Through the hard work and the amazing support of our community and key partners like Superpedestrian, the Sunset4All x LACBC team recently succeeded in reaching a $25K Match Challenge Crowdfunding Goal to fund the initial engineering and expand our public engagement and outreach for the project.
We are pleased to introduce you to two of the key community organizers at the heart of making Sunset4All a reality.
Meet Avital
"Sunset4All for all started for me three years ago when I was hit by a car biking to work along Sunset in the existing unprotected bike lanes. I felt alone and angry that my city streets were not designed to protect me. But, my spirits were lifted shortly after when I attended my first LACBC Central Area Neighborhood Ambassadors meeting and met an amazing community of people including Terence, Zach, Derrick, Karen, Jennifer, Neal, Ben, Scott, Jessie, and so many more residents and neighbors who also had interest in the corridor. Through our work I learned that I was not alone and that designing our streets with safety in mind was more important than I realized.
Over 1000 other community members had also been injured or killed in crashes along this corridor.
The City of LA identifies these streets as part of a High Injury Network. Thanks to this amazing effort, though, we see a path to make it not just a safer route, but a vibrant part of the fabric of our community. I want to thank the original LACBC Central Area neighborhood ambassadors for their tireless work the last 3 years to create a starting point for Sunset4All and the extended community of over 350+ angels who supported us through this crowdfunding effort."
Meet Terence
"I work on Sunset4All because I want a livable planet for my kids and a street grid that stops killing kids. It’s pretty much that simple.
"As a Silver Lake resident biking a kid to daycare along Sunset Boulevard every day made it obvious to me why there were so few cyclists: it was way too dangerous for all but the most expert cyclists to bike. When other parents saw me show up with a kid on a bike at the local park they would often tell me how they used to bike when they lived in other neighborhoods, but stopped when they moved to Silver Lake because it was way too stressful and unsafe. Is it any surprise that personal automobile use is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in LA County?
Sometimes the Sunset4All team will get the question, Why sunset and not somewhere else?
"I no longer live near Sunset Boulevard, but I still advocate for Sunset4All because it’s one of the existential gaps in our active transportation network. There is no safe east/west route out of DTLA north of MacArthur Park in the entire city. Sunset Boulevard is a mountain pass. There are no parallel side streets. Every cyclist from northern Koreatown to the hills to Burbank to Lincoln Heights and all points north use Sunset Blvd to access the downtown area and vice versa.
"Without Sunset Boulevard working for riders of all ages and abilities we have no hope of successfully implementing an active transportation network in the city of Los Angeles. Once we win this campaign, we look forward to applying the lessons learned on Sunset4All to all of the major active transportation corridors across the city and county until it is so safe, comfortable, and efficient to ride a bike, most people won’t think twice about leaving the car at home."
Keep up to date with our progress and next steps please by visiting the Sunset4All project page.
Check out some additional coverage in Urbanize LA and the CalBike blog, Sunset4All: A Big Step Forward for Biking in LA.
Our goal at LACBC is to create the conditions where Angelenos can realistically ask, "Why drive when we can ride?"
Our mission is to improve the quality of life for everyone in Los Angeles by promoting bicycling as a practical and joyous everyday choice to get everywhere we need to go all the time.
Everyone. Everyday. All the time.
The Sunset4All project embodies the core values we hold dear at LACBC by leaning into a community-led approach designed to democratize the planning, implementation and stewardship of active transportation projects in Los Angeles. In addition to serving as the fiscal sponsor and thought partner to Sunset4All, LACBC is committed to creating a playbook that will leverage the lessons learned and establish a set of milestones that can be applied by other grass roots community-led active transportation projects across Los Angeles County.