Metro Hosts First Union Station Master Plan Community Meeting

This way to Metro’s LA Union Station Master Plan community meeting

Metro kicked off the first of four Union Station Master Plan community meetings last night at their headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.  (In April of 2011 the county’s primary transit operator purchased the station and some of the surrounding properties from the real estate company Catellus Operating Limited Partnership for $75 million dollars.)  Community members listened as Metro officials and representatives from Gruen  Associates and Grimshaw Architects (the consultants hired to develop a master plan for the station) proposed their objectives for the area, including accommodating current and future transit needs, protecting and enhancing the station, and improving multi-modal access and connectivity to the surrounding neighborhoods.

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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.)

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What to do During Carmageddon Weekend: Ideas and Discounts

Where will you walk/bike this weekend?

No plans for Carmageddon 2 weekend? Not sure with whom or where to bike? Feel as though you’ll be stuck indoors with nothing to do?

Well, fear no longer; your Bike Program interns are here to put some excitement into your weekend. If you’re feeling like getting some exercise and being social, check out our previous blog posts regarding organized bike rides happening this weekend. With dozens of rides happening all over the city all weekend long, there is bound to be one nearby in which you can participate.

If you want a little more variety then just a bike ride, LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky came out with a list of 53 Ways to survive without the 405, one activity for each of the 53 hours LA’s most used freeway will be closed.  Granted, the list came out during last year’s episode (can you even see “Shrek: the Musical” in theaters anymore?), but if you can manage to complete all of the up-to-date activities on the list, then time well spent!

With nearly 300 businesses citywide offering discounts for the entire weekend, you can’t say there was nothing to do during Carmageddon 2!

If you’re more in the mood to get out and about and explore your neighborhood, check out Metro’s Eat, Shop, and Play Locally Weekend Discount Program to see nearly 300 participating businesses and organizations offering deals, encouraging Angelenos to stay close to home during the Carpocolypse. You can also view their correlated interactive map.

Ranker has also fashioned together a Best of Camageddon Deals page that’s worth a view.

If you plan on taking advantage of any of the aforementioned ideas or discounts, be sure to map out your route and get there via bike! If that’s not an option, why not utilize the public transit system?

How are you planning on spending the weekend? Joining in on an organized bike ride? Riding somewhere new or exciting on your own? Taking advantage of any certain deal? Let us know by leaving your comments below. See you all on the other side (the other side being Monday)!

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Grand and Olive set to receive bike lanes

Today work will begin on the Grand Ave. and Olive St. bike lanes. Together, the Northbound Olive St. and Southbound Grand Ave. will form a 1.5 mile bike lane couplet from Washington Blvd. to 7th Street. Removal of existing striping begins today with the actual striping and installation set to occur over the weekend. Each bike lane will include a 4 foot painted buffer and both streets will be receiving full-time parking, as shown in the schematic below.

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Carpocalypse 2012: What it means for Cyclists

405 Closure Map, originally posted by the LAPD.

During the last weekend in September, the San Diego Freeway (the 405) will be closed in order to complete the demolition of what remains of the Mulholland Bridge. This construction-filled weekend is the next step in the Sepulveda Pass Improvement Project, as the freeway will be widened to accommodate high occupancy vehicle (carpool) lanes. Already being dubbed “Carmageddon II” due to the similar full closure occurring last July, the 10-mile stretch of the 405 (starting from the 101 junction in the north to the juncture with the 10 in the south) will begin closing on-ramps starting at 7pm on Friday the 28th, with the portion of the freeway completely cleared by midnight. The entire operation is projected to take 53 hours, with ramps and connectors staring to open again at 6am on October 1. Despite last year’s closure being completed 17 hours ahead of schedule, this year’s demolition team must remove two  bridge columns instead (one column was removed last year). 

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The M.O.L.E. (Metro Orange Line Extension) Bikeway

An LADOT Traffic Officer monitors an intersection along the new Metro Orange Line Extension.

Project engineers have been calling it the MOLE for sometime now (affectionately so); the acronym stands for Metro Orange Line Extension. While many bicyclists and pedestrians have already been testing it out, it officially opens up this Saturday, with press coverage beginning tomorrow.

The 4 mile long bike path will run parallel to most of the northbound Metro Orange Line extension. The path will span two bridges, one across the Los Angeles River and another across the Santa Susanna River. It will serve new Orange Line users as well as connect people to the Chatsworth Metrolink Station–the path and its connections to transit make a variety of new trips possible.  At the northern end, the path also connects to the existing Brown’s Creek Bike Path.

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Update: Orange Line Extension Bike Path

Orange line bike path near the intersection of Roscoe and Canoga

Work on the Orange line extension bike path is nearing completion. Work is about 80 percent complete, with most of the heavy construction already done. There remains some paving work to be done towards the northern and southern ends of the path, along with fencing and landscaping to construct before the path’s official debut sometime later this summer. The 4-mile northward extension will parallel the new Orange Line busway as it heads towards its terminus at the Chatsworth Metrolink station.

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