The bike lane street sweeper, towed by Streets Are For Everyone’s Kayla Hankins, fits in spaces inaccessible to traditional sweepers. (photo courtesy of the 13th Council District office)
A new bike-powered street sweeper that will keep bike lanes clean in Hollywood was unveiled on Oct. 11 by L.A. City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, 13th District, in partnership with Streets Are For Everyone, known as SAFE.
Unlike traditional sweepers that are too large to fit in protected bike lanes, the custom-built device can navigate narrow lanes where debris accumulates.
“We’re excited to roll out the red carpet for Hollywood’s newest star,” Soto-Martinez said. “With limited resources, but plenty of creativity and community partnership, we found a smart way to make Hollywood Boulevard cleaner and safer.”
The sweeper attaches to an e-bike and is pulled as a trailer. As the device moves forward, rotating brushes scoop up leaves and debris into two small onboard baskets.
“This is an innovative and low-cost way to continue to invest in the safety of our community and help keep it beautiful for the businesses, cyclists and pedestrians using Hollywood Boulevard,” SAFE executive director Damian Kevitt said.
For information, visit cd13.lacity.gov.
1 Comment
Another PR effort to promote these misguided, ill-conceived and underutilized barrier-protected bike lanes. Their typical utilization appears to be about ten users per hour in each direction, many of whom would likely ride through the area even in the absence of PBLs. Whenever I’ve ridden Hollywood Boulevard from the eastern end of the protected bike lanes to La Brea, I’ve always found the “unprotected” section to be a much more pleasant biking experience. It will be a real nightmare if the City Council goes ahead with its plan to install PBLs all the way to La Brea, since this has historically been prime teenage and tourist “cruising” territory, and people will deeply resent it if that is taken away. Don’t let the PBL advocates talk you into thinking their position is favored by the majority – it resoundingly isn’t.