Last Friday was a busy one at One Gateway, Metro’s headquarters in Los Angeles. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Sen. Barbara Boxer were here for a town hall meeting and Metro also hosted its first bicycle roundtable, which I missed.

The idea, in essence, was for Metro to listen to the concern of cyclists. BikingInLA supplies good coverage of the event and reports that among the issues raised by cyclists were the need for larger bike racks on Metro buses, the need for more room for bikes on Metro rail and the need to better train more Metro bus drivers to respect cyclists on the road.

I also wanted to call your attention to an interview with Doug Failing, Metro’s highways chief and interim chief planner, that was posted last week on County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s website. Failing says that he sees bikes as a potentially great way for transit users to travel that “last mile” between home and work and transit. He also says that because Metro is not going to go on a bike path building binge, he would like to emphasize safety to show motorists that cyclists have a right to use the road.