This past Friday, in order to address community safety concerns over the Expo Line bikeway’s Exposition/Gramercy crossing (expressed on our blog and elsewhere), LADOT crews began the work of re-striping the bike lane at its eastbound approach to the railroad tracks, squeezing the adjacent travel lane by a couple of feet to allow bicyclists more room to maneuver across safely. The re-striping reduces the vehicle travel lane width to 11 ft (from 13 ft), and allows the bike lane to cross the tracks at more of a right angle. At a later date, the re-striping will be made complete by grinding away the old striping (temporarily painted over black) and installing new thermoplastic striping over the mark out paint striping seen above. Here are some tips for crossing train tracks from Metro’s The Source:
Always ride across tracks as close to a 90 degree angle as possible, and cyclists should take extra caution if it’s raining, slick or if their tires are of the extremely skinny variety. Cyclists should always obey all traffic signs and signals, including roadway lane markings. Ride predictably, and always in the same direction as traffic. And of course, never ever cross tracks when crossing lights and arms are activated.
Still far from ideal. Cyclists will still be in the apex of their turn when they roll over the tracks, and leaned over. There won’t be cones and crews directing them.
You should squeeze the traffic lane further to allow the bike lane to “bulb out” well before the track crossing and let riders to ease left before turning right towards the tracks. 11 foot lanes are more than enough for cars at such a crossing, and 10 foot would encourage drivers to approach more slowly and carefully. As Blue Line history shows, LA drivers are pretty stupid about railroad crossings as as it is. No need to encourage them to speed into this one. Cars can lose control on tracks as well.
Rick: the 13′ wide lane was located only at the immediate approach to the crossing. Further back, the lane is 11′ wide which gave us the ability to narrow the approach here to 11′. We cannot narrow the lane further as there is a minimum width for a lane next to a bike lane (keep in mind buses and trucks). I was at the location as it was re-striped with my bike and I rode back and forth several times. There is a significant improvement with the re-striping as it allows more room to maneuver and to cross the tracks at an angle closer to 90 degrees. The practice of crossing railroad tracks properly on a bike is part of good overall riding practice, a practice which can now be more easily achieved.
In general, we always aim to maximize the width of bike lanes particularly when there is the presence of a gutter.
GENERAL RULE
35100. (a) The total outside width of any vehicle or its load shall not exceed 102 inches.
MEASUREMENT
35100.1. (a) The metric equivalent of 102 inches is 2.6 meters.
(b) The width measurement of any vehicle with side walls shall be made from the outside wall of the two opposite sides of the vehicle.
CITIES & COUNTIES
35100. (c) A city or county may prohibit a width in excess of 96 inches upon highways under its jurisdiction.
35105. Any city organized under a freeholders’ charter may permit a width in excess of these limits when used within the city.
102 inches is 8 feet 6 inches. So why do we need 13 foot lanes again?
[…] Unsafe Expo/Grammercy Bike Crossing Gets a Little Better (LADOT Bike Blog) […]
Tim are you an engineer or bike advocate? I’d love for you to come speak to our Urban Planning students in Northridge next semester if you have the time? My contact is: matthew.mooney.53@my.csun.edu
Certainly an improvement. Far from perfect, but at this point it seems like nothing else can be done for a reasonable cost.
The one last improvement would be looking for that rubber product used abroad at rail crossings. It expands when theres no train, so bikes CANNOT get stuck, but the weight of the train pushes is out of the way when it needs to go by.
All bitching about this crap bike lane aside, it is pretty cool that the LADOT Bikeways people can turn on a dime so quickly and get a road crew out there re-striping in such a relatively short window of time.
You guys just narrowed a travel lane without an EIR – something I have been assured for years was necessary.
Awesome!
It is nice to see a pretty good effort by LADOT at fixing a dangerous mis-design.
Hopefully the history of corrections will get back to the engineer who did the first poor version. And they will learn from their mistakes for the next bike path. Delighted to see there was actual bike testing of the bike path repairs.
I can’t tell from the pix – is there any sort of warning sign, device or marking? A stop line (just like the car lane) for the bike lane to keep one clear of the tracks would be nice. And maybe a caution sign or two “Slippery when Wet” sign or a “Cross tracks at right angles”.
Ditto on the above comment about the gaps. There could be something to help keep narrow bike tires out of the gap around the tracks. In Portland, where there’s tracks and a lot of rain, they use grooved cement, not rubber mats. The rubber mats are very slippery when wet. Sound like that’s another improvement, which could be applied all over town, especially on Phase Two, which will have a bunch of track / bike path crossings..
Looks much better crossing now. Thanks for the effort! I’ll test ride it soon – though we may have to wait for the rain test.
Eric: thanks for the appreciation! There are a number of warning signs, a “bike lane” and arrow guide sign, a “slippery condition” symbol sign and “track crossing symbol” sign, and there is a limit line in advance of the crossing. We’re looking into mini “wait here” and “keep clear” pavement markings as well. Metro is looking into the feasibility of addressing the track gaps.
Here’s a picture of some of the signage approaching the crossing
You’re welcome Tim! Via JoJo the signs look great and it’s everything one could ask for! Wonderful!
But, maybe there’s still room for a “cyclists save $1.50 by riding and .002 lbs. atmospheric carbon” infographic sign ;) that one could face the trains and cars?? ( Just kidding…)
[…] — and in the middle lane, no less — but at least he had clothes on. LADOT Continues to tweak the Expo/Gramercy crossing on the Expo bike path. What it means to be an HIV positive cyclist. Highland Park’s Flying Pigeon […]
[…] one really egregious example, that gets me riled up, see this L.A. City article (read the city’s engineer comments) about how Los Angeles City Department of Transportation […]
Nice blackout guys. Try removal by grinding next time…..