Young bicyclists at LA Live

We’re happy to report that L.A. Live, the Staples Center adjacent sports and entertainment campus that is home to the Grammy Museum, Nokia Theater, Regal Cinemas, and a variety of restaurants will soon be getting some much needed additional bicycle parking. We have been working with AEG, the developer of the site, to find the best possible locations for our inverted U-racks in order to serve the campus’ restaurants and other entertainment offerings.  These new business adjacent bike racks will  provide  convenient, safe, and secure short term bicycle parking for L.A. Live establishments along Olympic Blvd., Figueroa St., and Chick Hearn Ct. More on the new racks and on bike parking at L.A. Live  below the fold.

LA Live East Garage (off Olympic): entrance for garage bike racks

For longer term bike parking, L.A. Live offers bike racks located in their East Garage off of Olympic Blvd. and Francisco St. The racks are located on the left just off the ramp into the parking garage. The bicycle parking space offers a variety of racks to suit your preference.

L.A. Live garage bike racks

Newly Marked Racks

Our newly marked racks should be installed sometime within the next month. In total, we were able to mark 10 racks on the L.A. Live campus last week. LA Live staff are also working on moving some planters so as to provide space for 5 more racks. Remember that you can always request new places to add bike parking through our Sidewalk Parking Program! Check out the preliminary list of bike rack locations at L.A. Live below.

Markings for new bike racks outside of Regal Cinema at L.A. Live

List of Locations:

• Yard House – 1 rack (2 more nearby are on the way)
• Trader Vic’s – 1 rack (1 more nearby is  on the way)
• The Farm of Beverly Hills Restaurant – 2 racks (2 more nearby are on the way)
• Lawry’s – 1 rack
• New Zealand Natural – 1 rack
• ESPN Zone – 2 racks
• Regal Cinemas – 2 racks

The Department of City Planning and the Department of Transportation have been soliciting input for the much anticipated upcoming revision to the Transportation Element (now called the Mobility Element) of the city’s General Plan. There has already been a great conversation online (which we encourage you to participate in here) with Angelenos contributing great ideas including more pedestrian/cycling events,  streets not just for cars, and creating separated bicycle lanes.

The Think Lab Workshops will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn more about the Mobility Element and Layered Network approach. There will also be an opportunity to participate in “LA/2B: 2050″ and a walk audit. This is a great opportunity to provide your input and ideas in person to complement those submitted through the online Town Hall and Idea Line.

There will be four Mobility Think Lab Workshops spread out over two weekends:

Saturday, February 25th

9:30 – 11:30am

1:30 – 3:30pm

Saturday, March 3

9:30 – 11:30am

1:30 – 3:30pm

Over the Christmas Holiday, Santa delivered a Go-Pro Camera to the LADOT! Nate and JoJo took the new camera out for a ride on the newly repaved Exposition Line bikeway. If you’re wondering why Nate and JoJo are biking so fast, it’s not due to their super human strength! I compressed the 15 mile bikeway into a 3 minute video, slowing down at various points to highlight a few points of interest. We hope you enjoy the video, expect more in the future! Feel free to comment and share.

Newly installed westbound Avenue 19 bike lane at Broadway

Portions of Avenue 18 and Avenue 19 in Elysian Valley were recently resurfaced as a part of a scheduled Bureau of Street Services maintenance project. Taking advantage of the scheduled street improvement, a couplet of bike lanes were installed as part of the requisite restriping work following the resurfacing. They are an important first step in a project that will eventually connect the L.A. River Bike Path to Downtown Los Angeles via a continuous on-street bikeway route. More info below the fold.

Building a Network

The L.A. River Bike Path was extended to Barclay Street through Elysian Valley in 2010.  This newest segment added an additional 2.58 miles along the L.A. River, bringing the path from Fletcher Drive in the west to its current terminus near the I-5 and I-110 interchange. Active Metrolink and Union Pacific Railroad tracks lining the river’s banks, as well as a Metro Gold Line light rail maintenance facility, currently inhibit continuing the bike path south along the river in the short term. Perhaps we’ll see a cantilevered path in the long term?

Since a more direct path along the L.A. River through Downtown Los Angeles will take some time to sort out, the City is planning on creating an alternate route that combines both path and on-street facilities to get bicyclists from the current terminus of the river path to DTLA. Plans call for the bike path to be extended along Riverside Dr. across the L.A. River (as well as Metrolink/Union Pacific R.R. tracks) via a newly reconstructed Riverside Dr. bridge.

View Larger Map

Riverside Drive Bridge

The Riverside Drive Bridge project will demolish the existing bridge and replace it with a new smooth curved bridge that will include a bike path. On the northern side of the bridge, at the intersection of Riverside Dr. and San Fernando Rd., a roundabout will be installed that will include landscaping and a public art feature.

