We are happy to report that Exposition Blvd. was largely repaved a week or so ago to repair the street’s pavement condition. Yesterday morning we decided to ride the newly repaved lanes for ourselves so that we could see any lingering issues first hand. We’ll have some videos to share at a later point, but for now, we’d like to update you on the resurfacing project. For the complete list of Exposition Blvd. segments that got resurfaced, check out the Bureau of Street Services (BSS) resurfacing report. More on the Expo Line bike lanes below the fold.
Expo Line Bike Lanes
The Expo Line bike lanes run east-west, on Exposition Blvd. for 3.4 miles between Vermont Ave. and Harcourt Ave. At Harcourt Ave., the bike lanes jog over to Jefferson Blvd. where they continue for another 1.2 miles to La Cienega Blvd.
Harcourt is a neat little bicycle route that will be getting sharrows in the future. For now, the street is equipped with loop detectors that can detect bicycles to ease the transition between Exposition Blvd. and Jefferson Blvd.
The bike lanes end at the intersection of La Cienega Blvd. and Jefferson Blvd., near the Ballona Creek Bike Path to Marina Del Ray as well as the future Expo Phase II bike path. We’ll have more on this later, but that project is making progress. CalTrans has officially granted the project a categorical exemption under CEQA and the City is currently in the process of handing the project over to the Expo Authority for design. We leave you today with this nice screen grab of Bicycle Coordinator Nate Baird riding the Expo bike lanes with Metro Expo Line train testing continuing in the background.
Just improving the road condition makes it much more attractive to ride on. It’s becoming a rarity in L.A. to find smooth road conditions for bicycling.
If Exposition Blvd has little traffic, that doesn’t go beyond 35 mph, then a bike lane should work very well. As the speed and volume of motorized traffic increases, the irressitibility of cycling decreases for most people.
Harcourt Ave looks like a good place for sharrows as it’s not a major street.
Can’t wait to see the video to get a clearer view of how this route works.
I’m putting this my “to do” list.
This is great news!! Looking forward to your update on the Phase II bike path, as well as the continuation of this path along National Blvd to Venice…
It doesn’t actually end at La Cieniega. They put a one block path between the train aerial structure and the Public storage facility that runs from La Cieniega to Ballona Creek. I guess they never heard of sharrows.
Unfortunately, you can’t actually see the path heading westbound and if you want to take it you have to turn left at La Cieniega then right onto the path after the trains. It’s hardly worth the effort sense you have to navigate automobile traffic to only travel one block. Heading Eastbound is a bit of a pain too. You have to cross Jefferson, then ride down the “hallway” to be put out twenty or thirty feet from the light at Jefferson.
Kudos to new bike lanes, thumbs down for this little stretch. Seems like a big waste of money, With so many worthy projects makes you shake your head sometimes.
I rode these lanes the other day. Overall, I applaud the lanes. My biggest complaint is signage at three areas where bicyclists are expected to turn: (1) the Rodeo/Expo crossing; (2) Harcourt and (3) La Cienega. Signage is always designed by people who are intimately familiar with a project/area, but should be designed by people who know nothing about a project. People who have been happily bicycling for miles in a bike lane do not expect it to suddenly divert into a crosswalk (at Rodeo), a side street (at Harcourt), or an invisible bike path (at La Cienega).
At Rodeo, I’d suggest painting the bike crosswalk green. It will undoubtedly be worn away by motorists, but as a bicyclist there is nothing intuitive about riding into a crosswalk, which I think of as “pedestrian space,” especially where the opening is not wide enough for both a bicyclist and pedestrian.
At Harcourt, I’d suggest a solid line through the turns (such as on p.372 of the 2009 MUTCD), as well as painted green lanes through the turn (assuming this doesn’t create a skidding hazard).
At La Cienega, you are asking bicyclists to ride onto a sidewalk (at a corner that is likely to be full of pedestrians), dismount, angle their bike to face in the correct direction, wait through a long multi-phase signal, maneuver through what is likely to be an area full of pedestrians, ride one block down a scarily-isolated path, and then wait for another signal at National/Jefferson. Most bicylists will continue riding down Jefferson, either because they care about making efficient time or because, at a very congested intersection with all sorts of turn lanes, they miss the very tiny sign telling them they are supposed to turn.
I ride down Jefferson most days, and at Jefferson/La Cienega I do pretty much exactly what you describe. Going westbound, I just keep on Jefferson, which is a little hectic, but, manageable. Those signals are too long to wait for them to change twice to get to the separated bike lane.
But, going eastbound from National/Jefferson I take the separated bike lane, which is pretty cool.
One annoyance is that the bollards (or whatever you call those vertical posts) at the opening of the National/Jefferson side of that separated bike lane are too narrow for me to ride my bike through. I end up riding in the dirt around the posts.
Mike, if there are posts too narrow for your bike, then theyre too narrow for a wheelchair, and thats a serious ADA violation.
I rode the bike lane to the All City Toy Ride Firday night. Can anyone tell me where the route goes at Vermont heading east? It up and disappears and I didn’t notice any signage. I understand that the Expo Line goes underground at Figueroa and when it resurfaces on Flower that’s a one way street southbound, but I was hoping for a continuous lane all the way downtown.
Silly shin-soo, assuming that theyd make room for bikes. Thats where it ends, At vermont. You’re on your own beyond that, good luck. Its not like traffic hectic over there or anything.
be patient Shin Soo, Bike lanes will be coming to Main Street soon. I suggest either Fig or Main St until then : http://tinyurl.com/7fs226k
[…] October, the day after CicLAvia, I pedaled west from Downtown to the Westside on Exposition Blvd. to test the bike lane that run parallel to Phase I of the Expo Line. I was surprised by the […]