That mile and a half of Spring Street turns out to be the most filmed stretch of street in town. Or rather, it was until about last November, when the green lane spoiled the shots that made Spring the perfect stand-in for Anytown, USA. It was the perfect street for car commercials, the perfect backdrop of stolid bank buildings, the perfect mix of marble columns and Art Deco spandrels, the perfect modern or 1920s downtown — until the wide green stripe appeared.
February 15, 2012
Why painting the bike lanes green is a big problem in L.A.
You can't be "bike-friendly and film-friendly at the same time":
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I think operating muscle powered vehicles on state highways or municipal arterial streets should be prohibited and strictly enforced.
That green stripe will cost the city revenue when Hollywood finds another main street to substitute in Canada. Bureaucrats and do-gooders have very little understanding of unintended consequences.
wv: hitorane; what happens to bikers in the green lane when the fog/rain rolls in across the surface oil.
The other option is just make every road in the country paint in a green bike lane.
Come on people, solutions!
Isn't L.A. succeeding in driving the film industry away? Why is this any different.
And why does the color have to be green?
The streets, as public space, belong to all. Under California law, bicycles are vehicles.
If the film industry can color Harry Potter's eyes blue, I don't see why they are unable to recolor the road to their liking.
chickenlittle, L.A. is peddling the film industry away, evidently. Driving is bad.
A lot of good those green stripes do. I had a woman step out from behind a cab into my little green lane. I barely had time to react and we smacked faces and went over like ten-pins. I found the fact that I was in a green lane so very, very, comforting.
And isn't putting down gallons upon gallons of paint kind of, a, not green? Even if it is green.
And isn't putting down gallons upon gallons of paint kind of, a, not green? Even if it is green.
It only has to look green. It doesn't actually have to be green. Kind of like Al Gore.
Doesn't completely painting in the bike lane like that reduce the coefficient of friction between the street and bike tire?
Add rain and motor oil and I would think at some point those green lanes make bike riding more dangerous.
It's also beneficial to look out for the edges of the road and for areas deemed slippery due to constant existence of acrylic paint, leaves and sap from trees and dust from the dirty shoulder of the road. Slippery roads would appear appear glimmering or seem to be covered with murky water, sometimes with visible traces of oil, mud or leaves.
Unless...
Today, cars and bikes are equipped with shielded oil tanks, and paint used for signs like road-crossings, are either mixed with the tar before it is set unto the road, or made out of none-oil-based color that is being mixed with a rugged mixture like sand, salt or powder of crushed glass, that tends to increase grip levels.
Still, where the tire contact surface is completely painted I would suspect these mitigating techniques would not be as effective.
My first thought was that when the movie industry meats liberal politics the movie industry would inevitably win. After all, it's liberal movie money that puts liberal politicians in charge of painting the roads green. After reading the comments I see that even the movie industry bows to the liberal god. They're no better than raped women in OWS camps.
Bike riders should be required to pay between $500 to $1,000 a year in road taxes. They contribute nothing to the building and maintenance of the roads, delay traffic and are generally a pain in the ass for the motorists.
I supose Vancouver will benefit from this outsourcing.
Sheesh, that's a lot of paint. Bit of an eyesore.
Bike riders should be required to pay between $500 to $1,000 a year in road taxes. They contribute nothing to the building and maintenance of the roads, delay traffic and are generally a pain in the ass for the motorists.
Right, 'cause bike riders certainly never drive a car or buy gas.
There are a couple green lanes here in Madison, and the green paint is mixed with some kind of gravel so the coefficient of friction is increased. I didn't think the green/grit would last one winter, but so far it has (although you can hardly call this winter an actual winter).
Bit of an eyesore.
But someone in City Hall had a "vision." Miles and miles of green (=good) paint, designating the line between, well, war and peace. Corruption and honor. Consumption and sustainability. Hate and love. Doncha get it?
I guess my thought would be -- if they can make the scrimmage line and the first-down lines appear digitally on football fields during live broadcasts, why can't they digitally erase green line?
For a century and a half, CA was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
The Lefties took only 20 years to turn it into a Third World sewer.
chickenlittle said...
Isn't L.A. succeeding in driving the film industry away? Why is this any different.
And why does the color have to be green?
Can I say it's not easy, being green?
And CA has been driving away the movie and TV biz for decades.
That's why so much TV in the 80s and 90s was shot in overcast Vancouver.
WV "ritfu" (no kidding)
Funny thing about green: With a little movie magic it'll disappear. Even amateur videographers know how to use green screens as backdrops to blend subjects on tape or film. But they also know it has to be the right shade of green or it doesn't work — at least, not without additional expense. Bike lane green, however, is dictated by the federal government, which doesn't require bike lanes, and doesn't require green, but requires that if bike lanes are green they must be this particular shade — which is not digitally erasable Hollywood green.
Oh, I see.
Amazing that the feds are making the shade of green for a non-mandatory marking mandatory.
"That's why so much TV in the 80s and 90s was shot in overcast Vancouver."
Duncan McCleod and Fox Mulder are proud Vancouver-ites, if I remember correctly!
Can't they just remove the green stripe in post?
The simplest solution is no marked bike lanes.
Bikes are better off without them; and if you want to spend money making roads bike safer, make them wider. Then both bikes and cars benefit.
On a suitably wide road, there will be a line of debris at the edge where traffic never goes. A bike is comfortably safe just inside that line, and won't interfere with cars at all.
So the federal government decides that if you paint a bike lane green it can only be ONE PARTICULAR SHADE of green: From the linked article:
Bike lane green, however, is dictated by the federal government, which doesn't require bike lanes, and doesn't require green, but requires that if bike lanes are green they must be this particular shade — which is not digitally erasable Hollywood
So what exactly does the the Federal Government have to do with micromanaging the exact shade of green for a bike lane in any local jurisdiction?
wv: yotoni
"Whoever controls the gold gets to rule."
Just about any bikelane project involves Federal funding at some level, and if so, comes under "Green Book" rules.
(And man, you would not believe what all is in that book!)
We have a green-painted bike lane in our town but it's not that color green. It's a duskier green. It's been there about six months.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions...and green paint.
Mayor Tony Villa La Raza has to show some project (besides the LA City Yacht) for all the millions in stimulus he's gotten from Bams.
Any Federal law, rule, or regulation is open to interpretation by itself, and for every Federal law, rule, or regulation that mandates a certain response to a given situation, there are at least two other Federal laws, rules, or regulations that calls for a different action.
In other words, whatever it is, it is subject to the personal likes and dislikes of the local Federal official authorized to sign off on the reimbursement request.
Thanks for the info MadMan.
Mayor Tony Villa La Raza has to show some project
I honestly think that some of these projects exist so that mayors can go to mayors' conferences and Nyaah Nyaah Nyaah the fact that their city did such and such and no one else did.
How you did this, unbelievable I think you are a great Artist thanks for sharing..
Painting Company
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