LOS ANGELES — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the new champion of cyclists’ rights in the nation’s second-largest city, a conversion that came after a bone-breaking fall from his bicycle.
The mayor, who has said little on the topic during five years in office, is campaigning to make streets safer for cyclists after a parked cab pulled out across a bike lane, causing him to shatter an elbow. The ill-fated ride was his first on city streets since taking office.
Since the July 17 accident, Villaraigosa has used The Huffington Post and YouTube to say it is time to recognize that bicycles also belong on L.A.’s streets, which were largely designed for autos. On YouTube, he announced plans to convene a bicycle-safety summit.
Cyclists who have tilted at L.A.’s car-crazy culture for years were shocked that the mayor was even on a bike.
“You could have knocked over any cyclist with a feather when we heard that,” said Ted Rogers, author of the blog BikingInLA.
Others in the activist bicycle camp remained beyond skepticism, dismissing the summit today in advance as a failure because it is scheduled downtown during work hours when they can’t attend.
Villaraigosa said the city needs to invest in bicycling infrastructure and focus on traffic-safety enforcement to make streets safer for cyclists.
“We also have to have a cultural paradigm shift,” Villaraigosa said in an interview. “We have to recognize that even in the car capital of America, drivers have to share the road.”
