As part of my politics of the absurd, I haven't owned a car for over a quarter century. I've been telling Americans for decades we needed to become less car reliant, but saying that to people in a culture built around the automobile, well, in their eyes, that just makes you crazy. The LA Times has a good story about closing a road in Los Angeles to cars for exclusive use by bikes. One of the few stories these days giving you hope for the future.
Fifteen years ago, I lived in LA for a couple years. Biking in Los Angeles is a death sport. As the article quotes one of LA’s bikers, “You’re definitely aware of your mortality, pretty much all the time.” Pedaling down one of LA's main streets, like Pico or La Cienega, is especially existential. You have three lanes traffic in each direction moving at least 40-50 mph, with a lane of parked cars on either side. There’s just enough room between the moving traffic and parked cars to pedal a bike, with the constant threat of one of the parked cars opening a door – a little bit insane.
If I needed to go down one of the main roads, I took to riding on the sidewalks. Funnily enough, as no one does walk in LA, there are some wide sidewalks along these main boulevards, so they make nice bike lanes. If LA is really serious about bikes becoming a main element of transport, they'd start taking a lot of these sidewalks and dividing them partially into bike lanes.
One morning, heading down a sidewalk, I came to an intersection. There, parked right in the middle of the crosswalk was one of LA's finest waiting for the light. As I rode passed, I shot him a look to assure him he had been busted.
He rolled down his window and shouted, “You shouldn't be riding your bike on the sidewalk.”
I couldn't let that pass, so I stopped and turned around.