New Vineland Avenue bike lanes
The city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has striped new bike lanes in Sun Valley. They’re 1.6 miles long, on Vineland Avenue extending from Vanowen Street to Sunland Boulevard.
These new Vineland Avenue bike lanes are what I call a “Myra” – an opportunistic, unplanned and unapproved, bike facility. These Vineland bike lanes are absent from the city’s approved Bike Plan and the city’s approved 5-Year Implementation Strategy.
I helped this sidewalk cyclist fix his chain – on Vineland near Sherman Way
Nonetheless, I think this is a great project! It’s a relatively population-dense, predominantly working class Latino neighborhood, with plenty of bicycling both in the street and on the sidewalk.
I reported on earlier Vineland Avenue bike lanes, just east of the Metro Red Line North Hollywood Station, which were completed in March 2012. The even newer Vineland lanes begin 1.5 miles north of the earlier ones. The new Vineland lanes go along the back side of Burbank Airport, across the railroad tracks. They connect with existing bike lanes on Sherman Way, then extend all the way to Sun Valley Park, where the street veers right/east and becomes Sunland Blvd.
Non-standard bike parking – where the new Vineland lanes begin at Sunland Blvd
Thanks, Mayor Villaraigosa, Los Angeles City Councilmembers Tony Cardenas and Paul Krekorian, and the LADOT for getting this important bike facilitity implemented!
(These Vineland lanes were first announced via a list on the LADOT website, which states that they were completed on May 21st 2012.)
walkeaglerock
06/01/2012
Ah… a “Myra”, eh? Like the ones on Fair Park Avenue in Eagle Rock? I wish Delevan Drive would get bike lanes, they’d lead straight to Delevan Elementary. And Verdugo Road west of Eagle Rock Boulevard could go on a road diet and add bike lanes, that’d be nice.
Dennis Hindman
06/05/2012
Having biked the entire length of Vineland Ave recently, I’d have to say that most of its length is low hanging fruit for putting in bike lanes easily, with very wide curb side lanes, a smooth surface and is about two blocks east of the North Hollywood subway. I had mentioned this to Nate Baird about three months ago when I saw him at a LA2B meeting. Perhaps this peaked enough interest to look into the possibility of putting bike lanes there..
One of the most important potential bike routes for the San Fernando Valley, that need bike lanes, is a north/south connection to the North Hollywood subway station, which has the most bike parking of any Metro rail station. Lankershim Blvd would be a direct connection to both subway stations in the valley and is on the bike plan, but it has sections of roadway that are in horrible condition starting at Oxnard St, just north of the subway. Cahuenga Blvd is also listed for bike lanes and is the next major street east of Vineland Ave,, but there are sections of roadway lanes to the north of Chandler Blvd that are concrete, with asphalt shoulders that are in dreadful condition where the bike lanes would be placed.
walkeaglerock
06/06/2012
Low hanging fruit…. In NELA there’s Cypress Ave, sections of Norwalk Avenue (which is a useful bike connection from Eagle Rock Boulevard to Yosemite Drive), San Pascual Avenue (to connects to elementary and a park), a section of Avenue 66, Avenue 55, a stretch of Mesa Avenue, Piedmont Avenue, Avenue 33 east of ER Blvd, Jeffries Avenue, Huron Street, [maybe] Townsend Avenue/ climbing bike lane on Townsend Avenue…. And surely there are more opportunities. Some of these streets I refer to span mere blocks but often they connect to other major bike routes and making bike lanes so ubiquitus and common throughout neighborhoods I get the impression that they can have a positive effect while not serving any immediate or significant connections by themselves.
walkeaglerock
06/06/2012
How could I forget my favorite low hanging fruit– York boulevard south/west of Avenue 42 to Delevan to Wawona Street.
Joe Linton
06/07/2012
These are very cool!! There are, frankly, streets all over where bike lanes can fit easily, and where they make great sense.
Can you give me endpoints on these? (Norwalk Avenue from X to Y) Also, I’d recommend emailing the list to Councilmember Huizar… posting it at Walk Eagle Rock, etc.! Let’s make these happen.
Jon
06/07/2012
assuming you mean Cypress from Figueroa to where the bike lanes start on Pepper? also, why Norwalk? Seems to be a residential street with speed humps – not generally the type of street prioritized for bike lanes.
Joe Linton
06/07/2012
@Jon – The city bike plan includes lanes from Figueroa to Pepper plus that one additional block from Figueroa to Arroyo Seco. Coupled with Avenue 28, I think that makes great sense, and Nightingale Middle School students have pushed for it… and the city says they’ll do them some time before July 2013.
