Text and Drive?

Don't, one day you may need mature driving skills....

Meskel Square, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

-LS

Happy Birthday CicLAvia 2020

 This year CicLAvia is ten-years old and growing. CicLAvia works with communities to turn public streets into public parks for one day.

-LS

Laguna's Car Bottleneck

In Laguna parking structures aren't your solution for the same reason. Parking structures serve special interests, as solutions they are illusory.

-LS

Take ACTION for Bike-Share

Pending legislation attacks scooter and bike-shares in California. The legislature hearing is TODAY, tell your state representative to vote NO on AB 1286. Read details and act, use this 60-second CALbike form here.

-LS

Businesses Compensate for COVID

Dallas, Chicago, Spokane, Vancouver test parklets...

SF Parklet (credit Pinterest)

Ironfire, a Long Beach coworking enterprise moves its workforce outside to compensate for COVID, story here.   

-LS

Business Parking for Naysayers

"If you remove parking spaces how will customers get to my business?"

 

Street Parking, NYC (credit: NY Times)

Street Parking, Prague

Street Parking, Lisbon

Street Parking, Boulder Colorado

Street Parking, Menton France (credit: Dreamstime)

"Transmissibility of the virus is greatly reduced outdoors."

-Marc Lipstich, Professor Epidemiology, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard University.

-LS

A 4th July Lock-Down Opportunity

By Governor Newsom's orders California businesses are once again required to close for three weeks due to a surge in COVID-19:

Restaurant dining rooms and other indoor recreational activities have been ordered to close for at least three weeks in 19 counties experiencing increased spread of the coronavirus, including Los Angeles, Sacramento and Orange County.

But hey in that closure is an opportunity, the LAT continues:

Restaurants in those counties can still offer sit-down dining outdoors, as well as takeout and delivery. -Essential LA Times.

Affected businesses take assessment of your parking habits and provide outdoor seating instead. Nothing fancy, beach chairs will do, even Manhattan used beach chairs in Times Square with success.

-LS

A Forest Avenue Promenade Approved

It took a pandemic to approve a test of Forest Avenue Pedestrian Plaza. One fallout from COVID-19 is business revitalization, see links.

Nixle Traffic Alert: Forest Avenue is closed at Coast Highway until September 8 2020 for implementation of the outdoor Promenade on Forest pedestrian plaza.  Use an alternate route for downtown access. 

Laguna Streets Alert: The Forest Pedestrian Plaza opens 15 June 2020, use alternative transport like walking, skating, cycling, Uber to access downtown LB. Trolley resumption anticipated soon.

Notice the plan phrasing, one remains car-centric.

Laguna Beach Independent: Forest Promenade
City Laguna Beach: Press Release

 -LS

The Car-Culture Chasm

Credit: Greater Greater Washington

After the Virus will Laguna return to
car-culture?

A Self-Distancing Opportunity

Laguna's traffic congestion is way down due to the COVID-19 "self-distancing" measure. The stay-at-home order, isolation and mass layoffs contributed to reduced distance traveled by these amounts:

• California down 36%
• California number of miles driven down 53%
• LAX Air traffic down 85%
• San Francisco (all vehicle modes) down 70%
• LA & OC 405 speeds averaging over 70mph 
• Update: Accidents down 50% -LAT

Traffic speeds up shown in green -Google

With reduced motor vehicles on our roads and the Laguna Beach Trolley shut-down, now is a good time to try Laguna's bike-routes while complying with "self-distancing" rule.

GOOGLE Maps shows LB "bike-friendly" routes in blue. Maybe GOOGLE didn't get the memo.

Google Maps bike-friendly routes in Laguna Beach

For more charts on distance traveled, flight delays, empty SoCal freeways see this LA Times article.

-LS