First Year Bicycle Lanes EIR Hearings Start Today

MyFig Cycletrack Rendering via Architect’s Paper

City Planning’s David Somers filled us in a couple of weeks ago on the release of the draft EIR for the First Year Bicycle Lanes project. While AB 2245 exempt bicycle lanes from CEQA, it still requires a public hearing process and traffic/safety assessments in order to file the exemption.

Those hearings will be occurring as follows:

Northeast Area

February 13, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30  pm

Los Angeles River Center & Gardens

California Building

570 West Avenue 26

Los Angeles, CA 90065

Central Area

February 14, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30 pm

Caltrans District 7 Building, Room 01.040 A, B and C

100 S. Main St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012 

West Area

February 19, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30  pm

LADOT Western Parking Enforcement Office,

11214 W. Exposition Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90064

Valley Area

February 21, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30 pm

North Hollywood Regional Library

5211 Tujunga Ave.

North Hollywood, CA 91601

As a refresher, the First Year Bicycle Lanes project includes the city’s first protected bicycle lanes as part of the MyFig streetscape project, a continuous bikeway from Hollywood through Silver Lake and Echo Park to Downtown, and strategic gap closures in the existing bicycle lane network. Somers also discusses the approval process going forward in another blog post.

Make sure to attend the meetings and have your voice heard on this exciting process.

Read Full Post »

Announcing the Release of the First Year Draft EIR and More

City Planning’s David Somers has two blog posts today to explain how these prioritized bike lane projects will be moving forward. This post  goes into more detail about the Draft EIR, while his previous post covered the public hearings scheduled for the project and the approval process afterwards.  - Nate Baird

The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) of the First Year of the First Five-Year Implementation Strategy (First Year) and the Figueroa Streetscape Project was released to the public on Thursday, January 17^th.  As all proposed bicycle lanes included in the First Year Draft EIR include the reduction of at least one mixed-flow travel lane, the main focus of the Draft EIR is the projected increases in travel delay (expressed in Level of Service (LOS)) anticipated as a result of the reduction in auto flow capacity. The result of the LOS analysis can be found in the Traffic Section of the Draft EIR (see Table 4.5-5).

Sunset Blvd. Traffic and Safety Assessment

A stand alone Traffic and Safety Assessment was also released for one mile of bike lanes along Sunset Blvd. west of Figueroa St. The Sunset Blvd. bike lanes were recently proposed and will for the first time provide a direct connection to the neighborhoods of Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Echo Park to Downtown by a continuous bikeway.

Read Full Post »

Notice of Public Hearings for the First Year Bike Lanes

City Planning’s David Somers has two blog posts today to explain how these prioritized bike lane projects will be moving forward. This post covers the public hearings for the project and the approval process afterwards, while his second post goes into more detail about the Draft EIR.  - Nate Baird

The City Planning Department has scheduled four public hearings to hear public comment on the First Year bicycle lanes. The projects include the nearly 40 miles of bicycle lanes that were evaluated in the recently completed Draft EIR in addition to one mile of bike lanes along Sunset Blvd. west of Figueroa St. The 40 miles of bike lanes include the first proposed protected bicycle lanes or ”cycle tracks” in the City as part of the MyFig Streetscape project, as well as strategic gap closures such as Venice Blvd. along with the introduction of critical bikeways in all major geographies of the City. The Sunset Blvd. bike lanes were recently proposed and will, for the first time provide a direct connection to the neighborhoods of Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Echo Park to Downtown by a continuous bikeway. The Traffic and Safety Assessment for the Sunset Blvd. bike lanes is available here.

Read Full Post »

Notes from the October 2nd Bicycle Plan Implementation Team Meeting

BPIT participants discussing Neighborhood Council communication.

This past October 2nd, the Los Angeles Departments of City Planning (LADCP) and Transportation (LADOT) held their quarterly Bicycle Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meeting. Over 20 people were in attendance, ranging from city employees from various departments, representatives from city council offices and several bicycling organizations, to many bicyclists and residents intrigued to see where bike infrastructure in Los Angeles is heading.

(Check out the meeting’s agenda to better follow along with these notes.)

Read Full Post »

AB 2245 Signed by Governor Brown; Bike Lanes Now Fully Exempt from CEQA

Gov. Brown at a recent event in Beverly Hills, photo by Alan Mittelstaedt for Neon Tommy

Early this morning, we received word that Governor Brown has signed AB 2245 into law.  The new law provides for a CEQA exemption for Class II bikeway (bike lane) projects. Under the former guidelines, some bike lane projects in the City of L.A.  would have required an EIR if their traffic impacts were over specified thresholds. While municipalities will still need to assess traffic and safety impacts, and hold public hearings to review them, the exemption allows decision makers to consider such impacts without wasting the time and resources that an EIR process requires. This will allow more effort to be placed on planning and public outreach. We’lll have more on this as we figure out what it will mean for the City of L.A. and the many bike lane projects we have in the works.

Read Full Post »

AB 2245 Update: On to the Senate Floor

AB 2245 (which would exempt bike lanes from CEQA processes) is rolling along; expect a vote in the CA Senate next

Earlier this month, California Assembly Bill 2245 took one more step toward simplifying the process of adding bike lanes to existing streets. The bill, officially entitled “Environmental quality: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): exemption: bikeways,” passed through the California State Environmental Quality Committee in unanimous fashion (7 ayes, 0 noes).  The next step for this piece of legislation is to be introduced on the Senate floor once the State Legislature reconvenes after its summer recess. According to the office of the aforementioned committee, the bill will likely be put to a vote in late August. 

Read Full Post »