UPDATE: There will be an Open House tomorrow (5/30/2012) between 5:00PM and 8:00PM to discuss the upcoming Downtown Bikeway Network. The event will be held at Aiso Plaza (Judge John Aiso Street & 1st Street). For more information, click here.
First St. at the last CicLAvia. This stretch will have bike lanes in the next two months.
We hope everyone had a great Bike to Work Day! Special thanks to all the riders and pit stop volunteers that made the week’s festivities possible. Hope everyone got to enjoy their Cliff Bars and other promo items at the various pit stops!
Just a year ago, Downtown Los Angeles was devoid of any dedicated bicycle infrastructure. Last April, the 7th Street bike lanes brought the first dedicated bicycle facility right to downtown’s doorstep. Then in late November, the highly anticipated southbound Spring St. green bike lane brought the first true bikeway to the heart of downtown Los Angeles, connecting Chinatown, the Civic Center, and the Historic Core to the edge of South Park. This past February, Main St. joined the fray, extending the Spring St. bike lane southwards between 9th and 16th/Venice Blvd with a two-way facility.
We’re happy to report that within the next three months, LADOT will be installing the highly anticipated complimentary northbound lane to Spring St. on Main St. from 9th to Cesar Chavez, giving Downtown L.A. a true north-south backbone for its burgeoning bicycle network. While Main St. is an important facility, it is just another piece of the downtown Bikeway network coming together.
Existing Downtown LA Bikeway Network
0-6 Months Out
Within six months you can expect Los Angeles St. to get bike lanes from Alameda St. to First St, providing a direct bicycle connection to the region’s preeminent transit destination, Los Angeles Union Station. The lanes on Los Angeles will be complimented by new lanes on First Street between Grand Ave. and San Pedro St. The First Street bike lane will connect with the Spring St. and Main St bike lanes, as well as the Metro Red/Purple Line Civic Center Station, LAPD Headquarters, City Hall, LADOT, and the Music Center.
Olive St. rendering courtesy Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Board member Valerie Watson
Further west and south, Olive St. and Grand Ave. between 7th St. and Washington Blvd. will also be getting bike lanes. An analysis of the traffic patterns there revealed that Olive and Grand were ideal candidates for bike lanes because they have more than sufficient service capacity for existing traffic volumes. This allows us to implement the facilities without any significant impacts. Olive and Grand will be installed as a couplet (Olive will have a northbound bike lane and Grand will have a southbound one). They will connect with future facilities along 7th St., 11th St. and Venice Blvd. (more on these facilities below).
0-6 month bikeway network
7-12 months out
Seven to 12 months out, projects covered under the scope of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Package One list will proceed through the review process. Projects included in this list include the ever popular 7th St. bike lanes that would continue existing facilities eastward through downtown from their current terminus at Figueroa St. to Soto St. out in Boyle Heights. Figueroa St. east of 7th would also get bike lanes to Cesar Chavez Ave. Cesar Chavez would get bike lanes from Figueroa St. to Mission Rd.
A very exciting connection for communities to the north of downtown will be on 2nd Street, which would stretch from Glendale Blvd. to Broadway and utilize the 2nd Street Tunnel to get bicyclists directly into downtown. The 2nd Street facility wouldl also connect with bike lanes on Main St. and Spring St. Venice Blvd. would also be getting 4.5 miles of bike lanes from Main St. to San Vicente Blvd, creating a nearly 13 mile long bikeway that stretches from Venice to Downtown L.A. (Be sure to express your support for these projects to your council member).
7-12 Month bikeway network
13+ Months
13+ months from now, we can look forward to the MyFigueroa project along the Figueroa corridor, stretching from west of 7th St. in Downtown L.A. through South Park and onto Exposition Park. Projects on 11th St. and Flower St. (awaiting construction to finish on the Regional Connector Project) will further build out the downtown bikeway network. Be sure to tell us what you think about these projects in the comments section below.
awesome!
So Rad.
Go DOT!
Can’t wait until 7th St. gets put in (through Skid Row, that is)! Yay for bike lanes DT!
[...] lot of use. Three new bike lanes prove there’s cycling life south of the 10 Freeway. LADOT plans a full interconnected bikeway network in Downtown L.A. within the next 13 months or so; I’ll be glad when I don’t have to dodge cabs [...]
