Streetsblog Reviews the New Michigan Avenue Greenway Extension

October 15, 2024

The following was initially printed in, you guessed it, Streetsblog Los Angeles.

The city of Santa Monica’s 20th Street Bike and Pedestrian Improvements Project opened about a month ago. Today, Streetsblog got a chance to bike there and take photos.

City map of 20th Street bike/ped improvements project

The 1/8-mile-long Z-shaped facility is an extension of the city’s Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway, called MANGo. The project includes two short bike/walk paths and one block of two-way protected bike lanes.

The new bike/walk facility is smart and strategic, aptly extending an existing low stress bikeway across a barrier – the 10 Freeway. The design and execution are very good, though the proximity to the freeway and its off-ramps means that the area remains full of car traffic. It can be a pretty loud place, especially for people on foot or on bike waiting for the light to cross 20th Street.

Below is a photo tour of the project from west to east.

The west entrance to the 20th Street bikeway/walkway at the end of Michigan Avenue

At this end the city improved a very basic walkway, adding a short bike path (about 70 feet long), lighting and landscaping. The asphalt two-way bike path runs alongside a concrete walkway.

The facility narrows near 20th, where cyclists and pedestrians briefly share the sidewalk

Pedestrians and cyclists cross 20th at a signalized crosswalk. It’s difficult to make out in this photo, but the green light near the center is a bike signal.

The facility includes a block of protected two-way bike lanes along 20th, with concrete curbs at each end

The protected bike lanes along 20th Street cross the 10 Freeway

Immediately north of the freeway, the facility turns east

The east end of the facility is a roughly 320-foot-long bike/walk path running between Crossroads schools and the 10 Freeway

The bikeway/walkway currently ends at Michigan and 21st Street, about half a mile ride or walk to the E Line Bergamot/26th Station

Find more MANGo project information at SBLA coverage last November and in April.