VISTA BIKE BOULEVARD

Construction on Vista continues with much positive feedback from the
residents. The anticipated date of completion remains the same for
Vista, however the dates for the closures at Park and Ximeno have been
changed due to construction issues that have been resolved.  It is
anticipated that Ximeno will remain closed through August 13th, with the
closure of Park shifting to August 16th – September 10th which will
still coincide with the Termino Drain street closure.  The remaining six
roundabouts are under construction and the anticipated date of
completion for landscaping and irrigation remains at September 17th.
The traffic signal at Redondo is scheduled to be complete and fully
operational by October 11th.

BROADWAY and 3RD SEPARATED BIKEWAY

Construction continues on this project with signal work expected to
continue through September.  The schedule for full completion is still
being developed, with completion expected by the end of 2010.

TWO PRESS EVENTS NEXT WEEK

1.  Bike Sharing/Integrated Mobility Hub: Tuesday, August 3rd at 10 a.m.
in the Civic Center Plaza Press event announcing the coming of the bike
share program and the integrated mobility hub with bike sharing, car
sharing and secure bike parking.  Two bike share providers, Bixi and
B-Cycle will be on hand with bikes that people can ride on.  We will
invite the employees to come test them, as well as the cycling community
and downtown residents and businesses.
2.  Bike Corral Grand Opening: Wednesday, August 4th at 6 p.m. at Utopia
Restaurant on 1st and Linden Press event unveiling the city’s first bike
corral with a reception on the outdoor patio at Utopia.  LB Cyclists
will also be on hand for this inaugural event.

BIKE SAFETY EDUCATION AND AWARENESS

The two bike safety education grants will be kicking off this fall.
Bike safety in the elementary and middle schools will begin in September
through Safe Moves in partnership with Tony Cruz. The Bike safety
awareness campaign is also scheduled to begin soon. The media outreach
contract has been awarded to R. Antonette, a Long Beach firm, and the
public outreach contract has been awarded to The Idea Group, also a Long
Beach firm that is headed by Georgia Case and includes  Allan Crawford
on the team. We are developing the contracts and finalizing the scopes
of work as the firms are getting the required insurance documents and
other requirements ready for submission.

BIKE MASTER PLAN UPDATE

KOA is finalizing the “vision map” that incorporates all of the
improvements we’ve been hearing about at all of the meetings Charlie’s
been attending since he got here, as well as all that Courtney has been
gathering through the Metro Blue Line Bike & Pedestrian Access Plan.
KOA
has added proposed bike boulevards throughout the City to round out that
effort, and we are meeting with Lakewood next week to improve
connections on Carson and all of our connected corridors. We are also
scheduling a meeting with Signal Hill, and other adjacent cities in
Orange County.
Thomas Fields & Associates is the outreach sub for KOA. The outreach
effort will begin in September with going out to speak and gather
comments from 20 community groups throughout the city, and then hosting
nine community meetings, one in each district.

BIKE FRIENDLY RETAIL DISTRICTS

We’re getting started on the bike friendly retail districts through the
RENEW grant that was awarded through LA County Health and Long Beach
Health Department.  Bixby Knolls, 4th Street Retro Row, the East Village
and Cambodia Town on Anaheim are the four districts that we will be
working with to create a bike friendly district (we are identifying
other potential BFD’s through the Bike Master Plan).  We will be
developing promotions and events to encourage customers to bike to these
districts during year one.
The grant is small ($9,000 per year for two years for each of the four
districts), so there will be no infrastructure improvements funded, but
we will identify infrastructure needs as part of this process in year
two.  A local partnership team with April Economides of Green Octopus
and Carina Cristiano from the Connected Corridor will be coordinating
this effort with each of the business districts. Each district will also
receive a cargo bike which they can use for promotions, delivery, etc.