"What if, tomorrow, everyone’s car disappeared?"
Running on Empty (Revisited) from Ross Ching on Vimeo.
While empty highways will probably stay an utopia forever in Los Angeles, different programms have been started to make ecological modes of transport more attractive:
- The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) knows how to make use of all the possibilities the internet offers and has a website, a blog, facebook and twitter accounts that keep Angelenos in dialogue with the LADOT Bike Program and up-to-date about newly installed bikeways and cycling safety.
- CicLAvia: Three of these events are happening in 2011. For one day, all cars are removed from the streets and a route between seven and ten miles is opened for cyclist, skaters and pedestrians. Carefully planned, the route goes through different neighbourhoods to connect different parts of Los Angeles: "Ciclavía is not just for recreation. It is social integration."
- The Los Angeles Metro decided to step up its game and to market its products and services as if it were a private company. But the focus lies not on increasing profit but on convincing commuters that the metro is an smart alternative to their car. As Matt Raymond, the Chief Communications Officer for Metro, puts it: "We wanted to make public transportation cool."
All these projects have the common goal of making the city more sustainable and simply livable. And while Los Angeles has often been a model for the rest of the world, in September it was Los Angeles' turn to ask Dutch cycling experts for help and inspiration during the ThinkBike L.A. Workshop. Of course, these measures may feel like a drop in a bucket, but with Los Angeles' special status in the United States, no one would be surprised if its inhabitants set the trend for the rest of the country once again.
The "Bicycle Stops Here"-project has installed bicycle parking racks designed by artists. (Source)
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