I think bike lanes on 3rd might prompt some of the drivers to slow down a bit!

And RussRoca has a good point--the city should post signs making drivers aware that they need to share the road with cyclists.

As someone that rides a lot for transportation, I'd like to chime in. I'm excited that there is excitement in the city! Yay! I do wish that there was a lot more going towards education and awareness however.

I've only been riding a bike for the last couple of years. I think the first time I rode on the street I was 26 or 27. So I am by no means an elite cyclist or have one of those "cycling all my life" stories. I started out riding on the beach path, then sought out bike lanes and now I'm fairly comfortable riding on the street. The point is, in the great spectrum of cycling, I'm fairly average. When I'm carrying all my gear, breaking 15mph on the flats is a fast day. Where I am perhaps different, is that I know where the real dangers are when riding (getting doored, cars pulling out of driveways, riding on the sidewalk, riding against the flow of traffic, hugging the curb when riding, etc.,) and I have learned how to avoid them through experience (and by taking a road skills class offered monthly by LBCyclists.org...shameless plug).

I believe that a truly "bicycle friendly city" is one where people in bikes and people in cars get along even if there's no stripe or separated facility. Education/Awareness isn't as sexy as miles of bike lanes or cycle tracks, but I think it's as or MORE important. The reality is that we're not going to have bike lanes and cycle tracks criss-crossing the city, so it's important that motorists and cyclists know how to interact safely when the facilities suddenly disappear beneath you (everyone has experienced the "suddenly disappearing bike lane" phenom). Despite this, I think there has been little done to educate the public outside of childrens bike rodeos.

Case in point, I still encounter people that don't know that bikes have a legal right to be on the road ("Get on the sidewalk! Roads are for cars! You're not a car!" etc.,) and can control the whole lane if they need to. I think that is where a lot of animosity comes from. I know many drivers that don't know what to do when there is a bike in front of them (wait for a safe time to pass and pass with at least 3 feet of distance...even if that means going into the adjacent lane....just like you would do with any other vehicle),

Frankly, I think we should start the education with the LBPD. I've been pulled over for riding in the street (which is perfectly legal according the CVC, btw) by police that didn't know the laws regarding bicycles. I've also almost been hit by police on bikes going the wrong way on a one way street. Further, they're always riding on the sidewalk. What kind of message does that send to motorists and to other cyclists?

As for bike facilities, I'm okay with them...IF they are done well. There are good bike lanes and there are bad bike lanes. We've all probably experienced bike lanes that put us in the path of opening car doors, or bike lanes that suddenly disappear at bridges, or bike lanes where half the lane is in the gutter of the street, putting your tire right in the seam of the street. A poor bike lane, I think, can do more harm than good.

A bike lane or a cycle path, by its very nature, calls out to riders and gives them a sense that it is safe and that it is well thought out. However, in my experience, many facilities aren't designed by cyclists. Nor are they even ever ridden by the people that plan them. I would personally like to take whoever is in charge of putting pen to paper on bike designs in the city out on a bike ride of the designs during rush hour traffic. If they're not willing to do that, how good/safe can the designs be? Is it unreasonable to ask that the people that plan bike facilities actually ride them?

So my whole long-winded point is that yes, I'm excited about the new enthusiasm for bicycles in the city. However, if they have as a real long term goal making Long Beach bike-friendly, they should start looking at educating the public as well paving paths. And for the paths they pave, there should be strong evaluation periods and input from riders (and would it kill them if we could have someone from traffic actually ride it during rush hour? well...it might).

i'm not a fan of having the bike lanes be hidden on vista. have them be part of the built environment where the action is going on and there are things to do and people to see. utilize broadway, it's one of our best assets. these new bike lanes should send a signal of progression through the city, not be hidden away.

From what I can tell the City's entire Transportation Plan for LB2030 are a few new bike lanes and bus stops. Using the City's own numbers, traffic on Eastside residential streets heading East West from downtown to Orange County are projected to increase by at least 25% in the next 10 years (in violation of the City's current transportation plan).

Event without new development downtown traffic on 2nd street in Naples/Belmont Shore has increased 20% in the last 20 years. Gant used to be in charged with the City's Transportation planning now she's playing with bike lanes. What a joke. West needs to seriously address the traffic concerns of residents or find a new job.

I attended Councilman DeLong's recent neighborhood meeting where Ms. Gant talked about the proposed bike paths. They sound great to me, especially since they are grant funded . . .

I'm all for a bike path on Third Street between Alamitos & Junipero, but I sincerely hope that it is a "protected" bike path, either elevated or set off by landscaping or curbs from regular street traffic. If not, you might as well just a paint a (fairly useless) stripe down the street.