Urban Planning student co-stars in biking video

Herbie Huff, the co-founder of the UCLA Bicycle Coalition and a transportation planning student, recently co-starred in a bicycle documentary produced by my colleagues at UCLA Transportation and the UCLA Sustainable Resource Center. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to check it out.

(And then, if you like it, share it with your friends - especially those who might be on the cusp of riding but need to see that it is possible to ride a bike in LA: www.bit.ly/bikeumentary).



Damien Newton at LA Streetsblog raves,

"In a non-preachy way it shows how easy it is to be a bicycle commuter.  Neither rides because they have to, Peteu's introduction to biking in L.A. was actually looking for a car and Huff owns a car that she 'almost never uses.'  But the film deals with the "people that ride bikes can't afford cars" argument subtly, as the film does with a lot of the 'anti-bike' arguments you'll hear from car-culture warriors.

Already, we've gotten a lot of feedback, all of it positive and/or constructive. The filmmaker, Brent, is a graphic designer, and not an urban planner by training, so he sought to make a film that encourages people to ride. As Damien noted, it never set out to be an advocacy or didactic film. But some of the feedback commented on the need for someone with Brent's artistic talents to do such a film. Hopefully, with the right partners, he might be able to do something like this in the future.



Resources if you're ready to try cycling!

• An Introduction to Bike Commuting video by REI
• Commute By Bike blog
• UCLA Bike Shop, which sponsors bike safety and maintenance classes every quarter.