Cyclists: Bike over to Metro’s first Bicycle Roundtable! I hope you have a flexible work schedule that gives you Friday afternoons off for bike activism:

When: Fri., Feb. 19 from 2 pm – 4 pm
Where: In the Windsor Conference Room on the 15th floor of Metro, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles.
RSVP: Required by Fri., Feb. 12 to Jennifer Gill at 213.922.4224 or gillj@metro.net. Mention if you plan to bike there, so Metro can arrange for adequate bike parking space.

This Bicycle Roundtable’s the first of a series, according to Metro, and will feature Doug Failing — Metro’s Executive Director of Highway Programs and Interim Chief Planning Officer who was active in the Caltrans Bicycle Advisory Committee. From Metro’s email announcing the roundtable:

The purpose of the first meeting is to initiate a dialogue and identify issues of importance to cyclists in Los Angeles County. This will lead to a vision for enhancing Metro’s current program. The outcome of the first meeting will determine the frequency, next steps, and agendas of future meetings.

Park your bike in Metro’s parking garage on the P1 level between the fish tank/customer service center and Metro elevators, sign-in for a visitor’s badge at the 3rd Fl. security desk, then proceed up to the 15th Fl. for light refreshments and bike-related discussion.

Metro’s Jennifer Gill said the meeting is open to all, and that details about the Bicycle Roundtable meetings will be added to the Metro website soon.

Not sure what cyclists are discussing these days? Some of the latest bikey topics:

>> Nearly a quarter of bike-car crashes are hit and runs, according to new data. One cyclist victim of that stat’s local bike activist Roadblock, who, despite the dismissive and unhelpful attitude of the LAPD, has managed to track down the  Jag that hit him. Streetsblog L.A. readers then went on to find the alleged hit-and-runner’s public blog, which quickly became privatized.

>> The Alliance for Bicycling and Walking’s Bicycling and Walking in the United States: The 2010 Benchmarking Report finds that “10 percent of trips are by bicycle or foot, yet bicyclists and pedestrians make up over 13% of traffic fatalities and receive just 1.2% of federal transportation dollars.”

>> The L.A. Bike Working Group’s released a map of L.A.’s Bicycle Backbone — not a map of existing bike facilities, but a vision of how the city should be connected for cyclists.

>> There’s good news for cyclists too, from a bike and ped plan in Culver City to an anti-harrassment ordinance in L.A.

Photo by Fire Monkey Fish

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