She’s tall, blonde, and charged with a mission long overdue: to make LA a more bike-friendly city.
Monica Howe, recently featured in an excellent LA Times profile, is the new outreach coordinator for the LA County Bicycle Coalition. Since taking the position last year, Monica has hit the ground....riding, a good thing as she has much ground to cover.
As she puts it, “Los Angeles is really the last big city to realize that bicycling is a good idea.”
Around the country, cities are catching on to the idea that bikes are a safer, healthier form of transportation all around:
*More bikes = less traffic, less pollution, increased livability.
*More people on bikes = more exercise, healthier population, fewer societal costs.
Yet more people on bikes in unsafe cities = more accidents.
Monica herself attests to a degree of concern riding around some of LA’s more urban areas; however her determination to create a safer environment keeps her in the saddle -- as well as her deep love of bikes. It’s the same risk that thousands of cyclists all over LA choose daily; the benefits are just too great to ignore.
With the LACBC, Monica will build upon momentum already in place to take LA biking to the next level; improving infrastructure, educating motorists, and bringing bike-related issues to the local policy table.
A gargantuan task for sure. LA has a rep as a car obsessed, bike-hostile city, a municipal organism that breathes auto exhaust and spreads congestion.
Yet there’s another side to this town, the very side that stoked Monica’s dormant cycling interest – a thriving community of fun seekers, night riders, critcal massers, and street party creators, joined by their desire to have a good time on two wheels while making LA a safer, more enjoyable place to live.
And so it’s fitting – and very exciting - that Monica plays a leading role in the LA velorution.
Every movement needs a few charismatic spokespeople to mobilize, organize, and inspire....I have no doubt that Monica will take her skills, resources, and our collective desire for a more livable city - and roll with it.
[image by Al Seib, LAT]
