A new stretch of bike path on San Fernando Road is here! Last Thursday morning, Councilmember Felipe Fuentes of the Seventh District, City agencies, and community partners announced the installation of a new bike path on San Fernando Road from Branford Street to Wolfskill Street, opening the bike path for its inaugural ride.
LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds joined representatives from Metrolink, Metro and LAPD, along with local families and friends to check out the new installation. Reynolds says, “This section of the San Fernando Road bike path increases opportunities for people to unplug and spend time with friends and family. LADOT looks forward to working with our partners, city leaders, and the community to connect this system to the City of Burbank in the near future. ”
This 2.75-mile segment of the path connects Angelenos to the existing San Fernando Bike Path. This addition is the second phase of the planned bike path that sits adjacent to San Fernando Road. Phase 1, completed in 2011, included 1.75 miles of bike lanes on San Fernando Road from Hubbard Street to Roxford Street.
LADOT Engineer Tina Backstrom says that the bike path is a challenging design, as it involves a lot of coordination and partnership with agencies like Metrolink and Metro. The long-awaited Phase 2 improvements include lighting, striping, traffic signs, and landscaping. Metrolink also enhanced the safety of the Bike Path project by making railroad and traffic signal improvements. Specifically, the bike path design has taken the opportunity to upgrade all the pedestrian crossings that intersect with the railroad. Backstrom says, “We’re looking at safety for everyone,” with the new path making things safer for people on bikes, walking, driving, or riding the train.
More than 30,000 motorists use San Fernando Road on a daily basis. So far this year, there have been four accidents involving cars and bikes on that stretch of road, according to the LAPD. “This path is a critical component of the City’s transportation segment,” said Councilmember Fuentes. “Bikers no longer have to compete for the road with motorists. They have their own safe path to ride to work, school or other activities.” The new path will also enhance connectivity by helping to complete the bicycle network connections between Los Angeles and the City of San Fernando.
The final Phase 3 of the San Fernando Road bike path has secured funding and will connect the path’s southern section from Bramford to Hollywood Way/Cohasset Street in the City of Burbank. This last leg is integral, as it connects to the Burbank Metrolink station, creating a powerful regional connector for multimodal transportation users.
Reblogged this on Utilitarian Cyclist and commented:
We need more of these all over the county. Keep them coming!
when will this be added to the map at http://www.bicyclela.org/maps_main.htm — is that still the current, updated map?
We are working on it. The map is the most current one available online but is still missing some recent bikeway installation.
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