Conscientious Objectors: Long Beach Shuns ‘Motordom’, Strives To Become America’s Most Bike-Friendly City

Written by: Mike Lydon

While America demonstrates incredible geographic and social diversity, its cities have become far too similar. This found homogeneity is the bi-product of many layered public and private policies reinforcing what author Peter Norton calls “motordom.” Without fully breaking America’s 100 years of applied motordom, the demands of the future, which will be decidedly less auto-oriented, can only be addressed timidly, if at all.

That’s not good.

While the forces contributing to long-term economic, social, and environmental resiliency play out nationally, they can be measured most accurately at the scale of the region where clusters of interdependent municipalities compete fiercely over finite economic resources. In the past this usually meant offering corporate tax breaks or cultivating the region’s crown jewel school system, all while making sure motordom kept humming along.

Today, such an approach meets increasingly limited market segments and ignores the fact that quality of place matters in the new economy. Indeed, this country’s most desirable, and therefore sustainable places–Boulder, San Francisco, New York City, Portsmouth, Ann Arbor, Burlington, Boston, etc.–have histories of crafting policy paradigms that differentiate themselves in America’s over-saturated market of urban banality. In doing so, they’ve often inspired change at a regional, national, or even international scale– they become Pattern Cities.

If there is one city in America looking to elevate itself to a similar status, it’s Long Beach, California.

While we recently profiled the city’s new parklets, Nate Berg over at Atlantic Cities wrote this fantastic article about Long Beach’s conscientious effort to become America’s most bike-friendly city. While there is no need to re-hash the article (really, read the whole thing), it’s important to underscore the symbolism and substance of this bold decision. Indeed, by crafting a new narrative, one that differentiates itself from a Los Angeles region known for bicycle-unfriendliness, the city is setting itself up for a brighter future. And as Berg points out, the attention being paid to Long Beach has never been greater, and the economic impacts are already measurable.

Long Beach has a ways to go in meeting its goals. Yet, the stated intent has put the rest of southern California, if not the nation, on notice (are you listening Portland and Minneapolis?): the City of Long Beach is proactively addressing the challenges of the 21st century and it will become a stronger, more livable, more equitable, and more exciting place to live.

To quote The Big Lebwoski character Walter Sobchak quoting Theodore Herzl: “If you will it, it is no dream.”