Update: The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council tabled their decision on the Porter Ranch Drive bike lanes until their next meeting on February 7th, 2012. DOT staff will be in attendance to field questions. More details to come.
Update: The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council will be considering this proposed bike lane segment at their Neighborhood Council Meeting tonight (01/10/2012) at Shepherd Of The Hills Church 19700 Rinaldi St. Porter Ranch, CA from 6:00pm – 9:00pm. Please come out tonight to show your support for this project. Also, added link to the NACTO website that details buffered bike lanes.
An approximately half mile stretch of Porter Ranch Drive between Rinaldi St. and Corbin Ave. will soon be getting buffered bike lanes. The designs were recently finalized and installation is slated for sometime this month, pending Neighborhood Council approval. With the new buffered bike lanes, Porter Ranch Drive will have a total of 1.2 miles of bike lanes stretching from Sesnon Blvd. to Rinaldi St.. The facility will connect predominantly residential neighborhoods to the north with recreational and shopping opportunities to the south. More on the bike lanes below the fold.
The Makings of a Network
The bike lanes will provide direct access to local destinations including recreational opportunities at Holleigh Bernson Memorial Park and retail and dining opportunities at Porter Ranch Town Center. The new facility will also connect with existing bike lanes on Rinaldi St., Corbin Ave., and Sesnon Blvd.
Bike to Transit and Beyond
The Rinaldi St. terminus of the Porter Ranch Dr. bike lanes offers connections to a major commercial corridor with 7.9 miles of continuous bike lanes. Rinaldi St.’s bike lanes stretch from De Soto Ave. in the west to Lauren Canyon Blvd. in the east. The bike lanes offer bicycle commuters an east-west route that runs roughly parallel with the Ronald Reagan Freeway (Hwy 118). Near the intersection of Rinaldi St. and De Soto Ave. – at the facility’s western terminus – bicyclists can also access the Browns Creek Bike Path – via Sierra Canyon School’s paved path – or a parallel dirt path if the Canyon School’s path is closed. Both routes will take you to the Independence Ave. bike route, which connects with the Browns Creek Bike Path.
The Browns Creek Bike Path can take you to the Chatsworth Amtrak/Metrolink Station – future home of the Chatsworth Orange Line station. Browns Creek will thus eventually connect bicyclists with the Orange Line extension bike path (scheduled to open sometime in 2012). Who knew a half mile of bike lanes could open up so many possibilities.
This announcement is a bit premature since the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council is considering this proposed project at its meeting tonight. Please extend the courtesy of allowing affected Neighborhood Councils the opportunity to weigh in before making (and announcing) final decisions Thank you.
Here is the tonight’s meeting agenda since it was not referenced in the post:
Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 6 – 9pm
Shepherd Of The Hills Church
19700 Rinaldi
1. President, Mel Mitchell – Welcome and Introductions
2. Secretary, Ali Dabirian – Roll Call
3. Secretary, Ali Dabirian – Motion to approve unapproved minutes
4. Treasurer, Maha Batta – Motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report as presented at the January 10, 2012 meeting
5. Discussion and Motion – Proposed bicycle lane project on Porter Ranch Drive between Rinaldi Street and Corbin Avenue, a distance of 0.41 mile (2,165 feet) by Glenn Bailey, Vice-Chair Bicycle Advisory Committee, City of Los Angeles
6. Discussion – Mayor’s Community Budget Survey for Fiscal Year 2012-13 – In each of the last six budget cycles, the Mayor’s Office, with help from the Budget Advocates, has facilitated a structured process for gathering budget input, primarily through an annual community budget survey. This year the budget survey will be released by January 15. In order to get input from all 95 Neighborhood Councils, every Neighborhood Council is kindly requested to agendize the topic of the Budget Survey for their monthly board meeting occurring between January 15 – February 15. Survey instructions are forthcoming. The deadline for submission of survey responses is February 22
7. Committee reports
8. Community speakers
Thanks for the information Glenn. I will update our post accordingly.
Could you give an example of what a “buffered bike lane” looks like? How is it different from a class 2 type bike lane?
Thanks…
Here’s a very nice explanation on buffered bike lanes compliments of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).
http://nacto.org/cities-for-cycling/design-guide/bike-lanes/buffered-bike-lanes/
also, here is a schematic for the Spring Street bike lanes, which also has a painted buffer.
[…] View the original here: Buffered bike lane coming to the Valley […]
[…] Porter Ranch Drive – from Rinaldi to Corbin 0.5miles (Porter Ranch – source LADOT website) […]
[…] Porter Ranch Drive – Rinaldi to Corbin 0.5mile (Porter Ranch – per LADOT website) […]
The Porter Ranch Neighbord Council in my opinion is vehemently opposed to future bike lanes. They feel that the WIlbur bike lanes were forced down their throats and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent further bike lanes from being installed in Porter Ranch. I’ve attended the past two council meetings and there hasn’t been one council meeting that has leaned towards supporting this project.
I implore this blog to get the word to LA’s Bike Community that this network extension is being threatened by people who would rather protect vehicle traffic and future commercial development then the well being and lifestyle of it’s citizens.