New Summerland Avenue bike lanes, with Vincent Thomas Bridge in the distance
The city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has installed 0.8-mile of new bike lanes on Summerland Avenue. The lanes are located in the neighborhood of San Pedro. They extend from Harbor View Avenue to just west of Cabrillo Avenue.
The lanes were approved in 2011 in the city’s 2010 Bike Plan. The street was designated an existing bike route, and a future bike lane, though both of those state the full 1-mile extent all the way from Western Avenue to Gaffey Street. The city’s striping trimmed about a tenth of a mile off of each end of the project – so it’s just 0.8-mile instead of the approved 0.97-mile… presumably to make cyclists less safe at intersections where most car-bike collisions occur keep plenty of turning lanes for cars and cars and cars. The Summerland lanes don’t appear in the city’s final approved 5-Year Implementation Plan, though they do appear on the 5-Year Plan map as “existing or funded” which generally meant that the city had anticipated they would be completed prior to the adoption of the “2010″ plan. (I am curious to look at the circa 2010 “funded” list and see what other projects may still be pending. Any eager researcher volunteers out there want a project?)
Summerland is somewhat steep, similar to 13th Street which is parallel about 20 blocks south. One good thing about bicycling on hilly streets, Summerland has great views of the port, including the Vincent Thomas Bridge. It’s a wide street, lined with single-family homes. The new bike lanes were added without removing any car lanes or parking.
Humble beginnings – the downhill end of the Summerland Avenue bike lanes – between Meyler Street and Cabrillo Avenue
I didn’t see any cyclists riding the lanes during afternoon commute hours yesterday, though I did spot one young sidewalk cyclist crossing Summerland at Western.
Cyclist on Western Avenue crossing Summerland Avenue
All in all, I am glad to see these go in.
The lanes were announced via this list on the LADOT website (which lists incorrect endpoints, but has the correct total mileage), which states that they were striped on May 20th 2012.
ubrayj02
06/07/2012
Awesome! Now all those homeowners have a place to park their trash cans on trash day. Thx LADOT! UR da best.
Joe Linton
06/07/2012
Don’t give bureaucrats any excuses to do nothing!! (which is to say nothing for bikes, while still doing lots for cars.)
PC
06/07/2012
Most bike lanes are worse than nothing.