Photo by Sarah Rogozen

If ever you needed proof that Los Angeles was becoming more bike friendly – keep reading.  I found out yesterday via a friend that UCLA has installed two “bike repair stations” in and around it’s Westwood campus (I’m partial to the Daily Bruin since my grandma worked there when she was in college).  Though these would have been nice to have a few years back while I and my  pedal turning roommates were still in attendance (I slung that crappy old Peugeot I used to ride around campus to some young budding hipster a few years ago…with mixed feelings knowing it would soon end up looking something like this…), it is awesome to see the school taking steps to make riding bikes more convenient.

In doing a little searching around, it looks like quite a few other campuses around the country have also established similar stations – including UC Santa Barbara and Kentucky.  Supposedly the stations at UC Santa Barbara also vend flip flops so sorority girls don’t have to ride home in the mornings in their heels.  Good idea…?  Great idea.  But really, there are plans to place similar bike stations around the city of LA in 2012, and after reading earlier in the year that the county has dedicated  funding to both widening the bike lane through Malibu on PCH, as well as adding 830 miles of new bike ways in unincorporated areas of LA County - much of which is in and around the Santa Monica mountains where we do the majority of our riding – I’d say the city is heading in the right direction when it comes to rolling on two wheels.  And after getting a chance to chat with Jane Choi, LA City urban planner focusing on bike transportation, last week at a symposium for sustainable design, I got the word straight from the horses mouth.  LA has some big plans for making the city much more bike friendly.

Hopefully I’ll get the chance to have a mechanical near one of the new bike stations planned for the city so I’ll have a genuine user experience to write about in the future.  If you happen to live in a city where these bike stations already exist, I’d love to hear how the reception has been.

Ride safe.