Wednesday, September 15, 2010

With 10,000 to 15,000 Bicycles a Day on USC's Campus, Calls for a Beefier Bicycle Plan

From LAist.

Los Angeles may be gearing up to finalize its master bicycle plan, which would bring some 1,600 miles of bikeways to the city, but that may not be enough for those whose primary location is USC. That's where some 10,000 to 15,000 cyclists roam the campus each day, according to 2009 report.

According to Daily Trojan columnist Lucy Mueller, the problem for the past year has been enforcement of bicycle riding in non-cycling areas and not much else. "Walk your bike" has been a mantra for campus safety officers, apparently with little success.

But how do you encourage fewer bicycles in no riding areas? Mueller has some ideas. "Funds used to beef up the hall monitor presence in the no-bike zone could instead be allocated to deterring traffic in more productive ways, such as placing more racks on the campus perimeter — which could encourage students to park and walk — and making clearly marked bike paths where possible," she suggests. "Our campus might be too small to accommodate a system of paths, but bike lanes are still possible."

USC is also one of the few places in the Los Angeles region that has a car sharing program.

Full article can be found here.


Alan Huynh

1 comment:

Eric B said...

I posted this on the LADOT site, but thought it was appropriate here too. For Kodama students, this is a chance to apply your newfound transportation planning skills and come up with a solution. Remember the five E's (Engineering, Education, Enforcement, Encouragement, and Evaluation).

The issue with the task force is that it was formed to address the “bike problem” on campus instead of creating a circulation plan for the campus. It’s all in the framing.

If bikes are the “problem” to be solved, then a bike ban is the solution.

If the problem being is how to move 30,000 students plus 10,000 faculty and staff safely and efficiently in a 1 square mile campus, then you start to think about creative solutions.

I went to the planning school there. The university is notoriously bad at tapping into its students’ creativity and problem solving skills. The university never even asked for help.