As gas prices force some motorists to dust off their bicycles, West Hollywood authorities are backpedaling on a law that bans bike riding on its pedestrian-packed sidewalks.
The compact, walking-friendly city is preparing to legalize sidewalk bike riding along streets that lack marked bicycle lanes.
Bicyclists sharing walkways with pedestrians will be required to be careful -- and courteous to senior citizens and others who have long walked to Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards to shop and dine.
Local traffic laws and the state's vehicle code have traditionally lumped bicycles into the same category as motorized vehicles, meaning they must be ridden on streets, not sidewalks. An exception is Los Angeles, where only willfully careless bike riding is prohibited on sidewalks.
But bicyclists in West Hollywood have complained that traffic congestion and narrow roadways in some areas make it dangerous to ride in the street.
After learning that even some members of the Los Angeles County sheriff's bicycle detail were leery of riding in the street, city leaders spent more than a year studying the issue and polling residents and those who work and shop in the 2-square-mile town.
The survey showed that more than half of respondents ride their bikes on sidewalks, even though it is illegal. The idea of sharing the sidewalk between pedestrians and bicyclists was split, with 43.7% for coexistence and 52.7% against it.
On the street, the bikes-on-the-sidewalk debate continues to roll on.
Outside a Starbucks on Santa Monica Boulevard, lined with bicycles chained to parking meters and lampposts, Sam Lopez, 21, sparred with friends Francesca Consarino, 18, and Chelsea Medwin, 17. All live in next-door Beverly Hills.
Lopez, a talent agency intern, said that as a motorist he believes that bicyclists belong on sidewalks. The young women, both high school students who walk a lot, disagreed.
At a nearby sidewalk table, marketing expert Stephen Bender, 29, of Hollywood said bike riders are safer on the walkway than in the busy boulevard's marked bicycle lane.
Just then, Leonard Donnell pulled up to a stop on the sidewalk on his old cruiser-style bike. He dismissed the painted bicycle lane a few steps away as "too dangerous."
"If we use common sense, we should be able to ride and walk on the sidewalk together," said Donnell, 50, of West Hollywood.
