Just about 25 miles to the north exists a city where the mayor is an avid bicyclist, where the entire City Council embraces cycling, where more than $20 million has been raised for cycling programs and related improvements, where there are bike-only traffic signals, protected bike lanes, bike-friendly retail districts — and more.
“Something has happened in Long Beach,” Charles Gandy told the Newport Beach Bicycle Safety Committee at its meeting Monday afternoon. “We’ve got energy and momentum. Long Beach is doing the most interesting thing of all — embracing the lifestyle.”
Gandy, who once was called “America’s No. 1 Bike Advocate,” has been the Long Beach mobility coordinator since 2009. He was the guest speaker for the Safety Committee’s February meeting, which was held at the Fire Conference Room at City Hall.
Long Beach’s cycling safety successes began with 100 percent support from the City Council, he told the group of committee members, Newport Beach city employees and members of the community.
That support, he said, has been stoked by the success of a single grant-writing employee whose work has brought in most of the $21 million the cycling programs have used for improvements over the past three years.
Gandy’s presentation included a look at Long Beach sharrows, which slow traffic in retail areas and get cyclists off the sidewalks, a major concern of business owners.
Other areas where Long Beach has made cycling improvements include three newly developed through-routes that take cyclists off the busy main traffic arteries, as well as the creation of protected bike lanes on one-way downtown streets that were created when three traffic lanes were reduced to two.
“In addition to the bling, we’re doing bread and butter bike projects,” he said. He showed a slide of a huge yellow bike rack on a street that fits 14 bikes in the place of one parking spot, and he showed another slide of cargo bikes that can help deliver heavy groceries you buy at a market so you don’t need to drive a car.
“It’s developed into something of an urban style, and we’re getting lots of ‘Atta boys,’” he said. “Something has happened in Long Beach. It’s the voice of a community that has embraced this.”
Gandy said Long Beach citizens, cyclists and non-cyclists alike, appreciate the cycling movement. Sharrow lanes, he said, remind motorists to stay to the left “non-friction” lane, which makes things like parallel parking a bit easier.
Traffic during rush hour is always bad on sharrows lanes, he said, but it’s no worse the rest of the time.
The audience, including City Councilwoman Nancy Gardner, applauded after the 30-minute presentation and Q&A session.
One audience member, Stacy Kline of Newport Beach, said she cycles an hour each way to a teaching job in Santa Ana.
“Those sharrows are so important to me,” she said. “It makes motorists aware that I’m there. So rah-rah sharrows.”
The Cycling Committee is considering adding sharrows on Coast Highway through Corona del Mar. City Manager Dave Kiff sent out a letter explaining sharrows, and Gardner said there has been little negative feedback.
The Corona del Mar Residents Association members would like more information, Gardner said, suggesting that committee members staff a booth at the CdMRA’s annual town meeting when it is held in April.
The Committee members also discussed moving to a larger space for their March meeting because of the growing audience size.
