New bicycle lanes on Virgil Avenue lead the way for a more livable street

Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell speaks about the economic and safety benefits of the new Virgil Avenue bicycle lanes.

New bicycle lanes have been installed on Virgil Avenue in East Hollywood. The bicycle lanes stretch from Santa Monica Blvd. to Melrose Ave. and were installed in conjunction with new pavement and crosswalk striping at intersections. Over this past weekend, Council Member Mitch O’ Farrell hosted a small ceremony in Virgil Village to celebrate the neighborhood’s latest bicycle lane project. Before leading a group of residents to test ride the new lanes, the council member gave a small speech acknowledging the economic and safety benefits of the new lanes, as quoted by L.A. Streetsblog yesterday: “…we implemented a solution that makes for a better pedestrian environment and that encourages small business growth along this blossoming commercial corridor”.  For more photos of the event, check out our Flickr page.

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LADOT announces Priority 2 list of planned bikeways

LADOT is pleased to release the cumulative list of Year 2 planned bicycle lanes. See the list below for the street name, council district and the respective mileage and limits of each project.

Click here to access or download the original spreadsheet (Revised 1/23/14 to include spreadsheet link)

This Year 2 list contains the next 40 miles of bicycle lanes prioritized for installation.  Each project is part of an ongoing effort to strategically close gaps in our bikeway network by connecting new infrastructure to existing bicycle paths, lanes and routes in Los Angeles.  A number of these projects are funded through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).

Moving forward, LADOT will begin traffic and safety assessments for the Year 2 projects. Results from this analysis will be made available in a public report.  Upon completion of Traffic and Safety Assessments, LADOT and the Department of City Planning will hold a series of public hearings to disclose the analysis and give interested groups an opportunity to express their support or concern over the proposed bicycle lanes.

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2nd St. tunnel and road set to receive bicycle lanes this weekend

2nd St. bike lanes are on their way!

Downtown Los Angeles is getting better and better for bicycling. In addition to the recently implemented 7th St. bike lanes, we’re happy to announce that new lanes are being installed on 2nd St., this weekend. Work crews have already begun the process of removing the existing striping from the street. The next step will include installing new thermoplastic striping atop the mark out paint seen in the photos above and below. The new bicycle lanes will feature buffers (from Broadway to Figueroa) and will be installed from North Spring Street through the 2nd St. tunnel (which we know many are very excited about!) through to Glendale Blvd. 

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First Year Bicycle Lanes EIR Hearings Start Today

MyFig Cycletrack Rendering via Architect’s Paper

City Planning’s David Somers filled us in a couple of weeks ago on the release of the draft EIR for the First Year Bicycle Lanes project. While AB 2245 exempt bicycle lanes from CEQA, it still requires a public hearing process and traffic/safety assessments in order to file the exemption.

Those hearings will be occurring as follows:

Northeast Area

February 13, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30  pm

Los Angeles River Center & Gardens

California Building

570 West Avenue 26

Los Angeles, CA 90065

Central Area

February 14, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30 pm

Caltrans District 7 Building, Room 01.040 A, B and C

100 S. Main St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012 

West Area

February 19, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30  pm

LADOT Western Parking Enforcement Office,

11214 W. Exposition Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90064

Valley Area

February 21, 2013, 6 pm to 8:30 pm

North Hollywood Regional Library

5211 Tujunga Ave.

North Hollywood, CA 91601

As a refresher, the First Year Bicycle Lanes project includes the city’s first protected bicycle lanes as part of the MyFig streetscape project, a continuous bikeway from Hollywood through Silver Lake and Echo Park to Downtown, and strategic gap closures in the existing bicycle lane network. Somers also discusses the approval process going forward in another blog post.

Make sure to attend the meetings and have your voice heard on this exciting process.

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Announcing the Release of the First Year Draft EIR and More

City Planning’s David Somers has two blog posts today to explain how these prioritized bike lane projects will be moving forward. This post  goes into more detail about the Draft EIR, while his previous post covered the public hearings scheduled for the project and the approval process afterwards.  – Nate Baird

The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) of the First Year of the First Five-Year Implementation Strategy (First Year) and the Figueroa Streetscape Project was released to the public on Thursday, January 17^th.  As all proposed bicycle lanes included in the First Year Draft EIR include the reduction of at least one mixed-flow travel lane, the main focus of the Draft EIR is the projected increases in travel delay (expressed in Level of Service (LOS)) anticipated as a result of the reduction in auto flow capacity. The result of the LOS analysis can be found in the Traffic Section of the Draft EIR (see Table 4.5-5).

Sunset Blvd. Traffic and Safety Assessment

A stand alone Traffic and Safety Assessment was also released for one mile of bike lanes along Sunset Blvd. west of Figueroa St. The Sunset Blvd. bike lanes were recently proposed and will for the first time provide a direct connection to the neighborhoods of Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Echo Park to Downtown by a continuous bikeway.

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Notice of Public Hearings for the First Year Bike Lanes

City Planning’s David Somers has two blog posts today to explain how these prioritized bike lane projects will be moving forward. This post covers the public hearings for the project and the approval process afterwards, while his second post goes into more detail about the Draft EIR.  – Nate Baird

The City Planning Department has scheduled four public hearings to hear public comment on the First Year bicycle lanes. The projects include the nearly 40 miles of bicycle lanes that were evaluated in the recently completed Draft EIR in addition to one mile of bike lanes along Sunset Blvd. west of Figueroa St. The 40 miles of bike lanes include the first proposed protected bicycle lanes or ”cycle tracks” in the City as part of the MyFig Streetscape project, as well as strategic gap closures such as Venice Blvd. along with the introduction of critical bikeways in all major geographies of the City. The Sunset Blvd. bike lanes were recently proposed and will, for the first time provide a direct connection to the neighborhoods of Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Echo Park to Downtown by a continuous bikeway. The Traffic and Safety Assessment for the Sunset Blvd. bike lanes is available here.

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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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