LA, land of the car, is warming to bikes

"These days in Los Angeles, there are midnight bike rides, East Side bike rides, women’s bike rides and nude bike rides rolling out nearly every day," The New York Times reports. "In the past 18 months, close to 40 miles of bike paths and lanes have been created across the city and the City Council passed a measure to prevent bicyclists from being harassed by motorists."

“The popularity of cycling is totally surging,” Jennifer Klausner, executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, told the paper. “What I see is more and more people than ever before on bicycles, at all hours of the day and night. It’s taken a while for the city to catch up.”

Nathan Baird, bicycle coordinator for the city’s Department of Transportation, said the city installed 19 new miles of bikeways last year and 35 miles this year, and intended to build 40 miles of bikeways a year over the next five years. A city plan, adopted in March 2011, pledges the city to build roughly 1,350 miles of pathways, dedicated lanes, and bike-friendly streets over the next 30 years.

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