LA River Bike Path 1C: History in Elysian Valley

Many of us celebrated the  opening of the Elysian Valley segment of the LA River Bike Path last year with a good amount of hoopla and ceremony. This newest section of the bike path runs through Elysian Valley, going 2.58 miles from Fletcher Drive to Barclay Street – near where the 5 Freeway connects with the 110.  In engineer-speak, this section of the bike path was labeled “1-C”.  The next section on the LA River, which will connect all the way to Downtown with bike path and bike lanes (Phase 3) , is currently in early design stages.

The grand opening of the Elysian Valley bike path in December

LADOT Bike Blog was certainly guilty of being overly optimistic about the opening date of Phase 1C.  Back in the salad days of LADOT Bike Blog, we predicted 1C opening in late April of 2010.  Oops.  That predicted opening itself was a delay of the original opening date set for January 2010.

This wasn’t, however, the first delay for Phase 1C.  The Elysian Valley section of the LA River Bike Path seems to have been born under an unlucky star.  Come with us as we go through the history of Phase 1C.

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BAC Notes 4/5/11: Welcome New BACer Jennifer Gill!

First Tuesdays can be busy! In addition to the monthly Bicycle Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meeting in the afternoon, the day also featured the bi-monthly Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting in the evening. It was the first full meeting as BAC Chair for Jay Slater and featured a brand new BAC member, as well.

Jennifer Gill, who manages outreach efforts for  the Metro Bicycle Roundtable meetings, was present for her first meeting as the new BAC representative for CD 1.  Council Member Ed Reyes, long known for his strong support of bicycling, made a great decision in appointing such a capable and progressive supporter of bicycling.  We wish Jennifer the best in her new role on the BAC and hope that she can bring new energy, ideas, and gravitas to the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Tuesday’s meeting was well attended by both BAC members and members of the public.  Fourteen out of the 19 sitting BAC members were in attendance.  And 15 other individuals – including Alexis Lantz of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and Don Ward of SafeStreetsNorthridge and Midnight Ridazz fame – made the trip to 6501 Fountain Avenue (Google map it).

Below the fold, we’ll get into highlights of the meeting: an update from Sergeant Krumer, discussion of the LA County Bike Plan, more specifics on the BAC Liaison Program, the BAC’s future website, an update on City Planning’s Bike Parking Ordinance, and the effort to bring a universal bicycle registry to Southern California.

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BPIT Notes 4/5/11: 7th Street, Venice Blvd, Sunset Blvd, and More

This last Tuesday, folks from LADOT, City Planning, the Mayor’s Office, Council Offices, LACBC, Bikeside, and other concerned bicyclists all piled into City Hall Room 721 for the monthly meeting of the Bike Plan Implementation Team.  If you missed it, you can get the meeting notice and agenda here.

It’s becoming more apparent with each meeting that City Hall Room 721 may not fulfill the needs of the ever-growing BPIT: the 37 people who showed up this month were practically flowing out into the hallway.  It’s encouraging to see that so many members of the public and so many representatives from various parts of the City are committed to making the LA Bike Plan a reality.  Rick Risemberg weighed in with a very uplifting recap of the BPIT at the Flying Pigeon blog.  Dan Rodman, an excellent new writer for Bikeside, gave his own recap of the meeting.

Up on the docket for the BPIT were updates on current LADOT Bikeways projects, progress on 7th Street, the Wilshire Grand project, Sunset Boulevard, getting started on Venice Boulevard, and future program priorities for the City.

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BPIT’s “Top 10”: How Would you Build Venice Boulevard Bike Lanes?

The Bike Plan Implementation Team (BPIT), which met this Tuesday, is continuing their work on the “Top 10” list of priority projects.  In addition to working on bringing bike lanes to 7th Street, the BPIT also began discussions about extending the existing Venice Boulevard bike lanes from their current terminus at Crenshaw Boulevard all the way to Downtown LA.  We’d like to open up that discussion of bike lanes on Venice Boulevard to the public at large.  Your ability to make it down to City Hall at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday shouldn’t impact your ability to help LA implement its Bike Plan and become more bike friendly.

As part of the BPIT’s continued outreach for input on “Top 10” projects, LADOT Bike Blog last month launched discussions (both on the blog and on Facebook) on how best to build bike lanes on 7th Street.  We’d like to again extend the opportunity to comment on how to build bike lanes on Venice Boulevard.

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Project Updates: Bike Lanes Moving Forward

The LADOT Bike Blog hasn’t done a full review of all the bike lane projects in the queue in quite a while. Sure, we covered the Woodman Avenue bike lanes and the latest on the Metro Orange Line extension bike path, but that hardly represents a comprehensive update.  At the April BPIT meeting, Planning and Bikeways engineering promised to provide a full update on all ongoing bike lane projects.

Well the wait is now over: LADOT Bike Blog is presenting a full update on all of our projects’ progress since our last update in January. As always, you can check out the full list of current projects on our Bike Lane Projects page, our Bike Path Projects page, our Projects map, and our BPIT map.  There’s also the matter of the remaining, and mysteriously named, “Year Zero” projects.  We’ll provide an explanation of what “Year Zero” is, and what projects are left, below the fold.  But first, the current projects update.

New Bike Lanes on Woodman Avenue

Project Updates

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Bike Parking, BPIT, BAC: Bike-y Meetings This Week and Next

Update: We were just forwarded the BAC’s agenda for their 4/5/11 meeting.  You can download it here.

The start of a new month always heralds plenty of new venues for hearing bike-related issues.  The slate of upcoming meetings and hearings relating to bicycling concerns, however, happens to be particularly robust in the coming two weeks.

• Wednesday March 30th: City Planning is holding a public hearing for the proposed bicycle parking ordinance.
• Tuesday April 5th: The Bike Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meets at City Hall for their monthly meeting.
• Tuesday April 5th: The Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) holds their bi-monthly meeting at Hollywood City Hall.
• Sunday April 10th: The first of three CicLAvias in 2011.

CM Reyes installing racks at CARECEN; in the near future, a revised bicycle parking ordinance should hit the streets (and inform new developments)

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March BPIT Meeting: 7th Street Bike Lanes and Beyond

Last Tuesday morning, bicyclists gathered at City Hall to watch the City Council adopt the LA Bike Plan into the City’s General Plan.  After a little celebrating and some quickly consumed lunch meals, some of those selfsame bicyclists sat down at City Hall to make sure the Bike Plan gets implemented.

Advocates, LADOT, Planning & City staff working together

In all, 30 people crowded in City Hall Room 721 on Tuesday afternoon for the second meeting of the Bike Plan Implementation Team.  (You can catch earlier coverage of the BPIT meeting at LACBC, Flying Pigeon (twice), and Orange 20.) The lead topic for the 2nd BPIT meeting was the proposed bike lanes on 7th Street (don’t forget, we’re still looking for your input on how to build them!).  The group then discussed the process to build new projects and which projects will be on the docket for the next BPIT meeting.

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