Keep the Spring Street bike lanes GREEN

As cities from coast to coast add color to their streets, I'm disappointed to hear that LA is considering removing ours. I urge you to keep the Spring Street bike lane green so that it can continue to attract "interested but concerned" bicyclists to ride downtown. Our city streets shouldn't just be accessible to people at special events like CicLAvia. We need to use the best tools available to make riding our streets safe and welcoming every day.

The success of Spring Street's green bike lane has been proven. Since 2012 we have seen a 40% increase in bicycle ridership along the corridor. We want to be sure this trend is further encouraged in a community that is increasingly residential and pedestrian-oriented.

While Downtown LA is a stand-in for cities around the world, it is also a neighborhood for over 50,000 Angelenos. Other cities are competing for our creative talent that increasingly seeks out the urban lifestyle available in Downtown. The green bike lane, parklets, and continental crosswalks all contribute to a vibrant streetscape that makes Downtown worth living and working in. The ultimate irony is that our peers in New York, Chicago, and many other American cities are ahead of us in implementing these street projects, yet we are told that we can't improve our streets because then we wouldn't look like them on the silver screen.

Please keep LA competitive as a bike-friendly city by keeping our most distinctive piece of infrastructure and giving it a fresh coat of paint.