Car parked in the Chandler Boulevard bike lane forces bicyclists into the car lane
L.A.’s cyclist activists have a history and reputation for DIY (Do It Yourself) projects: painting sharrows and bike lanes, adding safety signage, etc. Drivers also have some history of DIY efforts toward enhancing parking. Today’s story focuses on a San Fernando Valley street where someone has painted DIY gray curbs to increase car parking at the expense of bicyclist safety.
Initially I perceived this as a space allocation issue: bicycles vs. cars. As I looked into it more, I now think that the root of the problem is the city Transportation Department’s (LADOT’s) wrongheaded pursuit of roadway design to encourage drivers to travel at unsafe speeds. This unhealthy zeal for speeds comes at the expense of both parking capacity and bicycling safety.
Aerial of westbound Chandler Boulevard between Tujunga Avenue and Camellia Avenue, North Hollywood. Chandler veers left-south. Orange Line busway is at bottom of image. From Google Maps.
This DIY parking site is on westbound Chandler Boulevard, in North Hollywood; the address 11473 Chandler Boulevard, L.A. 91073. It’s a couple blocks west of the Metro Red Line North Hollywood Station. In this area, most of westbound Chandler has a dedicated busway, two car lanes, bike lane, on-street parking and sidewalk. Chandler here veers the left-south.
Though the curb-to-curb distance remains the same, I noticed that parked cars were sticking out into the bike lane, forcing bicyclists rightward. Some cyclists rode in the door zone, others in the car travel lane.
Chandler Blvd parked car sticking out into the bike lane. Cyclist is riding on the stripe at the edge of the bike lane, and is still in the door zone.
On closer inspection, on the north side of the street, the curbs that had been red were painted gray.
Curb at 11473 Chandler Boulevard painted gray, slightly darker gray than the concrete around it
Below is another photograph of the DIY gray curb.
DIY gray-painted curb at 11473 Chandler Blvd
When I lifted up some of the plants, the gray paint was even more obvious, as the top of the curb remained red.
Below the parkway landscaping at 11473 Chandler Blvd: vertical portion of concrete curb has been painted gray, top remains no parking red
Initially I was really irritated with the unknown person (or persons) who’d painted the curb gray, thereby squeezing cycling space, and decreasing the safety of the bike lane facility. I figured it would be a matter of reporting the offence to the proper authorities and having them paint red where the gray had been painted.
Then I looked around and noticed that there’s actually space for bike lanes and parking. Below is a photograph of the painted margin on the other side of the street.
Wide margin on the south side of the street across from where north-side parking had been removed. Right side of the photo shows yellow fog-lane line where driving trajectory has been straightened. Far left is the DIY gray curb.
This got me thinking about how space has been allocated on this street. Instead of making cars’ trajectory follow the actual street trajectory, and having cars slow down a bit, LADOT chose to stripe a straighter alignment – so that cars can speed through this block faster.
Here’s the aerial marked up. Red is the curb, and yellow is location of car lanes. Notice that the road width (the distance between the two red lines) is nearly the same throughout; the curbs themselves present no pinch point. Notice the way the yellow line, instead of following the red lines, cuts corners squeezing out the margin that bikes and parked cars occupy.
Chandler Boulevard aerial view marked to show curbs in red, car lanes in yellow. Base from Google Maps
In providing faster, less safe, space for speeding cars, the city had removed on-street parking, hence favoring pass-through traffic over locals’ needs (perceived needs, I’d say) for convenient on-street parking.
Though I am not generally in favor of free parking, in this case, I think it’s much more worthwhile than straighter, wider lanes for unsafe fast-moving car traffic.
At initial observation the issue appears to be bikes vs. parking, but at a closer look, it’s really more about faster and faster car capacity trumping all other concerns: safety, parking, cycling, walking, noise, etc.
What’s sad (and this is an issue that Don Ward has been very actively critiquing and fighting) is that LADOT engineered this street to increase speeds and then DOT turns around and finds that people are speeding. We’re shocked! Then LADOT, claiming that their (blood-stained) hands are tied by state mandates which they have no control over, urges the Los Angeles City Council to, against the wishes of the community, increase the speed limits.
Also ironic and pathetic, the reconfiguration of Chandler Boulevard was done during the implementation of the Metro Orange Line which includes both a bikeway and a busway. So even when L.A. invests in safe green transportation, it takes steps backward by dedicating excessive space to more and faster car traffic. The LADOT has implemented unsafe practices along various rail lines: widening roads, widening car lanes, removing crosswalks, etc. Sadly these are in transit-rich, mostly-population-dense neighborhoods, many of which already featured a historic scale that made them very walkable.
I urge LADOT not to just re-paint the red curb at 11473 Chandler Blvd, but to re-stripe the roadway, narrowing car lanes, slowing down unsafe fast-moving cars, and making space for both bike lanes and on-street parking. And if LADOT won’t do that, maybe we cyclists need to team up the on-street parking supporters and strip it ourselves.
jenniX (@jennix)
06/18/2012
Great piece Joe. I’ve noticed this before too, and i have to say i agree. The simple answer is that people should expect to travel slower in major metropolitan areas. It’s really not so hard, just a matter of not assuming unrealistic travel times from one part of town to another.
