Biking!!

In Los Angeles, specifically at Occidental, bicycles are an important aspect of transportation that could help create a successful transit system and improve the city immensely. According to SCAG’s State of the Commute report, “21 percent of commute trips are five miles or less” and nearly three of four shopping trips that are made consist of less than five miles of travel (Metro, 2008, p. 42). Further, nearly 37 percent of Los Angeles students live one mile or less from school and according to Metro,“20-25 percent of peak hour congestion is the result of parents driving their children to and from school” (2008, p. 42). Such car trips, which are unnecessary, are responsible for much of the environmental contamination and traffic in Los Angeles.

If short range trips in which travelers currently depend on cars were

accomplished by the use of bicycles, there would be a substantial increase in air quality and a decrease in traffic (California Alliance For Transportation Choices, 2006, p. 1). As one may infer, bicycling does not produce any emissions and preserves very scarce fossil fuels. According to information provided in Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan, every trip that is made by a bicycle will replace two-and-a-half times the amount of energy that is normally consumed by one automobile trip of similar distance, will eliminate “cold start” pollution, and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (2008, p. 42).

The current issue in allowing the outlined results of biking to being achieved is in creating a system that allows bikes to be effectively and safely used. Although strides in the right direction have been made, it is necessary to continue making improvements. To create an effective system that will encourage the use of bicycles, it is necessary to safely increase the number of bike lanes and routes for short distance travel, decrease the current gaps that exist in the biking travel system, and create additional bicycle parking at prime locations (Metro, 2008, p. 42-43). According to Metro’s long range transportation plan, “bicycle parking at employment centers and local destinations will also help reduce the use of cars and the expanding need for costly automobile parking” (2008, p. 43).