To North Spring Street and Beyond

Plans are already underway for a project that will seismically retrofit and widen the Spring St. bridge to secure four auto travel lanes, bike lanes, a striped median, shoulders, and sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. The project also includes the closure of Aurora Street and Baker Street at the existing intersections with North Spring Street. Wilhardt Street will be extended to Baker Street with a new 4-way intersection at North Spring Street.

As more developments come to the L.A. River Bike Path and its connecting bikeways, LADOT Bike Blog will do our best to keep you up to date.

A shot from last years CicLAvia event

Mayor Antonio Villraigosa’s Office of Environment, Energy, & Sustainability has produced a video that highlights what local businesses think of CicLAvia – the ever popular event that closes several miles of streets to automobiles and opens them up for bikes and pedestrians, including segments through Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) the last few dates.

The video asks, “What happens when bikes take over the streets of Los Angeles?” A few local businesses provide their own unique perspectives. It turns out that businesses enjoy the event just as much as everyone else does.

Matt Berman, founder of Bolt Barbers, appreciates the extra brand exposure that the event brings to his DTLA barbershop at 460 S Spring St. He sees the event as a great way to draw people to Downtown Los Angeles:

…CicLAvia gives us a marvelous opportunity to get in front of 100,000 people who are exploring DTLA… on foot, on bike… having so much fun…”

The Coffee Bar on 600 S. Spring St. had their busiest day ever at the last CicLAvia event.  Pet Project Pet Supplies owner Nancy-Jean Carlson thinks “its one of the best events Downtown,” and she, “love[s] the atmosphere it brings,” to the area around her shop, located at 545 S Main St..

The LADOT Bike Program can’t wait till the next CicLAvia event, scheduled for Sunday, April 15th, 2012, from 10am – 3pm. Until then, be sure to check out the video below for a reminder of what you can look forward to this coming April.

The Bicycle Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meeting is a quarterly get together hosted by the Department of City Planning (Planning), with the Department of Transportation (LADOT) and stakeholders. The latest meeting occurred Tuesday last week, and featured updates on LADOT Bikeway Projects, our BPIT survey, bicycle parking, the LA/2B project, and discussion of various bicycle engineering issues. To view the agenda for the meeting, click here, and continue reading after the fold if you wish to hear our summary!

Engineering Projects

The first order of business was an update on bikeway projects. The LADOT is moving forward with bike lanes on Imperial, Foothill, Aviation, and Vermont in the New Year. LADOT and Planning are also in the initial stages of putting together an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a first package of 40 miles of bike lanes that will require an approval process to implement (largely due to various traffic impacts). The complete EIR will take around 6 months; we are currently compiling data to hand over to our consultant.

BPIT Survey Results

We have soft closed voting for the BPIT Survey and are interpreting the results we’ve received. The top 25% were listed in the meeting, and will be posted in a separate post in the near future. Some comments that were made centered around outreach; some BPIT members felt that only bike advocates heard about the survey and that lower income constituencies most likely didn’t participate due to lack of time, access to the internet, etc. Another suggested improvement was to further split up the Central L.A. section; the results were a tad skewed due to the Central section’s large size.

Bicycle Parking Program Update

Senior Bicycle Coordinator Michelle Mowery gave us an update on the bicycle parking program, including a discussion on bike corrals. Taking what we’ve learned from the York Blvd. Bike Corral Pilot Project, we will soon be expanding the program to other parts of the City. LADOT is looking for more locations to expand the project, if you know of any locations that come to mind please let us know! Any potential corral would likely replace one or two metered spaces. Additionally, a majority of businesses in the area must be on board with the corral, and one of these businesses has to “adopt” the corral via a maintenance agreement. More information on the coming expansion is available here!

We also outlined our Sidewalk Parking Program during the BPIT meeting. We currently have around 4,000 U-Racks and are aiming to install 400 per year. If you wish to have a bike rack installed, please refer to this rack request webform!

Bikeway Engineering in Conflict Zones

Tim Fremaux fielded questions on the topic of conflict zones and merging areas. We have experimented with ways to mitigate the uncomfortableness some bicyclists feel in such areas, via the treatments seen on Spring and 1st Street. Our approach has been to dash the green lane in such locations. Bike boxes were also discussed as a way to make the such zones more comfortable for bicyclists. All of these treatments will be considered in future projects as the LADOT expands Los Angeles’ bikeway network.

Protected Bike Lanes

Many members of the BPIT team wanted to know why there haven’t been more efforts to install “Protected Bike Lanes”, also known as “Cycle Tracks.” A cycle track is essentially a separated treatment which places a barrier between bicyclists and automobiles, maximizing comfort and safety. This form of infrastructure is extremely prevalent in bike capitals like Copenhagen and Amsterdam, and is often attributed to their high bicycle ridership. If you wish to learn more about Protected Bike Lanes, check out our coverage here.

