the city’s transportation policies since 1999. A lot has changed since the 1990s: we now have regular CicLAvias, everyday bike ridership has spiked, and the voter-approved expansion of the region’s transit system is rapidly under construction. Our streets are now seen as places for people, not just thoroughfares for cars. Technologies like real-time transit info, ride hailing apps, and bike share promise to give Angelenos new tools to take full advantage of the new infrastructure being built. The adoption of the unprecedented Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles earlier this year has grounded mobility conversations in the context of health and equity, recognizing that better transportation policy provides economic mobility for underserved residents while promoting community health and active transportation. And, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Sustainable City pLAn calls for increasing walking, biking and transit to 35% of all trips in just 10 years to help meet the city’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. The resulting Mobility Plan 2035 is a plan that is right for Los Angeles and right for our multimodal future.

The Los Angeles City Council is considering whether and how to legalize sidewalk vending. Public hearings are being held to get residents’ viewpoints before a vending ordinance is drafted. LA Walks supports the legalization of sidewalk vending. We encourage everyone who cares about walking in LA to attend one of the two remaining vending hearings:

• Downtown LA. Thursday, 6/18 at 6 pm. 200 N. Spring Street, LA 90012
• South LA. thursday 6/25 ay 6 pm. 10950 S Central Ave, LA 90059

Here are some reasons why people who like to walk in LA should support a permit system for legal sidewalk vending:

1. Sidewalk vending makes LA more walkable. Walkable cities have a mix of uses and destinations, people out on the sidewalks at all hours, sights and smells and interactions to keep streets lively. Sidewalk vendors are destinations, gathering places, eyes on the street, colors and flavors all in one.

2. Legalizing vending helps ensure that everyone has a right to use our streets. Rebecca Solnit, in her book Wanderlust: a history of walking, reminds us that walking has long been a political act. Women, minorities and gays and lesbians have all had to struggle to gain the social right to walk out in public. Environmentalists. pedestrian groups and disability rights advocates had to campaign to gain ordinary people open space and infrastructure on which to walk/roll. Unions helped win time for people to stroll and recreate. Legalizing sidewalk vending is part of this legacy of expanding access to the city.

After two years of community organizing and outreach from neighbors and pedestrian advocates, the Los Angeles City Council unfortunately voted 11-0 to approve the plan to retrofit the Glendale/Hyperion Bridge with just one sidewalk this week. Los Angeles Walks is deeply disappointed by this decision and we feel it is a direct result of the lack of a comprehensive policy to improve the safety of people walking and bicycling throughout the City of Los Angeles.

Even with thousands of signatures from neighbors supporting ‘Option 3’ which included two sidewalks, buffered bike lanes, three traffic lanes and signalized crosswalks connecting the Glendale Blvd and Hyperion Ave sections of the bridge complex, the Council ignored the community wishes and instead voted for ‘Option 1’ which would preserve four lanes of traffic, provide a sidewalk only on the north side of the bridge and narrow unbuffered bike lanes with no condition of approval for a signalized crosswalk between the two bridges. The City of Los Angeles must do better -- and that begins with a comprehensive, citywide policy to ensure the safety of people walking and bicycling is the top priority of all projects. We will continue to work to ensure the Hyperion Bridge design includes additional crosswalks to enable safe crossings and improved access for people with disabilities.

Baseball season is upon us, and we want to show you our favorite way to get to the game: a short walk from Metro's Chinatown Gold Line Station, through the hills of Solano Canyon and Elysian Park.

Join Los Angeles Walks and Metro for Dodgers v. Giants on Friday, June 19th.

If you want to sit with us, we have a few tickets to the game that can be purchased here for $42/ea (profits benefit Los Angeles Walks)

You can also purchase your own ticket and join us for free on the walk. You can RSVP here for only the walk. 

Join us at the Chinatown Gold Line Metro Station at 6:15. We'll walk to the stadium and enjoy the game followed by fireworks.

