L.A. Street Summit 2010: Building Momentum for Change
Whatever way you slice it, the L.A. Streets Summit 2010 was a big success. Take a gander at our wrap-up vid featuring many voices from the hundreds of conference attendees who made connections and started some L.A. synergy for livable streets.
As a special bonus, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (who spoke at Occidental College the previous Thursday night) dropped by the Los Angeles Trade Technical College to provide some inspiring mojo in the form of before & afters of her work transforming NYC's streets.
[0:02] Danielle Marie: Street Summit 2010! [0:04] Raymond Martinez: We're here at the L.A. Street Summit. It's actually an outgrowth of last year's bike summit, which was a huge event, bringing together all of the different bike activists in L.A.'s growing bicycle community, and now we've moved on to an even larger platform.[0:17] Damien Newton: There's a lot of people that are involved this year that weren't involved last year because of the expanded nature of the conference. L.A. Walks this year. I see the Sierra Club here. Lots of groups that are all coming together around the idea of making our streets safer, more livable, and just better here in Los Angeles.
Danielle: [0:33] We set up a bike rally, so everyone can come, and not really worry about locking up, and it was a more communal experience. I think Janet Sadik-Khan is awesome. I really appreciate what she's doing on the east side of the country, and I think it's amazing that she took the time out of her busy schedule to come to L.A.
Raymond: [0:50] We were so have Janet Sadik-Khan come out. She spoke Thursday night to a packed audience. We had her running around the city on Friday, and meeting with city officials.
Janet Sadik-Khan: [1:00] I spent a long time talking with about moving quickly and about the importance of safety in all of the programs that we do in New York. We've been able to reduce traffic fatalities to an all time low. [1:12] They've got 10, 000 miles of streets here, and prioritizing sustainable mobility, and really treating these streets as the valuable public spaces that they are, was really the message. I think there's a lot of opportunity here.[1:24] Joe Linton: Definitely Ciclovia. We're looking forward to... It looks like it's going to happen in September, and it needs more momentum, and more supporters.
[1:32] Sirinya Tritipeskul: There are many parts of Los Angeles that aren't bikeable, that aren't walkable. They lack infrastructure. The infrastructure that's there is crumbling. So, I find it really encouraging that people are here to educate themselves, to learn more about principles of planning, and understand how decisions are made, with regards to infrastructure improvements, but also here to develop solutions.
[1:51] Charles Gandy: These people are the catalyst. These are the people that we get to watch develop into political activists and stewards for what's going to be next in Los Angeles. I'm proud to be a part of it.
[2:03] Justino: There's been a lot of mixed communication about the L.A. bike plan. A lot of people, I guess riders, have been thinking it's more like lip service than anything. But, I think something like this will really get people involved in knowing what they can do.
[2:20] Danielle: I just think that drivers should be more educated, because then they would understand we don't push a pedal behind a combustible engine, like we are the machines that propel us to get from point A to point B, and if they could just take the five seconds out of their day to pass us safely...
[2:35] Joe: I'd love to see protected bike lanes. I have a hard time imagining that.
[2:40] Mojito: [Spanish]
[2:46] We need to have more Spanish events, or seminars at this summit, because it is the lower income communities that are affected by pubic transportation. We use it the most, especially walking and bicycling.
Janet: [3:00] There's a lot that they can do here in L.A. to make their streets safer. That really involves putting people first, and targeting vulnerable pedestrians, like kids and seniors, and getting everybody in the community to help look at our streets in a whole new way, and make them as safe as they can be, so that people are comfortable walking, and biking, and taking the bus, which is really what we've seen in New York, and that's what we're hoping to see here in L.A.
