> Really beautiful video of Real Rydaz Low Rider Bike Club above. See them up close on July 1st – info below!
> Really worthwhile critique of mandatory helmet laws at Streetsblog NYC. If helmets discourage cycling, then they don’t
> Bike lanes are really on the way on Los Angeles Street in downtown Los Angeles. Existing lane markings have been scraped/erased, and little plastic L-shaped thingies herald the arrival of the great new lanes… which, let’s see, are some kind of historic first… perhaps the first two-way bike lanes in L.A.’s Civic Center… and/or the first bike lanes to reach L.A.’s Union Station. Proof: this meager night-time cellphone photo. More downtown L.A. bike lane info here.
Lots o’ events coming up:
> Tonight – Thursday June 7th 2012 – is Bike Night at the Hammer. That’s the Hammer Art Museum, as opposed to the thing that you pound nails with. Lots of excellent bikey stuff, and, well, a screening of the movie Quicksilver, too. I plan to ride to the Hammer with a group departing from Wilshire/Western at 6pm.
> This Sunday June 10th 2012 is the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition’s River Ride. Great event – lots of distances to choose from. Zevweb quotes Bikas’ Joe Linton in their River Ride coverage. Facebook event here.
updated > Sunday June 17th 2012 RideSouthLA rides Augustus Hawkins Natural Park to Watts Towers! Facebook event here.
> Ride with the Real Rydaz on Sunday July 1st 2012 at We Are Responsible People’s free Peace, Love and Family ride. Facebook event here.
B.I.K.A.S. 
Dennis Hindman
06/10/2012
New bike lanes are installed on Burbank Blvd from Radford Av to Hazeltine Av, with the exception of sharrows from Woodman Av to about 1 1/2 blocks east of the intersection.
Winnetka Ave is on the bike plan, but not on the five year plan. It was recently repaved and striped, but no bike lanes were installed. A missed opportunity that doesn’t seem to be due to lack of sufficient street width.
Joe Linton
06/10/2012
Cool about Burbank Blvd. I saw the new lanes today on Los Angeles Street.
Winnetka is disappointing. It is in the 5-Year Plan – from Victory to Gault (includes the L.A. River area that was repaved recently.)
Dennis Hindman
06/10/2012
My mistake, this section of Winnetka Ave is on the five year plan. I ran across the process of it being repavied and striped over a course of time as I would cross Winnetka Ave on the Orange Line bike path.
I also saw something very interesting happening on the unfinished Orange Line extension bike path last Thursday night at about 8:30 PM. I was riding north on this as yet unopened bike path and I saw what is probably more people per mile than I have ever seen over the last seven years on the original Orange Line path.
These extension users were mainly hispanic families out for a stroll, with several baby carriages. I’d say nine out of ten people were pedestrians and about half of the cyclists were elementary school aged or younger
This is similar to what I have seen at night for the bike path that goes down the middle of Chandler Blvd in the city of Burbank. This section of Chandler Blvd is a quiet residential street surrounded by single family housing with easy, low stress access to the mixed use path. At night the great majority of the people on the path are pedestrians with some people walking their dog and others just strolling along. In some ways it has become like a neighborhood park.
The last mile, or so, of my Thursday night trip on the northern end of the Orange Line extension had no people on it, probably due to it being just an industrial area.
I then decided to count how many people I saw when I headed back south on the extension. There were 76 people, even though it was just about pitch dark and no bike path lights worked yet. There is also a miniscule amount of landscaping.
I went back to check a couple of hours earlier the next day, and low and behold, there were do-not-enter signs, with orange cones, put at several of the major entrances in an attempt to stop people from using the path yet.
Because of its location, the Orange Line extension could end up being the most popular mixed use path in the valley. Although, the 100+ temperatures in the middle of a hot summer day could discourage people from using it.
Dennis Hindman
06/11/2012
I could not find the recent repaving and striping of Winnetka Ave on the Bureau of Street Services current roadwork completed, committed or in progress projects. I went all the way back to January of 2012.
Joe Linton
06/11/2012
The Winnetka resurfacing is part of the L.A. River bridge rehab project – I wrote about it some here: http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/la-public-works-board-approves-west-valley-greenway-funding/
Dennis Hindman
06/11/2012
I found this document which states that the resurfacing of the section of Winnetka Ave from Victory Blvd to Vanowen St is funded from the federal economic recovery program, which also includes putting bikeways along the LA river:
http://recovery.lacity.org/recovery/rpt_project_profile.cfm?id=46
Maybe thats why this section of Winnetka Ave is not on any of the Bureau of Street Services schedules of street resurfacing.
Dennis Hindman
06/11/2012
This street improvement on Winnetka Ave was done under the Bureau of Engineering:
http://boe.lacity.org/uprs/report/ProjectInfoReport.cfm?k=4775&dmy=13848
Perhaps this is why it was missed by LADOT bikeways.