This story is a lightly edited version of one that appeared yesterday in Streetsblog Los Angeles.
Below are four recent bike project updates. Some of these may benefit cyclists, but all are laden with serious drawbacks.
Westside Bikeway Meetings
Speaking of dead cyclists, LADOT is making plans for West L.A. safety improvements on Pershing Drive, Westwood Boulevard, and Ohio Avenue.
Last week, the Westchester/Playa Neighborhood Council (NCWP) held a meeting to discuss possible safety improvements on Playa del Rey’s Pershing Drive, where a driver recently killed Regan Cole-Graham. Attendees report that the public comment was strongly in favor of reducing travel lanes to restore bike lanes (which LADOT removed in 2017), while the neighborhood councilmembers themselves were somewhat skeptical about reducing car capacity.
After a driver hit a cyclist and then veered into a store, killing three people, LADOT is stepping up planning efforts for Westwood bikeways.
Griffith Park Bike Improvements
Griffith Park’s (meager) bike lanes are getting a (meager) glow up.
City Transportation Department (LADOT) crews are currently installing about four miles of new striping on the main surface road through the city’s biggest park: Crystal Springs Drive/Western Heritage Way/Zoo Drive. The project reduces car travel lanes in some areas; part of Crystal Springs is going from four travel lanes to two. Much of the project adds plastic-post-protection to existing bike lanes, though long stretches remain unprotected.
As Streets Are For Everyone founder Damian Kevitt put it, Griffith Park “is the crown jewel of L.A. parks, and it deserves the best and safest roads to protect the families, equestrians, runners, hikers, and cyclists who use it.”
“While I am extremely excited to see the upgrade to Crystal Springs Drive finally starting,” Kevitt stated, “it’s frustrating that it took close to three years from the release of the Griffith Park Safety and Active Transportation Improvements Project [plans] to the start of this construction.” The improvements are a response to a driver killing cyclist Andrew Jelmert in 2022.
Kevitt urges city leadership to “remove the red tape and bureaucracy, that slow or kill these vital road safety projects” so the city will no longer “see more people dying from traffic violence each year than homicides.”
The installation appeared maybe half done when Streetsblog biked through Griffith Park on Saturday, so it is too early to draw final conclusions. The new configuration seems like a step in the right direction, while the beloved park appears likely to continue to see plenty of drivers cutting though at 50+mph despite a 25 mph speed limit.
Farewell Van Nuys Lanes, Hello Terra Bella Lanes
As part of the East San Fernando light rail project, Metro and LADOT plan to remove 2.8 miles of bike lanes on Van Nuys Boulevard (two sections: 1.9 miles from Parthenia Street to Beachy Avenue, and 0.9 miles from Remick Avenue to San Fernando Road).
Metro/LADOT chose Terra Bella Street (parallel to Van Nuys, a half mile southeast) as a replacement location for the bikeway. This spring/summer LADOT will install new bike lanes on Terra Bella extending 2.4 miles from San Fernando Road to Wakefield Avenue.
In some parts of Terra Bella, Metro/LADOT are reducing car travel lanes to free up space for new unprotected bike lanes.
Terra Bella is not an awful project, and maybe cyclists should be relieved that the city is “replacing” any removed bike lanes (L.A. sometimes removes bike lanes without any mitigation). But the project has a couple of frustrating shortfalls:
- The new Terra Bella bike lanes fail to make a first/last mile connection to the under-construction Metro Station at Van Nuys/Nordhoff. The bikeway stops one block short of connecting to Nordhoff Street, apparently to preserve on-street parking (around the corner from the new Metro station).
- The replacement shortchanges both quantity and quality. Overall mileage removed is 2.8 miles, “replaced” by just 2.4 new miles. Nearly a mile of the Van Nuys bikeway being removed is parking-protected on one side. Overall Metro/LADOT are removing 5.6 lane-miles (0.9 protected) and adding just 4.8 lane-miles (all unprotected).
Chandler Bikeway Groundbreaking
Last week L.A. City Councilmembers Adrin Nazarian and Imelda Padilla joined LADOT and community leaders at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Chandler Boulevard Cycletrack Gap Closure project. Watch Nazarian event video or read Daily News coverage. The bikeway will extend west of the North Hollywood Metro B/G Line Station, replacing existing unprotected bike lanes.
The Chandler project will place cyclists in plastic-bollard-protected bike lanes along the left side of fast-moving cars on Chandler Boulevard. The left-side (center-running) design, unprecedented in L.A. City, is preferred for bike projects when the main priority is preserving on-street parking. A somewhat similar design recently failed on Mission Street in San Francisco.
At $7 million, this is fairly expensive for a 3-mile bike project. Per the Board of Public Works staff report, the project scope includes “removing concrete median islands; reconstructing street pavements, curb and gutter, and curb ramps to current accessibility standards; modifying existing traffic signal modifications [sic]; and installing concrete transit platforms…”
But even with all that concrete curb work underway, bicyclists will only get plastic protection: “Class IV [protected] bike lanes with raised rubber defenders [basically armadillos] and K-71 bollards [soft-hit white plastic bollards].”
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