DLANC Sustainability Committee supports CAR-FREE FRIDAYS

At the April 2010 meeting, the DLANC Board supported the Sustainability Committee motion to support CAR-FREE FRIDAYS, the last Friday of every month. The Sustainability Committee is now reaching out to City Councilmembers Jan Perry, Jose Huizar, and Ed Reyes to partner with us as participants, supporters, and advocates in the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s campaign. As a part of our work towards the development of a more sustainable Downtown Los Angeles for our neighborhood stakeholders, we encourage your participation in our efforts to build community consensus in support of this initiative.

The DLANC Sustainability Committee supports this campaign because it meets our goals of creating a culture of sustainability by providing incentives and raising public awareness about the much needed change in driving behavior and automobile dependence.

CAR-FREE FRIDAY, which began in January 2009, has been highly successful campaign whose goal is to highlight the benefits of riding a bike and to encourage new riders to start commuting by bike at least one day a month (every fourth Friday of the month). While this campaign was spearheaded by the LA Bicycle Coalition and focuses on the promotion of cycling, the DLANC Sustainability encourages the use of all alternative modes of transportation (walking, biking, public transit, telecommuting, as well as car and van pooling) during CAR-FREE FRIDAY.

The LA County Bicycle Coalition has developed a business partnership program to offer cyclists who ride on CAR-FREE FRIDAY discounts at local shops (http://la-bike.org/discounts/cff_shop_discounts.html) around LA County and can hear PSA announcements on local radio stations. Council President Eric Garcetti has been a huge supporter of this campaign, and together we encourage the entire City to pass a resolution for CAR-FREE FRIDAY the last Friday of every month.

The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council is a grassroots-level advisory committee representing a diverse group of stakeholders that live, work, and own a business downtown on issues ranging from affordable housing, economic development and sustainability to arts, land use, education, and public safety. The Sustainability Committee is one of several committees of community volunteers who are taking an active role in the future of our neighborhood. For more information or to get involved, go to www.downtownsustainability.com