Sorry, Folks, L.A. Doesn’t Need Bicycles

Bike Paths Are For Recreation, Not For Getting Around Today's Megalopolis

The bicycle is an ingenious mobility device. It gets you from A to B and, in the process, lets you observe your surroundings at a leisurely pace. It is usually lightweight, and it provides an intimate visual, aromatic, and auditory connection to the world around you. With various clever mechanical permutations, it can be folded, even made out of reinforced cardboard. In dense urban environments with traffic congestion, riding a bicycle for short distances is often faster than traversing the same distance via car.

While the bicycle has many virtues, it …