A Program of Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

(LACBC)

A Program of Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

(LACBC)

CARECEN Day Laborer Center, Pico CARECEN Day Laborer Center, Pico

UnionUnion

Why Create a Program That Only Focuses on

Latino Day Laborer Cyclists?

Los Angeles is home to one of the largest groups of

cyclists, Latino day laborers, who ride to work each day.

For most of these cyclists, their bikes are their only

means of transportation.

Finally, since many Latino cyclists are not connected to

the bicycle community and are low-income, there has

been a dearth of resources for them, including a lack of

access to information about bicycling laws, how to ride

safely in traffic, and access to safety gear.

City of Lights Aims to Bridge That GapCity of Lights Aims to Bridge That GapCity of Lights Aims to Bridge That Gap

What is City of Lights?

We provide bicycle lights

and safety information to

Latino immigrant cyclists.

We are a group of LACBC

staff and volunteers that

regularly service the

CARECEN day laborer

center in Pico-Union every

week.

We have hosted bike safety

and repair workshops in

June and July, with a

culturally themed bike ride

planned for September.

The long term goals of the program are to connect The long term goals of the program are to connect

Latino social justice movements and communities Latino social justice movements and communities

with the with the alternativealternative transportransportation movement and tation movement and

susupportpport advocatesadvocates amongstamongst the daythe day laborer population. laborer population.

It is important for It is important for thesethese underrepreunderrepresented immigrant cyclists sented immigrant cyclists

to beto becomecome a parta part ofof thethe political processpolitical process

and our vision is for them to and our vision is for them to transform the built transform the built

environment environment (i.e., bike lanes, bike parking, and (i.e., bike lanes, bike parking, and

traffic circles) in their neighborhoods to become traffic circles) in their neighborhoods to become

more bike and pedestrian friendly.more bike and pedestrian friendly.

What is City of Lights?

We hope to empower the

cyclists and build community in

a fun and relevant way.

We do this through

culturally themed bike

rides and interactive

workshops.

In the fall, we will begin qualitative

and quantitative research surveys

and interviews in partnership with

UCLA and UCI.

This will serve to develop new

research and data on these largely

unaddressed issues of transportation

equity and public health.

We hope this research will inform

academia and city planners more

about Latino cyclists to create more

equitable neighborhoods.

City of Lights’

Research Component

Volunteer Lys Mendez Gives a Presentation on Bike Lights

One cyclist installs a bike light

LACBC City of Lights & CARECEN staff

City of Lights’ Future Plans

•We want to expand to offer not

only bicycle lights, but also more

expensive yet vital bicycle

accessories such as helmets and

bicycle locks.

• We would also like to expand the

model of workshops, lights, and

advocacy to other day laborer

centers in Central Los Angeles.

•Lastly, we will continue to apply

for grants and community support.

City of Lights Safety Workshop, June 2009.

LACBC Planning Director Dorothy

Le assists a cyclist with installing a

light

City of Lights table at CARECEN April 2009

City of Lights in the Media

• We have created a blog for City of Lights, which will

also be translated into Spanish and has our Youtube

video (https://sites.google.com/site/cityoflightsprogram/ and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udhqY2mfKxo)

• Planet Bike’s blog featured City of Lights (http://www.planetbike.com/blog/128)

• The Alliance for Biking and Walking mentions City of

Lights (http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/media/la

cbc_lights_up_la/)

• UCLA’s Daily Bruin Newspaper February interview (http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/stories/2009/feb/2/cyclists/)

Contact:

Allison Mannos

Urban Programs Coordinator,

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

634 S. Spring St. Ste #821

Los Angeles, CA 90014

213-629-2142

Allison@la-bike.org

http://www.la-bike.org/

and

https://sites.google.com/site/cityoflightsprogram/