Congrats you lucky California bike ridin’ folk. Hope all this and more will show up in the R/W for ya! As they say in ‘Oz Goodonya! :)
After these improvements there will still be a gap on Sunset Blvd. between Figueroa and Douglas. The same for the 2nd St. lane to Glendale Blvd–it leaves a gap between 2nd and Sunset. Without bridging at least one of these gaps, there is no integration of bike infrastructures between Hollywood and Downtown.
For less experienced riders, these two intimidating gaps may dissuade them from commuting by bicycle.
yay!!
Hopefully, Main St and 1st St will get bike lanes before the next CicLAvia. These streets were both on this years CicLAvia route. Having bike lanes should give some people, who ride in the event, ideas of how to get around downtown by bike on a workday.
Additionally, adding bike lanes on Grand, Olive and Los Angeles St before the Bike Nation bicycle sharing system is in place will help encourage people to try these rental bikes and many of them may also decide to start using their own bikes to get around downtown on a workday. After the first year that the large Velib bicycle sharing system was introduced throughout Paris, the private use of bikes doubled in this French city.
Downtown LA has got a lot of potential for increased bicycle use. Afterall, the police dept has been using bikes there, DOT gives out parking tickets by bike, there are bike messengers, private bike patrols by some business districts and even Domino’s Pizza delivers by bicycle.
I think you guys must’ve read a comment I made recently about LA’s bike infrastructure mileage! We construct 40 miles of bikeways a year, but the facilities will be seldom used unless they are part of a network. I understand LA has a lot of priorities (low income, top 10 priority, geographically equitable, 5 year plan, low hanging fruit, etc…) but if we focused treatment each year, building 40 miles of bikeways to create a network then people won’t be stranded, they can travel places locally and use bikeways the entire time. Downtown LA is an ideal place to focus the early development of the bike plan as it is dense, already has high bike ridership, and would allow the network to grow outward.
Completing all bikeways in the Plan for certain neighborhoods is sure to increase ridership in those communities and demonstrate that when a network is there, people will ride. In Northeast LA (where ridership is already relatively high) if we implemented the facilities planned on Eagle Rock Boulevard, Colorado Boulevard, North Figueroa Street, York Boulevard, Meridian, Ellenwood, etc…. we need fewer than 40 miles and imagine if a network for Northeast LA could emerge in less than a year?
This is encouraging, I support LADOT focusing on creating mini networks in small bikeable communities, even if it is geographically and Council District unequal because creating networks in bike friendly areas WILL increase ridership whereas .5 miles here, 1 mile there at opposite ends of the city seems it will be less successful in increasing ridership.
I agree with Walkeaglerock. Putting in 40 or even 50 miles of bike lanes a year is a big step up from what was being done in the past, but 50 miles of bike lanes is less than 2% of the 2,600 centerline miles of non-residential streets in L.A.
Attempting to put in bike lanes by taking on the entire geographical area of L.A. all at once is like getting on your horse and riding off in all directions at once. Its a lot of action and effort, but it doesn’t get you very far in terms of bike ridership because it dilutes the ability to have a network of bike lanes in a reasonable amount of time. Also, some areas of L.A. simply do not have much potential for bike ridership because riding a bike is not competitive in terms of speed and convenience compared to other forms of transportation.
I did a parked bicycle count last monday at all of the Orange Line stations fencing and bike racks, along with the rack bike parking at the Red Line subway station in North Hollywood. There was a total of 53 bikes along the fencing or bike racks at all 14 stops along the Orange Line and 70 bikes were parked at the North Hollywood subway station.
The reason for the much higher bike parking at the subway station compared to the entire Orange Line is simple; its much faster and more convenient to move around the San Fernando Valley by automobile than by bicycle, yet it can be faster and easier to travel by subway to downtown L.A. from North Hollywood than by car. The bicycle can also make it faster and easier to connect to the subway in North Hollywood compared to trying to find a parking space for your car.
I agree with Patrick about the two gaps, on Glendale and on Sunset, connecting Echo Park to Downtown. The other major gap this leaves (which is part of my commute from Los Feliz to USC) is Hoover between 7th and Venice – are there any plans to close that gap? Or perhaps use Alvarado instead? (That would be less optimal for me, but I could see huge value for the extra connections it would bring to Westlake/MacArthur Park.)
