Photo by Colin Gordon.
Los Angeles! Despite your reputation as the most car-dependent city west of, uh, anything, you’re totally trying to get in on the green transportation revolution, and we love it!
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced over the weekend that the City of Cars will soon have a permanent bikeshare program. And if there were ever a city that should be bike-friendly, it’s L.A. If people in Minneapolis can bike through the winter, the good people of Los Angeles can bike through their year-round climate of balmy beauty. (Seriously, you can do it, guys! We’re rooting for you!)
The bikeshare program is starting this December and will have 4,000 bikes and 400 kiosks. That’s actually pretty big — bigger than D.C.’s bikeshare, bigger than Chicago’s. (Not as big as New York’s because New York will always win, suckers.) I do have it on good authority that in L.A. biking can be faster than battling traffic in a car. So — have at it, you Californians! Soak up that sun! Pedal those bikes! Perspire slightly, then have Botox injected into your sweat glands to prevent it ever happening again! Prove to the rest of us that you can be glamorous and urban and that valet parking for bikes is just as cool as valet parking for cars.
