I'm happy she is so empowered, but living in LA for two decades led me to disagree with her perspective on whether it's a challenger to do LA without a car. If you want to get outside your own neighborhoods and sections of the city, a bike is indeed a challenge... and not to mention a safety risk given the bike infrastructure is lacking in many connecting sections of the city.

And the bus public transit system is robust, but not orderly. There are many overlapping jurisdictions and cities that all have their own bus system. It's not nearly as clean or as enjoyable as riding Trimet, where one entity controls the connections.

But I applaud her for trying and think we could change some of the above problems I cite if more people brave the streets.

How does she deal with the nine months a year of rain? Oh... Different city, different challenges. Thanks for playing.

Also, fucking cyclists get off my roads until you start paying taxes for them.

I'd wager most people bike and also drive. These people pay taxes to maintain our common infrastructure. There's no reason we shouldn't be getting along here.

I ride my bike locally and do not use highways. These highways historically have not paid for themselves, and the difference has to come from subsidies and from property tax and other tax revenue that has nothing to do with driving. And we all pay all kinds of externalized costs from the effects of driving, such as pollution, health care costs from accidents, etc. The whole driving infrastructure gets massive subsidies, so I'm hardly getting any kind of free ride as a cyclist.
And if all we cyclists started driving instead, think how much higher oil and gas prices could be. Simple supply and demand economics.

You guys never learn.

I wasn't addressing that to Graham but to any readers who buy into the whole "cyclists don't pay their fair share" thing, which I've heard repeated so many times that I think it's probably time to start refuting it. Still probably a waste of time, but oh well.

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-sn…

-the number one reason biking is so challenging in los angeles.

One thing I remember hearing during my time in east L.A. was that sitting in traffic for the typical two hours a day was equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. I can only imagine how much better that sweet, sweet air is for you if you're gulping it down by the lungful. Double points if it's "oh no the hills are on fire again" season.