Green Sharrows, signs, and bike racks --making it cool and safe to ride in Belmont Shore

A progress report on the Long Beach bike program: Bike infrastructure in Belmont Shore increases bike ridership by 100% as well as increasing rider safety...

Over that past year the city of Long Beach has done several pilot projects designed to increase bike ridership as well as rider safety.

A major project has been the Federally Sanctioned "green sharrows" on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore, a commercial area located a few blocks from the beach. The sharrows are designed to show riders the safe place to ride (near the center of the lane and out of the door zone) as well as to indicate to drivers that the lane is a shared lane for bikes and cars. In addition signs have been posted indicating that bikes and cars "share the green lane" and a large number bike racks have been added.

The results have been an increase in bike riders in the business district (the number of riders have almost doubled), a decrease in riders on the sidewalk and a decrease in the number of bike related accidents.

Belmont Shore is one many parts of the city that is being targeted for bike infrastructure and education. The area, which is about 14 blocks long and just a few blocks from the beach, consists of small shops and restaurants surrounded by residential housing. All of these things together make this an ideal area for a "bike friendly business district."




As a result of the success in Belmont Shore other Long Beach business districts are now asking for similar infrastructure treatments in their disticts.

In this video Charlie Gandy, Long Beach's Mobility coordinator talks about what is happening in this area to make it more bike friendly and the impact on the business district.

For more information on what is happening with the Bike Long Beach effort see www.bikelongbeach.org or check us out on FaceBook at bikelongbeach.org.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• bike
• Long Beach
• Belmont Shore
• Green Sharrows
• sharrows
• Charlie Gandy
• bike safety

[cgrout]

Beyond jealous of you guys. Can only wish that one day San Diego takes notice and we get similar movement here.

Thanks for taking the lead!

[matthewandrew]

go beach!