A week or so ago, I wrote a story about the newly painted Shared Lane Markings, or sharrows, up and down Second Street in Belmont Shore.
For the story, I spoke at length with Charlie Gandy, the city's new mobility coordinator, about trying to transform Long Beach into a bike-friendly city. One aspect of our conversation revolved around bicycling's impact on economic development.
"In Texas, I was part of the Chamber of Commerce welcoming committee that showed executives from Silicon Valley places where their employees can ride bikes and run," he said. "It was selling quality of life."
Gandy cited desktop computer publishing software maker Adobe Systems, which moved its offices and some 500 employees into a new 300,000 square foot building near the Burke-Gilman bicycle and foot trail in Seattle.
"This is not an abstract concept related to economic development," he said. "It is a key selling tool. It's more than putting stripes on the street. ... It's showing motorists that bicyclists are executives of companies or teachers or next-door neighbors and some of them ride fast and some of them dawdle and all that is OK. But we ought to provide safe places for all those people to ride their bikes and the good news is, in Long Beach we have that infrastructure."
The recent Bike and Shop event for the grand opening of the new sharrows in Belmont Shore was one way to demonstrate bicyclists' economic power, Gandy said.
"If I can mobilize the bike community to show their financial clout in this town ... that will help us in moving this conversation forward," he said.
For the story, I spoke at length with Charlie Gandy, the city's new mobility coordinator, about trying to transform Long Beach into a bike-friendly city. One aspect of our conversation revolved around bicycling's impact on economic development.
"In Texas, I was part of the Chamber of Commerce welcoming committee that showed executives from Silicon Valley places where their employees can ride bikes and run," he said. "It was selling quality of life."
Gandy cited desktop computer publishing software maker Adobe Systems, which moved its offices and some 500 employees into a new 300,000 square foot building near the Burke-Gilman bicycle and foot trail in Seattle.
"This is not an abstract concept related to economic development," he said. "It is a key selling tool. It's more than putting stripes on the street. ... It's showing motorists that bicyclists are executives of companies or teachers or next-door neighbors and some of them ride fast and some of them dawdle and all that is OK. But we ought to provide safe places for all those people to ride their bikes and the good news is, in Long Beach we have that infrastructure."
The recent Bike and Shop event for the grand opening of the new sharrows in Belmont Shore was one way to demonstrate bicyclists' economic power, Gandy said.
"If I can mobilize the bike community to show their financial clout in this town ... that will help us in moving this conversation forward," he said.
Karen Robes Meeks came to work for the Press-
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