Biker's rights: Chicago vs. Los Angeles

Streetblog, a New York-based bike blog, takes aim at Los Angeles in a post about biker's rights. The comparison is between Chicago, where Mayor Richard Daley, an avid biker, has recently pushed through an ordinance forbidding cars to make a left turn in front of a bike.

In Los Angeles, however, where bike advocacy groups have been pushing a biker's bill of rights, riders complain of being harassed by the LAPD. As a matter of fact, after a city meeting where the bill of rights was pushed, several bike activists reported being pulled over by the LAPD:

The cyclists were riding on Virgil and approaching Melrose when four cyclists executed a "vehicular left turn" on the approach to a red light. The car to the rear and left continued to accelerate toward the red light and only yielded to the cyclists in control of the lane at the last moment, causing him to stop suddenly. The cyclists were riding in pairs throughout the left turn maneuver. Behind the cyclists was an LAPD Sgt. who looked at the incident and decided that the cyclists were impeding traffic, all on the approach to a red light.

He pulled over the cyclists, let the motorist go, called for backup and tied up an additional three squad cars and a helicopter while he lectured the cyclists on everything from "impeding" to pedal reflectors to the difference in weight between a bicycle and an automobile.

Having had cars shoot by to my left by about three inches, waited endlessly at pedestrian crosswalks to walk my bike across the street, and had pedestrians look at me like I'm crazy when using a left turn lane, I can attest that people don't quite know how they are supposed to treat bikers.

But I can't say I've been pulled over for not having a car yield to me. Not yet anyway.

I haven't biked in Chicago (or really much of anywhere besides Pasadena-area and suburban New Jersey) but based on other's accounts and some common sense, Los Angeles County ain't a biker's paradise. Evidence:

- Look at this map of bike paths. Note the big blank area in the middle. That is Los Angeles.

- A lot of those bike paths are hard to find, run through concrete riverbeds, and are very short (I'm looking at you Arroyo Seco.)

-Bike racers at the Rose Bowl are fighting off an attempt by the police to ban them from riding.

-Bikes are not allowed on most county trails, even ones that get low usage.

-Our readers sometimes complain that they get screamed at by police when bringing their bikes on public transportation.