Does LADOT plan to comment on recent “bike route” signs put up recently? In Eagle Rock several new signs were put up on Colorado Boulevard to compliment some existing route signs. I biked with my sister recently and when we passed by one she said “there’s a bike route here?” thinking that there was something more meaningful than the signs themselves. The signs on Colorado Boulevard (and Eagle Rock boulevard too if I remember correctly) also feature arrows pointing to other “bicycle facilities”. As one travels West on Colorado Boulevard and approaches the intersection of Colorado and Eagle Rock there is a directional arrow below a bike route sign pointing south onto Eagle Rock Boulevard and one pointing West continuing on Colorado Boulevard. The signs seem to be a bit unnecessary, I wonder why they were installed at all, as they don’t change travel patterns, help bicyclists in choosing routes or anything.
Hi walkeaglerock,
We are nearly finished with an overhaul of our bike route signage citywide. It is important to keep in mind that our bike routes are just one component of the bikeway network. The first goal was for the bike routes themselves to make sense. Most of our current bike routes are gap closures between bike lanes and/or paths. A select few are longer corridors which were retained because they are fairly comfortable for riding; in some cases these may be replaced by bike lanes in the future. Some of the the original routes were removed because they were no longer suitable, or in some cases, no longer necessary with the expansion of the bike lane and path network. Yet another type of facility – the “bicycle-friendly street” could replace some of these route corridors.
The next step was to replace missing or damaged signs, add directional arrows at route intersections or where routes change direction, and install new signs along the new gaps created by some of our newest bike lanes. This step is nearly complete.
The future of bike routes should see additional destination wayfinding signage which will add value to the fairly nondescript “bike route” signs themselves. Alone, bike route signs may have limited value, but with future enhancements and network expansion, there is still a place for them. I recommend you view our online maps at bicyclela.org which lays out our lane, path and route network in real time.
Do these come with a repaving of the road? Bike lanes are all well and good, but if they are on treacherous surface, then it doesn’t really matter.
Overall this looks very good. With short distances between destinations, and plenty of transit connections, Downtown is a critical place to make safe and welcoming for bicycling. Hopefully, over time, this network will connect well with adjacent population-dense communities of color, too. Many of the facilities in the city’s 5-year implementation plan will make those connections – facilities including Central Avenue, Venice Blvd – more 7th Street and First Street, too.
Is the full list of bike lane facilities being studied in the initial Environmental Impact Report already posted anywhere? If not yet, can it be made publicly available?
Campus Road and Avenue 50 have recently been repaved by Occidental. Both streets are in the LA Bike Plan as bike friendly streets– why not jump on opportunity to grace them with sharrows? They have not received any pavement markings yet!
This is amazing news! This is an indicator that the quality of life in DTLA is improving.
[...] event comes on the heels of an announcement from the LADOT Bike Blog that within the next three months a northbound bike lane will be installed on Main Street from 9th [...]
[...] Additional downtown bikeway mileage will be implemented within a couple years on Cesar Chavez Avenue, 1st Street, 2nd Street/Glendale Blvd, 7th Street, 11th Street, Venice Boulevard, Figueroa Street, and Flower Street. (For overview see this Downtown Bikeway Network post at the LADOT website.) [...]
[...] residents and visitors alike. Bicycle access to Grand Park will be very convenient thanks to the growing downtown L.A. bicycle network and the Metro Red/Purple Line Civic Center Station. Bike lanes on 1st St. and Spring St. will [...]
[...] residents and visitors alike. Bicycle access to Grand Park will be very convenient thanks to the growing downtown L.A. bicycle network and the Metro Red/Purple Line Civic Center Station. Bike lanes on 1st St. and Spring St. will [...]
[...] installing 40 miles of bike lanes and also installed 20 miles of sharrows; a bike network has been growing in Downtown L.A.; a record number of bike rack requests have been fulfilled; and the City’s first physically [...]
[...] installing 51 miles of bike lanes and also installed 20 miles of sharrows; a bike network has been growing in Downtown L.A.; a record number of bike rack requests have been fulfilled; and the City’s first physically [...]
[...] welcome addition to the bicycle network improves connectivity between transit and other bike lanes in downtown. The new lanes provide [...]
[...] welcome addition to the bicycle network improves connectivity between transit and other bike lanes in downtown. The new lanes provide [...]