1 David Yakobson
From: Dr Michael Cahn <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2024 3:29 PM
To: councilmtgitems
Cc: Ramon Batista; Erika Aklufi; Rooney, Barbara@OTS; Transportation Planning; Anuj Gupta; [email protected]; Sirinya Tritipeskul; Richard McKinnon; [email protected]; Strumpell Kent; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Barbara Filet; Caro Vilain; Ted Rogers
Subject: Item 5D Consent? Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety
EXTERNAL
Dear Council Members,
Before you give green light to the OTS Grant for 300.000 $ for Selective Traffic Enforcement, let me give you some feedback, from the handlebars and from the sidewalk, looking back at how these grants have worked in the past. They used to be awarded for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety, and they were always conducted "through the windshield". The motto was: Drivers are driving, now let's keep the pedestrians and cyclists out of harm's way. To do that we must ticket them when they ride their bikes on the sidewalk, we must educate them to cross at the intersection. There is a big monster in town, it is called vehicle traffic, and it will snap a pedestrian, a cyclist here and there. The main job of SMPD Traffic Division is to keep the monster rolling through town, and keep those who use the streets without a license plate out of the path of this dangerous beast. Not exactly the best way to address the source of the danger, methinks.
It does not look good when SMPD Sergeant is parked at the intersection and ignores how this Prius endangers the pedestrian (Montana):
Item 5-D
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Item 5-D
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2 But the cyclist on the sidewalk is quickly found and stopped and "enforced":
Sometimes crossing the intersection without a green light is safer for the cyclist, but the officer only cares about the rules:
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Item 5-D
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3 SMPD knows that riding bicycles on Lincoln Blvd is hairy, so they do it on the sidewalk:
But the black kid is being hassled for doing the same - riding his bicycle on the sidewalk on Lincoln:
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Item 5-D
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4 We all sometimes think cars can not be avoided. Our police force too is fully subscribed to this attitude.
We once had a transportation management division in this city, but how do you manage the king of the American road? The car is in charge, Ciclavias come and go.
And yet we must manage and challenge all this driving. We must do less of it, and we must do it less often. And the SMPD too must project this goal of less driving. One way to do this is to contradict the idea that driving is always necessary (it is not), that we all drive (we do not). Imagine the citywide moment of education and insight that would happen if our own police department challenged the poison of motonormativity. Encourage the SMPD to challenge the notion that driving is the default. Let's see these officers on their bicycles enforcing the law on Wilshire.
Well, they do ride their bicycles on the beach path, but are they big and strong enough to do it in town? In town the bicycles are transported on the back of a car. Chicken anybody? Item 5-D
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Item 5-D
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5 SMPD avoiding ride bicycles on city streets ("we are not crazy"):
Every time the SMPD is not riding a bicycle in traffic, it gives us cyclists the sense that we are just a crazy suicidal minority. And it gives all the drivers out there the same message: Crazy cyclists. What we need from you is to share the road with us on a bicycle, and to bring your authority and your uniform and your tickets to the bike lane, and to deal with the drivers parking on the bike lane, turning without indicating, overtaking dangerously, ignoring crosswalks, opening doors without looking. This should be part of the 300K grant from OTS!
You want safer streets in Santa Monica? Put your officers on bicycles and let them ride up and down Wilshire, up and down Lincoln. That is where the education and the enforcement needs to happen.
Enforcement of our drivers, the single most dangerous road participants You know you want to do it, just see how you imagined the SMPD as an all terrain mountain cyclists force. No road chickens here.
Item 5-D
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Item 5-D
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6 Please make approval of item 5D contingent on consideration of the following items 1: Highly visible bicycle patrols on heavily trafficked streets: Film it, Share it: Show us and show the community that cars are not always necessary
2: Six Crosswalk Sting Operations on Montana, Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd etc. Film it, Share it. 3: Enforcement of drivers who stop or park on bike lanes 4: Enforcements of illegal parking and waiting around schools:
Lincoln Middle School has crossing guards. Their good work is made impossible by parents defiantly waiting in their cars on bike lanes and in alleys in the vicinity Saint Monica School proudly displays long lines of illegal parking and waiting on California Ave over multiple blocks.
5: Revisit the sidewalk riding ordinance
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7 Thank you !
--
Dr Michael Cahn
Item 5-D
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Item 5-D
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