Mailbag: Let’s take a cue from ‘ciclovía’ movement

Re “Map highlights safe bike routes,” Feb. 17:

Now that we’ve seen Billy Fried’s excellent biking map of Laguna, Mike Hoag and I have a proposal to further promote bicycling and walking in this town.

We have seen the success of what are known as “ciclovías” in other cities. The concept originated in Bogotá, Colombia, and has spread to many other cities, notably Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles.

Portland’s “Sunday Parkways” connects several city parks and is held on the last Sunday of each month from May through September and attracts large numbers of families, the elderly and anybody who wants to enjoy their city.

The several recent Los Angeles “CicLAvias” have been hugely successful, attracting more than 100,000 bike riders, skaters, walkers and so on.

One mega-event took place in Germany in 2010, where 40 miles of autobahn were closed for the day, and more than 3 million people showed up on bicycles and on foot.

The route shown on Fried’s map would be very suitable since it connects three city parks — Bluebird, Boat Canyon and Heisler — which is the concept adopted in Portland. There could be entertainment, food and refreshments, and vendors’ booths at each of the parks.

Charles Alban

Laguna Beach

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There’s funding for Complete Streets if you look

Two objections heard most frequently from city leaders when adopting Complete Streets policy are municipal liability and lack of funding.

Municipal liability is not an issue since cities are held immune from liability for use of a public street, and studies show the more pedestrians and cyclists use the street, the fewer accidents there are provided the city provides safe infrastructure.

Funding is available and often subsidized by state and federal grant programs. During meetings held by the Laguna Beach Complete Streets Task Force, the committee was often challenged by council members Jane Egly and Verna Rollinger to find funding for Complete Street projects.

Each time, the task force responded with sources for state and federal grant funding as early as April 2010.

No amount of free money is available to Laguna Beach if the city makes no effort to apply for the grant. To date, the city has not filed a single application for any Complete Streets grant.

Like the lottery, if you don’t play you’re just dreaming.

Les Miklosy

Laguna Beach