Eyes on the Street: Santa Monica Colorado Avenue Protected Bike Lanes Appear Complete

All photos: Joe Linton

Santa Monica is installing concrete-curb-protected bike lanes on two well-biked east-west streets: Colorado Avenue and Broadway. Streetsblog was in the area last weekend and rode the Colorado Avenue facility, which appears complete.

The one-way westbound Colorado bikeway runs about 0.8 mile from 17th Street to 5th Street. The bikeway runs along the Metro E Line light rail tracks, from 17th Street/Santa Monica College Station to the line’s terminus in downtown Santa Monica. See brief earlier SBLA coverage of the project from February and April.

The new Colorado bikeway makes many bike network connections. The inland end connects to the protected bikeway on 17th, as well as the E Line bike/walk path. The beach end connects to the Colorado Avenue Esplanade, which gets bicyclists onto the iconic pier (closed for construction) and onto Ocean Avenue which connects via the California Incline to the beach bike/walk path.

Santa Monica’s much larger Broadway bikeway project is also making a lot of progress. It’s rideable, but not quite finished. The Broadway project is adding protected bike lanes both east- and westbound for 1.6-miles from 5th Street to 26th Street.

About The Author

Damien Newton

Damien is the executive director of the Southern California Streets Initiative which publishes Santa Monica Next, Streetsblog Los Angeles, Streetsblog San Francisco, Streetsblog California and Longbeachize.

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