Thanks to Metro for sponsoring this walk, as part of their Walk Instead campaign!
They will be providing Metro sunglasses and bandanas, and you may be able to score a Los Angeles Walks button or sticker too :)

On Thursday at 8:30AM, the City Planning Commission will consider the Mobility Plan 2035 at their meeting at Van Nuys City Hall, Council Chamber 2nd Floor. We'd like you to join us to speak in favor of the Mobility Plan, which carries forward the best parts of the L.A. Bicycle Plan, while adding in family-friendly protected bike lanes to the City's toolbox of street improvements. The Plan also connects a much-needed improvements for people walking with a better bike network and transit. Most importantly, the Plan promotes complete streets that serve all people who travel on them, with special focus on the most vulnerable road users: children, the elderly, pedestrians and bicyclists. Please join us at the meeting and/or add your voice by emailing the City Planning Commission (see sample below).

The Commission needs to hear from you. People that are opposed to the improvements we've seen on L.A. streets are already mobilizing against this new Plan. We are counting on supporters like you to share your thoughts at the hearing and by email. If you can come to the meeting, please email [email protected].

Los Angeles Walks congratulates David Ryu on his victory in yesterday's Council District 4 election

As LA's pedestrian safety advocacy organization, Los Angeles Walks has been strongly advocating for the two-sidewalk option (known as "Option 3") for the improvement project planned for the Hyperion Bridge. Although it is only one bridge in a city of many, the Hyperion Bridge renovation is critical as this project will set a precedent -- and the proposed design fails to serve all users in the City of Los Angeles. We are pleased that Councilmember-elect Ryu, who counts the bridge in his council district, supports Option 3.

During the campaign, the Councilmember-elect showed himself to be a strong supporter of making our streets safer for all road users. On the eve of the election, Ryu even sent his campaign manager to a Board of Public Works hearing to fight for more sidewalk space on the future Glendale-Hyperion Complex of Bridges.

Los Angeles Walks returns to CicLAvia, this time in Pasadena on Sunday 5/31. Join us to explore the historic sites of Old Pasadena, South Lake, Raymond Avenue, and East Colorado. Here's all the details about the day.

Walk with us!

Meet at the Del Mar Gold Line station at 10am
We will learn about the California Cycleway and then walk east to the end of the 3.5-mile route and back, ending at the Memorial Park Station.

Say you're going and invite friends on Facebook! 

Won't you join us for a walk in Westwood? On the Bruin Walk, we'll meander through Westwood Village and UCLA while discussing the area's history and the pros and cons of its pedestrian environment. How do street and neighborhood design come together in this hub of commerce, housing and higher education? What changes are people in the neighborhood trying to make? How does the Great Streets program fit in? What lessons does this charming area have for the rest of the City? What is Rancho San Jose de Buenos Aires? Come find out, while having fun, getting exercise and supporting a great cause: Los Angeles Walks!

Westwood Walk
Saturday, May 16
10am to 1pm

Meet outside Peet's Coffee and Tea
1124 Westwood Boulevard (at Lindbrook Drive), Los Angeles, CA 90024

$10 per person, get tickets here

Share event and invite friends on Facebook

Arriving by Walking: By all means, this is Westwood after all! Sidewalks are mostly intact except for some nearby construction to the west and east on Lindbrook Drive.

Arriving by Bike: The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has a map of bikeways on its website. Bike parking is a bit scarce, but there are a few places to lock up bikes on nearby sidewalks.

Arriving by Transit: The starting point is within easy walking distance of several bus lines, including Metro Lines 20, 720 & 761; Big Blue Bus Lines 1, 2, 3M, 8 & 12 and Culver City Bus Line 6. Subway service expected within a few decades.

Arriving by Car: The City parking structure at 1036 Broxton Avenue is a good bet (cash only). Generally speaking expect to pay for parking on or off-street. Bring cash, quarters and a credit card and pay attention to time limits.

Alert your calf muscles: It's almost time for The Big Parade, one of the most exciting walks in LA, happening May 2 and 3. Our own steering committee member Dan Koeppel has been coordinating this annual adventure since 2008 which travels up and down over 80 public stairways in its 35-mile route from downtown to Griffith Park.

A big part of this year's Big Parade will also be creating awareness around the fact that public stairways are public streets. Advocates will be talking about how to open stairways that have been closed over the years, and how to launch efforts to maintain staircases forgotten by the city.

Check out The Big Parade on Facebook for detailed information about routes and how to join for a few minutes or a few miles. There's also a prologue walk May 1—and yes, some hardy souls do indeed complete all three days! See you out there!