Northeast Los Angeles made great strides with the 2010 Los Angeles Bike Plan last year. Bike lanes were installed on Cypress Avenue, Eagle Rock Boulevard, and Colorado Boulevard. More and more, people are discovering the new bike lanes and coming out to ride the avenues of NELA. But the contrasts between Councilman, José Huizar’s CD14 side of NELA and Councilman, Gilbert Cedillo’s CD1 side cannot be more stressed than in these two photos taken almost exactly one week apart. The first one shows a father and daughter riding up Eagle Rock’s Colorado Boulevard in the new buffered bike lane, while the second photo shows a father and son riding on the sidewalk along Figueroa in Highland Park during a rainstorm. One family is embraced, while the other is marginalized.

As People For Bikes, and Minneapolis’ Bikeways for Everyone reminds us, Every person biking on a sidewalk is really just casting a vote for a protected bike lane. That, wherever there are lots of people riding on sidewalks, there is a need for bike infrastructure such as bike lanes and bikeways. So even though you come out against bike lanes on Figueroa, your actions speak louder than words.