LADOT Bike Blog is back from our winter hibernation to let you know about all the new projects that the Bike Program will bring you in the coming months. Bike lane projects all over the City are making their way closer to construction, and you can look at everything we’ve worked on since Jan. 1 of 2010 at our Bike Lane Projects page. Below the fold, we’ll brief you on the particulars of which projects have made what kind of progress.
As a side note, these projects don’t even include all the new projects we’ll be taking on once the new Bike Plan is adopted. The implementation plan for the Bike Plan will come on top of what we’re working on right now. We’ve got projects coming out of our ears right now.
Nearing Construction
Rinaldi Street
Rinaldi has been in the status of “Pending Work Orders” -meaning a project is in the queue for installation- for some time now, but construction crews should have 1.3 miles of bike lanes installed there (from Mason Avenue to Tampa Avenue) in the next few weeks.
Woodman Avenue
Woodman is one of those projects that just flew through the design and work order process. This 1.0 mile stretch of bike lanes, from Oxnard Street to Vanowen Street, should be completed before the end of the month. This project will connect the existing bike lanes on Woodman to the Orange Line Bikeway.
Reseda Boulevard
The next segment of Reseda Boulevard will also get bike lanes within the month. Connecting to the Sharrows on Reseda completed last year, this new stretch will run 1.1 miles from Valerio Street to Roscoe Street.
Plummer Street
This project is a BSS street resurfacing project, and only goes a quarter mile (from Reseda to Etiwanda), but talk about bang for your buck. This project, scheduled to be striped when BSS completes their repaving, will connect 3 miles of bike lanes on Reseda Boulevard with Cal State Northridge. Creating these types of connections are what passes for high excitement at the Bike Program.
Design Complete
York Boulevard
Ably reported last month by Mr. Bike Lane Scoop himself Joe Linton, York Boulevard saw over half of its length clad in bike lanes last month. Now the balance of York Boulevard, from Avenue 55 to North Figueroa Street, has completed its Design phase. Some of York Boulevard may require removal of a traffic lane to move this project forward.
Main Street
No, not Main Street in downtown, but Main Street in Venice. Just under a mile, from Grand Boulevard to the Santa Monica City Limits, this bike lane would connect with the Main Street bike lanes in Santa Monica AND connect with the Abbot Kinney Sharrows. This project is a bit more difficult, as it would require a road diet to complete. That being said, Santa Monica already did a road diet on Main Street to build their bike lanes. So really, we’re just continuing the road configuration through Venice. The project is currently pending community outreach efforts.
Reseda Boulevard
No, not the section of Reseda mentioned above, but the last section of Reseda needed to connect over 10 miles of continuous bicycle facilities along Reseda. This half-mile section, from Roscoe Street to Parthenia Street, is the last piece of the puzzle because it may require some parking removal to compelte, and is thus the most difficult part.
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
MLK is a much needed addition in South LA. Stretching a mile from Marlton Avenue to Rodeo road, this project is being moved into the “Pending Work Orders” phase.
Riverside Drive
Our last project update, this half mile project from Fulton to Coldwater Canyon will replace the existing bicycle route with shiny new bike lanes.
Rumors and Rumblings
It hasn’t been sorted out yet, but the Bike Program may also in the near future move quickly on a joint project along Wentworth Street and Foothill Boulevard. The idea is to build bike lanes for the remaining length of Wentworth (which goes out to Foothill), then keep going on Foothill for as long as we can. When more information is available on this, or any other project, we’ll be here to let you know.
hmmm… I love the York bike lanes, but I think you’re incorrect when you state that “York Boulevard saw over half of its length clad in bike lanes last month” By my calculations via Google Earth, York Boulevard runs about 3.8 miles – from the Glendale border (near York and Aguilar Street) to the South Pasadena border (just east of the Arroyo Seco)… and the LADOT striped 1.3 miles… so it seems more like a third… not “over half”.
Even if we look at only the areas where a bike lane is already approved on York (from Eagle Rock Boulevard to the city of South Pasadena) it’s actually 2.7 miles, so the 1.3 miles striped are just under half.
How did you calculate “over half”?
Also on York: it seems like the thermoplastic on the York lanes is degrading a bit more than I would expect… I don’t know if it’s a rainy winter issue, or ? … but quite a few areas are already worn away – mostly east of Avenue 50. It was pointed out to me last night.
The current project on York is only from Ave. 55 to N. Figueroa St.
Painted lanes, bike boxes, bike signals … all of those things will be possible once the new bike plan is adopted. As a part of “non-standard treatments” in the Technical Design Handbook for the new bike plan, having those new treatments in the plan will give the Bike Program a wider range of opportunities to gain approval for, and to secure funding for, pilot projects that include these new treatments. Since those types of treatments aren’t currently allowed in the CA MUTCD, we’d have to apply for pilot projects in order to get them installed. There are rumors, however, that the CTCDC will amend the CA MUTCD in March to conform more closely to the federal MUTCD. That will certainly open up more opportunities for innovative projects that won’t necessarily have to be approved as pilot projects.
The key in all of this, of course, is rallying community support behind street improvements in conjunction with bike lane projects. We hope to do a post soon on the latest version of the implementation plan of new infrastructure for the Bike Plan. We think that it will be a key document for the bike community to keep an eye on, as it will give good forewarning for when new projects will be coming into your neighborhoods.
And for Reseda Boulevard you state “last section of Reseda needed to connect over 10 miles of continuous bicycle facilities along Reseda.”
This isn’t quite true either – there’s still about a quarter mile gap immediately south of Rinaldi – over the 118 Freeway and just south of it.
[…] — which has done wonders to improve the public face of the agency — offers an in-depth look at upcoming bike lane projects and makes a solid argument for road diets. Streetsblog looks at the new and improved Ohio bike […]
[…] LADOT Promises “Lots of Bike
Lanes” in 2011 (LADOT Bike Blog) […]
Crosstown roads of Hollywood have a lot of users. Fountain
sharrows is a poor substitute for one set of decent bike lanes
somewhere: anywhere from Melrose to Franklin would do. Fountain is
narrow and dangerous even with Sharrows markers. The crumbling
roads make large parts of Sunset and Santa Monica Blvds. unridable.
Ever go east on Santa Monica Blvd and pull up to Western? It’s
unbelievable.
I completely agree, Sean. Here’s a map of what the new bike plan calls for in LA: http://www.labikeplan.org/index.php/download_file/view/106/55/ We’ll also try to have a post up soon about the newest order of project priorities for the Bike Plan’s implementation plan. My advice is to keep an eye on what projects are coming to your neighborhood (and when) and make sure to rally support for full implementation when it’s their turn.
Keep the lanes coming my way….the valley needs as many lanes, sharrows, and paths as we can get!
Hey LADOT Bike Blog,
I’m super psyched that bike lanes are coming to the stretch of Woodman between Oxnard and Vanowen. I admit that I’m a little biased; that bike lane will make it super easy for me to switch from the Orange Line to my parents’ house.
Cheers!
ST
First mile/Last mile infrastructure around transit hubs is absolutely essential in LA, so we’re pretty psyched for it too!