Regarding which streets to prioritize: Your comment perhaps implies that there’s a rational or, even transparent and public process where someone (city departments, elected officials) prioritize the right type of street. In my opinion, this isn’t really the case in L.A., yet, there is a prioritized list (called the city’s 5-Year Implementation Strategy – generated mostly by the city’s Planning Department, approved by the city council, treated as perhaps advisory by the city’s Transportation Department) which is only partially a basis for what facilities are implemented. The city tends to implement the sort of lowest hanging fruit bike lane projects mainly… which, in my opinion, is ok… not a portrait in courage, but I think it perhaps helps drivers recognize that cycling is legitimate. So, useful-but-not-ideal streets like Norwalk Avenue are worthwhile to identify, and get implemented… and Bikas and others will push for more and even better projects.
walkeaglerock
06/07/2012
Jon, my comment echoes Joe’s a bit. I was referring to that additional block that connects to the bridge over the Arroyo Seco– this helps provide connectivity within the neighborhood and even on a NELA to Downtown LA scale.
As for Norwalk:
–The section between College View and Eagle Rock Boulevard is a residential street but 1) Connects to Eagle Rock Boulevard (which will receive bike lanes) and 2) Connects to Ellenwood Drive (a Bicycle Boulevard in the Bike Plan).
–For Norwalk after it curves East of Eagle Rock Boulevard is sufficiently wide for bike lanes. And you’re correct, the portion not wide enough for bike lanes has speed humps
– Together, to have a combination of bike lanes and speed humps between College View and Yosemite Drive (an “enhanced bike route” in the Plan) provides a considerable localized network link. Norwalk can and should be a part of Eagle Rock’s bike network as 1) It can have bike lanes at no sacrifice of motorists’ space 2) Connects to three streets in LA’s Bike Plan (Ellenwood Drive, Eagle Rock Boulevard, Yosemite Drive) 3) is a convenient, time-saving connection between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Yosemite Drive and should be inviting/visible to cyclists with bike lanes.
walkeaglerock
06/07/2012
I mapped some of the easy bike lane projects in green with necessary explanations and approximate width of streets. Feel free to review ’em. And I think I’ll add LA Bike Plan stuff in a different color (red?)
Joe Linton
06/07/2012
link to your map??
walkeaglerock
06/07/2012
Opps, here it is
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210342158729964108355.0004c1e4eb37323f2095e&msa=0&ll=34.111662,-118.24482&spn=0.080444,0.118618
Dennis Hindman
06/07/2012
Here’s a new report that quantifies the perceived traffic stress for bicycling:
http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1005-low-stress-bicycling-network-connectivity.pdf
This grading system is what I have been looking for to get traffic engineers, planners, bicycle advocates, businesses and residents to better understand what it would take to make every day cycling appealing for the majority of people.
Using this system can help explain the lack of effectiveness in attracting people to cycle on a new bicycle infrastructure, such as the likely reasons why when bike lanes are installed on a street that the majority of the cyclists are still riding on the sidewalk.
walkeaglerock
06/07/2012
Dennis, thanks for the link.
And I’ve been meaning to share a google image with you from Long Beach, it’s a bike path that goes behind bus stops like Dutch bicycle infrastructure
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=90041&daddr=34.06598,-118.2161351+to:Downtown+Long+Beach,+Long+Beach,+CA&hl=en&ll=33.764307,-118.195026&spn=0.000669,0.000818&sll=33.960162,-118.198471&sspn=0.241761,0.418854&geocode=FRfRCAIdcjv0-CnZgjDDX8HCgDEUS1aIRK35Mg%3BFTzOBwIdOSr0-Cm_SinAesbCgDEEi8MYEJ22-A%3BFSJMAwIdaov0-CmHRbhlPzHdgDF20rXh3wdiTA&oq=downtown+long+beach&t=h&dirflg=b&mra=ltm&z=21&layer=c&cbll=33.764307,-118.195026&panoid=zJWcnt2rsmD0bphmpz83-g&cbp=12,330.15,,1,4.4&via=1
Dennis Hindman
06/07/2012
Thanks for the link Walkeaglerock.
There seems to be a change in the updated May 7th Caltrans Highway Design Manual that now indicates that putting bicycle infrastructure between parked cars and the curb is classified as a bike path and not a bike lane. See section 301.2:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/oppd/hdm/pdf/english/chp0300.pdf
And a bike path is not prohibited between parked cars and the curb. See section 1003.2:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/oppd/hdm/pdf/english/chp1000.pdf
This seems to be LA bikeways engineer Tim Fremaux’s interpretation of the new wording as you can see by his reply to a comment by anonymous on this ladotbikeblog post:
http://ladotbikeblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/a-closer-look-at-the-new-los-angeles-st-bike-lanes/#comments
Being able to put bicycle infrastructure between parked cars and the curb is a huge improvement over the previous version of the Caltrans Highway Design Manual. This brings LA DOT bikeways engineering a little further away from the stone age for designing bicycle infrastructure.