Often viewed as the holy grail of bicycling infrastructure, many members wondered why Los Angeles hasn’t seen more cycle track treatments. The biggest hurdle currently is that the Highway Design Manual currently forbids placing bike lanes between parked cars and the sidewalk. Long Beach has done an end run around this by deeming their new separated facility a path. While this may seem purely semantic, we do need some revised policies in place at the State level to see these facilities more frequently in California. The California Bicycle Advisory Committee (CBAC) is attempting to add an experimental process to the Highway Design Manual, but this is an ongoing battle! If you support Protected Bike Lanes, let your elected officials know and urge support for measures which would allow for more experimentation.

Bicycle Plan Law Enforcement

Officer Jeff Kievit came to speak with us about the Police Department’s involvement in enforcement and education issues. The LAPD is doing its best to educate its own officers, as well as citizens, about laws surrounding sidewalk riding, and is exploring various multi-media outlets to convey their message. Other enforcement issues like vehicles blocking bike lanes were discussed. The LAPD is considering creating “citizen citations” which will allow concerned cyclists to give advisory citations to motorists who break such laws. While these citations will have no legal bearing, they will allow bicyclists to give a friendly reminder to automobile users to not double park in bike lanes.

Update on the Mobility Element

The Planning Department gave an update on process underway to update the City’s Mobility Element via the LA/2B project. If you aren’t familiar with the LA/2B project, it is essentially an online town hall where 405 participants (so far!) have come up with 217 ideas for the future of Los Angeles transportation and street network! This is an extremely exciting project, if you frequent this blog I hope you’re already participating! If not, head over to http://la2b.org/!

Here are some ideas that the online community has come up with:

• Eliminating parking requirements
• Adding bike corrals
• More urban green space
• More pedestrian and cycling events
• Close down streets for public events

Community workshops are occurring on February 25th and March 3rd, check out the link above for more information!

Questions and Comments?

If you have any questions or comments feel free to chime in on our comment section! We’re more than happy to field your questions. 2012 is going to be a great year for bikeability in Los Angeles!

California at long last has adopted its revised Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices ( CA MUTCD). The latest 2012 iteration has some welcomed new tools that will further expand our transportation engineer’s toolbox to implement bikeway facilities in the City of Los Angeles. We’ll detail just a few of those new changes below the fold.

The new 2012 CA MUTCD is available for download here. Everything involving bicycles can be found in Part 9 of the manual. Part 9 is broken up into 4 sections – 9A (general overview), 9B (signage), 9C (markings), and 9D (signals).

Bicycles May Use Full Lane sign

This latest iteration of the CA MUTCD will allow LADOT to utilize new bicycle signage including the Bicycles May Use Full Lane sign. LADOT intends to use this sign (in traffic engineering lingo – sign R4-11)  on streets that have Shared Lane Markings (SLM or Sharrows). According to the 2012 CA MUTCD, the Bicycles May Use Full Lane Sign:

… may be used in locations where it is important to inform road users that bicyclists might occupy the travel lane.

The addition of this sign to Los Angeles roadways with SLMs will further increase the visibility of potential bicyclists along those corridors. The benefits are two fold; bicyclists and motorists will be reminded that bikes can use the full travel lane, and SLMs will help guide bicyclists to their proper position on the roadway.

Bicycles May Use Full Lane Sign

Shared Lane Marking with no on-street parking

Also new for 2012, Shared Lane Markings (SLMs) or Sharrows can now be placed without on-street parking. Formerly, the design standard required SLMs to be installed in conjunction with on-street parking and placed at a minimum of 11 feet from the curb. Per the recommendation of our Sharrows Study, we determined that 12 feet from the curb would be the most practical for Sharrow placement in the City of Los Angeles. If you would like to find out more about Sharrows, visit our Sharrows tab.

Sharrows are now allowed without on-street parking. You can find information on Shared Lane Markings in Section 9C.07 in the 2012 CA MUTCD:

If used on a street without on-street parking that has an outside travel lane that is less than 14 feet wide, the centers of the Shared Lane Markings should be at least 4 feet from the face of the curb, or from the edge of the pavement where there is no curb.

Bicycle Wayfinding Signage

Wayfinding signage is classified as a bicycle guide sign. According to the CA MUTCD, they can be placed along designated bike routes (including bicycle friendly streets – BFS) and are useful for providing bicyclists with direction, destination, and distance information. You can find the whole nitty gritty on guide signs in section 9B.20 in the 2012 CA MUTCD.

LADOT plans on prioritizing wayfinding signage implementation along Bicycle Friendly Street (BFS) facilities in the five year implementation plan and along other appropriate facilities like the L.A. River Bike Path and the Orange Line bike path. We will soon be conducting neighborhood outreach to garner input from local communities to determine appropriate destinations for display. Find out more about wayfinding signage by visiting our post here.

Bicycle Guide Signs taken from FHWA MUTCD