LOS ANGELES — This city of dreams is also home to stark realities, one of which is having some of the worst traffic in the world. The hourslong traffic jams, pristine weather and mostly flat streets make the City of Angels seem ideal for commuting by bike, but Los Angeles was recently crowned as the worst U.S. city in which to bike by Bicycling magazine. And there is one good reason why: Cyclists keep getting killed on the roads.

In recent years, the city has tried to address safety concerns on its roads through increased funding of safety projects, including those inspired by Vision Zero, a concept which originated in Sweden that focuses on safe travel for all road users and has a particular focus on "reducing speed to save lives." Announced in 2015 by Mayor Eric Garcetti, the initiative's goal was to have a 20 percent reduction in fatalities by the end of 2017 and zero deaths on city roads by 2025.

Instead, pedestrian and cycling deaths have increased. Last year, 21 cyclists were killed by motor vehicles on Los Angeles city roads, according to the latest provisional data available from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. This is up from the 17 cyclists who were killed in 2015, the year the mayor's plan was announced, according to the California Highway Patrol. Pedestrian deaths have also increased, up from 82 in 2015 to 127 in 2018, according to the L.A. transportation department and the state highway patrol.

"People feel uncomfortable on the street, they just don't feel safe. Drivers don't respect riders," says Adé Neff, owner of Ride On! Bike Shop/Co-Op. Neff says an acquaintance of his was killed last summer while cycling in L.A.

"People blame the driver, some blame the cyclist, but no one blames the city for lack of infrastructure," Neff continues. "L.A. really wasn't built as a city that's friendly to pedestrians, never mind cyclists."

Tafarai M. Bayne, vice president of the transportation commission for the city's transportation department and the strategic director of CicLAvia, a nonprofit that organizes car-free street events, sees the issue as more complex.

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"The transit ecosystem is in flux," he says, pointing out the prevalence of ride-share apps, dockless shared scooters and investments into public transportation, all of which result in more people accessing city streets without using cars.

Further hampering progress across the city, Bayne says, are the conflicts between local business owners (who want parking spaces), homeowners (who do not) and commuters who are concerned that "road diets" – bike lanes and parking spaces – steal street space from cars and make traffic worse.

"All these concerns can run right up against each other," he says. "'We have a lot of issues in this city."

John Russo, an engineer and the chief analytics officer of Keep L.A. Moving, a nonprofit that advocates against what it describes as "an anti-car agenda," says the city is "trying to fix things in the wrong way."

While he says he's not against road diets as a concept, "There should be an understanding that major boulevards are there for a reason," he explains. "We think the city should put bike lanes on side streets."

Both cycling-safety advocates and driving enthusiasts agree that City Hall hasn't done enough to improve the situation for either side.

Garcetti did not mention the Vision Zero initiative in his state of the city address last year, which angered some activists. In the $9.9 billion 2018-2019 city budget, $91 million is dedicated to road safety actions. At a City Hall press conference last year, the mayor said the city had completed "over a thousand Vision Zero improvements."

A spokesman for the mayor's office declined to be interviewed for this article, as did spokespeople for council members Mike Bonin and Nury Martinez, both of whom have been vocal in addressing Vision Zero and road diets.

Russo, who has petitioned the city to put bike lanes on side roads instead of main roads, says he feels abandoned by the mayor and City Hall. "If you don't agree with them, they completely ignore you."

Still, despite cyclists' frustrations and grievances, some in the cycling community seem positive.