ROadblock
06/18/2012
PREACHING THE GOSPEL. Average speed through ANY urban area in the world will NEVER be more than 20-25mph under the best conditions. Even if the streets had NO cars at all, red lights would prevent anything more than 20-25
ubrayj02
06/18/2012
The simple answer is that we fight fire with fire and paint with paint. The last time i checked, red paint was not at a premium at the hardware store. Paint the whole curb red and then call the LADOT the next morning. Tix or id didn’t happen.
Joe Linton
06/18/2012
but I’d rather paint the wrongheaded striping out – not undo the parking!
ubrayj02
06/18/2012
You are too nice. At this point, I’d like spread a little spite around. The LOLs to be had, oh the LOLs.
Dennis Hindman
06/18/2012
I frequently would have to move into the vehicle lane in this area of Chandler Ave and I never stopped to figure ot why the bike lane seemed to get so much narrower along his art of the sree.. I always thought it was just lack of a wide enough road.
There was a newscast about someone paintng the red curbs white along Colax Ave in Studio City this year.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/04/13/red-zones-repeatedly-repainted-along-colfax-in-studio-city/
Maybe its the same red baron that did both streets.
Dennis Hindman
06/18/2012
On my ride down Chandler Blvd tonight, I checked where the ‘extra’ space is for restriping. Its west of where the curb is painted grey. You can’t cut and paste this extra space to where you want it like you can on the internet. A lane also needs to be wider when it goes around a curve. I say repaint the curb red, tell the owner of the property that they will be billed if its painted over and fined for defacing public property. Although the city is unlikely to come out and repaint a few feet of curb. Its tough to get anyone to come out and fill pot holes.
Joe Linton
06/18/2012
If you look at the aerial, the roadbed width appears to remain the same width throughout… to me, this means that if the car lanes hug the south curb, then there is space for bike lane and parking throughout. And if I am mistaken by a foot or two, then narrow the car lanes until they reach a civilized width, say 8 or 9 feet. I haven’t measured the car lanes, but who wants to bet me that they’re already 12+ feet wide?
Dennis Hindman
06/19/2012
A better way to see what the situation is would be to look at google maps from the street level perspective. The apartment building wants parking right in front of the building, since there is no parking allowed on the property itself.. The parking on the street could only be where the plants are located next to the curb. Further west or east of these plants are driveways, plus a fire hydrant to the east of the apartment buildings driveway. The curb space just before Camellia ave is not wide enough for parking and a bike lane.
If the travel lanes follow the curvature of the road, then some of the parking that is on the south side of the street from will have to be eliminated. Street level view shows that at least the last four parking spots would have the cars tail section sticking out into the travel lane if there were no spacing between the curb and the travel lane.
So, the only option left would be to narrow the travel lanes. I don’t know what the width of the lanes are right now. I’ll try and go by there tuesday afternoon and measure them.
Dennis Hindman
06/19/2012
Here’s what I got for measurements of widths between stripes around the curb area which has been painted grey on Chandler Blvd:
Gutter pan is 24″ wide.
91″ from grey curb to middle of white line for bike lane.
Right travel lane is 124″ wide.
Left travel lane is 125″ wide.
Yellow striped area directly across from smallest width of grey painted curb is 54″ to curb.
East of fire hydrant the bike lane is 61″ wide.
Parking lane to curb is 85″ wide east of the fire hydrant.
Width from curb to outer edge of bike lane just east of the fire hydrant is 146″.
Adding the 54″ between the yellow stripe and the curb to the 91″ width of the grey painted curb, to the middle of the white bike lane stripe, the total width would be 145″
So, it is possible to take the yellow striped area and move it directly across the street to the grey painted curb area. But, this will shorten the transition away from the last four parking spaces across the street, which due to short parking spaces, has the quarter panels of cars sticking out into the area between the curb and the yellow stripe.
A side benefit, besides the times when parked cars intrude on the bike lane, would be that this section of the street becomes more like a chicane, which might slow down cars somewhat. Although on Ventura Blvd, where the street curves in Studio City, these areas don’t seem to have much of an affect on slowing down buses or cars.
paramountrider
07/21/2012
Dennis you are very good at obtaining measurements. As you state there is a parking lane west of the fire hydrant. Just before the hydrant ends is where the bike lane also ends. It does not get picked up again until you enter across the next block which is past Camellia.
The original posters here posing next to the white line while riding their bicycles are not actually in a bike lane. That is a single white line. The white line is to keep west bound vehicular traffic within 1 of the two lanes and to also serve to keep parked cars from parking in the traffic pathway. The DIY complaint is not really related to the bike lane since the bike lane stops well before where these riders are posing. The nearest fire hydrant is about 70 feet away and CA drivers’s handbook shows cars only need to not park within 15 feet of a hydrant. If someone can show me how to upload photos I can show where the bike lane ends and where it starts again. The original complaint is not accurate here.