Let's Take a Real Step Toward Sustainability

The city should be congratulated for its concrete steps toward sustainability (as recently) and for embarking on a process several years ago to identify "green" initiatives like energy conservation and creating energy-efficient development standards in order to reduce our carbon footprint. 

But Beverly Hills hasn't fully embraced the spirit of our Sustainability Plan, which was created in 2009 to provide a framework for a coordinated effort for prioritizing policies and programs to get us onto more sustainable (carbon) footing.

Indeed our effort to move the city toward sustainability seems to have stalled: our "green team" is moribund. We've not appointed an environmental expert—as suggested in the Plan—to advise us on translating our sustainability goals into real policies or programs. And city departments are unclear about their own sustainability practices or how they might serve the larger goal. We haven't even posted a final Sustainability Plan; we're still working with a draft.

If our ambition—as suggested by the Plan—was to get behind a broader sustainability initiative, in practice our approach has been ad hoc: we have solar panels, charging stations and a green building code modeled on the state's law, but we're not coordinating our efforts on our most challenging problems.

That is especially true with regard to transportation. As a cyclist-advocate with Better Bike, I work to bring bike planning and bike facilities to Beverly Hills. I know that we can reduce congestion and reduce our transportation-related emissions if we commit to non-motor modes of mobility like pedestrian and cycling. As the Plan says, "If there are safe bicycle routes and if secure bicycle parking is available then people will bicycle more."

I agree with the Plan that we should "walk and ride a bicycle whenever possible." But our streets aren't safe for cyclists, and there is no bike parking outside of the Business Triangle, which has fewer than 20 racks.

At Better Bike we've called for a better bike plan (ours is from 1977), bike routes, parking and safety measures to make our walkable city "bikable" too, but progress has been glacial. Half-measures on the drawing board will likely not be enough to get folks onto a bike. While the Plan recommends that we "reduce vehicular use and encourage the use of alternate transportation modes," real policy changes are slow to arrive.

Cycling in a congestion-choked city will only be attractive when policymakers take the first steps to make it safer and more convenient. And that takes real commitment.

Here's one sign of how sustainable policymaking doesn't happen: the city is considering new regulations for development at our western gateway, where Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards intersect. Overly generous terms on the table will likely squeeze sidewalks and bike lanes off Santa Monica Boulevard. That would, in effect, preclude the corridor for "active transportation" purposes, which might otherwise connect us, emission-free, with our neighboring cities. Yet there is no real push to make sure that bike lanes find a place on our signature crosstown thoroughfare. It must be for more than simply moving cars!

Indeed we have a lot yet to do to even begin to realize the opportunities highlighted by our Sustainability Plan. Until we step away from the past era of auto domination and toward sustainable forms of transportation, our well-intentioned measures like solar panels and charging stations won't begin to make a noticeable dent in our very unsustainable transportation patterns here in Beverly Hills.

We can take a first step by recognizing that cycling is an answer to vitality-sapping congestion, excessive carbon emissions and a surplus of frustration on our roads. Second, we could hire a mobility coordinator—as recommended in the Plan—to help us see planning through the lens of sustainable transportation. Third, we need to create the bike lanes and other facilities that will keep safe those who choose not to drive but instead elect to pedal to local shops for everyday needs.

Join us in asking for a better transportation future here in Beverly Hills. We're seeing it unfold elsewhere in the United States and even here on the Westside. Why not bring a bit of that love to those who want to move about town without dragging two tons of metal with them?