In a few days Los Angeles will be experiencing the first CicLAvia bike ride, modelled on the popular car-free Ciclovia bicycle days in Bogota and Mexico City, among other places. It's on Sunday - 10.10.2010 and you can read about it here.
There was a time when bicycles were a regular feature on the urban landscape in L.A.. At the turn of the last century 20% of all trips in the city were by bicycle.
This is a great quote from a 1897 newspaper article:
"There is no part of the world where cycling is in greater favor than in Southern California, and nowhere on the American continent are conditions so favorable the year round for wheeling."
I included the quote in an article I wrote in the L.A. Times' Bottleneck Blog a couple of years ago. Also mentioning the fantastic separated infrastructure built to connect Pasadena with L.A. - the Arroyo Seca Cycleway.
Have a great ride, Los Angeles!