Beverly Hills Is No Bicycle Heaven

In Copenhagen, Denmark, where I’ve spent most of my life before moving to our lovely city, bikes rule.

The automobile is reduced to the secondary vehicle of choice when it comes to transporting yourself from point A to B. If you’re driving your car to work in Copenhagen, chances are you’ve commuted from some rural area. There are a lot of benefits to this bicyclist regime. People are not as overweight and out of shape in Copenhagen as they are here. They get their daily fitness routine done by taking their bike to work. Many workplaces have showers installed for the more enthusiastic bikers. The pollution levels are also way lower than in the general Los Angeles area because of the bike-mania.

Many people in Copenhagen don’t own cars since bicycles are the fastest way to get around town, no matter what. This is partly because bikes actually slow the automotive traffic down. Whenever someone has to make a turn, he or she must wait for 20-30 bicyclists to pass in the bike lane before even moving. And since it’s illegal to turn right on red in Denmark (like most of Europe) rush hour equals legions of bicyclists putting a damper on the traffic flow. It’s what happens when bicyclism becomes a movement that really takes root.

It was Copenhagen that first invented the city-bike concept, where there are free bikes available for everyone to borrow, as long as they are returned to a city bike stand somewhere in the city center.

Now let me be perfectly clear: I’m not advocating two-wheeled fundamentalism. I can live without judgmental, self-righteous bicycle arrogance. But there is something to be said about the plans for making Beverly Hills more bike-friendly, as Patch columnist Ellen Lutwak .

Beverly Hills' last bicycle plan is from 1977—and it’s really quite perplexing that it has taken three and a half decades to get started on renewing it. Especially because most of the city's busiest streets are in the “flat” part of town. You can have a pretty comfortable bike ride from one end of town to the other without having to imitate Lance Armstrong going up the Alpe d’Huez. It's PERFECT for bikes. I personally would love to be able to take my bike over the city limit to the Ralphs and Bristol Farms on Doheny and Beverly. But I’m afraid to. I’ve heard of too many of my friends who get into accidents.

One thing is the fact that Beverly Hills and L.A. drivers aren’t used to looking out for cyclists, so they make fast turns, lane changes and other rash decisions that are incredibly dangerous to cyclists. Bike riders are an emerging group in this city, so these drivers can’t be blamed too much. I also see so many cyclists without lights on at night, I’m starting to think that some of these guys have death wishes. Both these phenomena will probably diminish as bikes become a more common sight on our streets.

But there is one thing that Beverly Hills could do that would not only be a huge boost to bicyclism in the city, but might even put the city in the lead when it comes to supporting bike culture: Change the bike lanes.

I come from a city where EVERY sidewalk has a bike lane next to it. So trust me when I say that the bike lanes in most of Beverly Hills and L.A. are not only a case of absurdly stupid planning, they are downright dangerous!

It’s one thing to paint bike lanes on the blacktop that are only two feet wide, which is hardly enough for riding your bike at a reasonable speed. But why on Earth would someone place a bike lane TO THE LEFT of parked cars? It’s probably the stupidest idea I’ve encountered since I came to the United States. Most cars in this city have only one person inside them—the driver. And when the driver exits, which side does he exit on? The left, opening his door into the bike lane.

If you’re not used to looking for bicyclists before opening the door, there’s a good chance you’ll be opening your door right into a two-wheeler, especially if bike traffic keeps growing. Placing the bike lane to the left of parked cars also gives big trucks with bad mirror views a great opportunity to crush a biker between the truck and a parked car.

If Beverly Hills is really serious about becoming bike-friendly, we need to move the bike lanes. And don’t tell me it’s going to be too expensive. It’s not like you have to pave whole new lanes, like they’ve done in Copenhagen. You just have to paint new markers for the parking stalls along the side of the road so that the bike lanes are next to the curb. I think most drivers can figure out how to step over the two feet of a bike lane to get to their parking meter. 

But if the city fails to make the bike lanes safer, they can put up as many well-designed bike racks as they want—people are going to stick to their cars. Because bike-friendly means safe biking. And those bike lanes aren’t safe.