Easy Bike Lane Projects For Northeast LA

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is aggressively installing bicycle infrastructure at a pace unprecedented in the department’s history with almost 40 miles of bike lanes installed this fiscal year!

And many more bike lanes are on the way! In Northeast LA rumor has it that bike lanes will soon be coming to Eagle Rock Boulevard north of Westdale and to York Boulevard east of Avenue 54. The LADOT is also studying potential bike lanes on Colorado Boulevard and North Figueroa. This is great news, especially as a visible portion of travel around the neighborhood is by bicycle.
Cycling over a pedestrian bridge from Glassell Park to Eagle Rock

However, as we await bike projects on major Northeast LA streets, there are opportunities to install bike lanes on streets (many of them residential) without any environmental studies or removal of car lanes. These are projects that could, in theory, be installed at any time the funding is available and help Los Angeles achieve its goal of implementing 40 miles of bike lanes each fiscal year. The city advantageously implemented bike lanes on a block of Fair Park Avenue in Eagle Rock (which go by Eagle Rock Elementary and will connect to bike lanes planned for Eagle Rock Boulevard) when the street was repaved recently. That block of Fair Park Avenue is not in the LA Bike Plan but there was enough width to install the bike lane without impacting parking or number of car lanes. Check out the potential bike lane projects below….

(And yes, this post is inspired by Joe Linton’s blog post “Some Easy Bike Lane Projects LA Can Do Right Away”)

Projects That Can Be Implemented and Are Not in the LA Bike Plan

Norwalk Avenue (~50ft wide) – from College View Avenue to Eagle Rock Boulevard (0.3 miles)

• Installing this bike lane would connect future bicycle facilities planned for Ellenwood Drive and Eagle Rock Boulevard. It could also encourage people to cycle on Norwalk Avenue (part of which has speed humps) to get to Eagle Rock High School and Yosemite Park.

Norwalk Avenue (~40ft wide) – from Yosemite Drive to Addison Way (0.05 miles)

Norwalk Avenue (~45ft wide) – from Addison Way (0.07 miles)

Mesa Avenue (~ 60ft wide) – from York Boulevard to Avenue 61 (0.3 miles)

• Would connect to bike lanes planned for York Boulevard

Piedmont Avenue (~ 55ft wide) – from Avenue 61 to Avenue 58 (0.2 miles)

Avenue 33 ( ~50ft wide) – from Bushwick Street to Eagle Rock Boulevard (0.3 miles)

• Would connect to current bike lanes on Eagle Rock Boulevard

Cypress Avenue ( ~80 ft wide) – from North Figueroa Street to Arroyo Seco Avenue ( 0.04 miles)

• Would connect to facilities planned for Figueroa, Cypress Avenue west of Figueroa, and an existing bicycle/pedestrian bridge that goes over the Arroyo Seco Parkway

Huron Street (~45ft wide)  – from Avenue 26 to Cypress Avenue ( 0.2 miles)

• Would connect to bike lanes planned for Avenue 28 and Cypress Avenue. Would provide connectivity to Nightingale Middle School.

Jeffries Avenue (~ 50 ft wide)  – from Avenue 26 to Locust Street ( 0.4 miles)

• Would connect to facilities planned for Avenue 28 and Cypress Avenue. Would provide connectivity to Nightingale Middle School

Delevan Drive and Wawona Street (~50 and 55 ft)– from York Boulevard to Avenue 42 (0.2 miles)

• Would connect with facility planned for York Boulevard. Would provide bike lanes to Delevan Drive Elementary.

Stratford Road (~40 ft wide)  – from Campus Road to Avenue 55 (0.7 miles)

Avenue 49 (~40 ft wide)  – from Stratford Road to Range View Avenue (0.05 miles)

• Would connect to bicycle facilities planned for Stratford Road

Via Marisol (~ 60 ft wide)  – from Monterey Road to Arroyo Seco Bike Path (0.3 miles)

• Would connect to existing bike lanes on Via Marisol east of Monterey Road. Would connect to Arroyo Seco Bike Path

Projects That Can Be Implemented and Are in the LA Bike Plan

York Boulevard (~40 ft wide)  – from Avenue 42 to Delevan Drive ( 0.1 miles)

• Included in the Bike Plan’s neighborhood network. Would provide connection to near by Delevan Drive Elementary

Monterey Road (~ 55ft wide)  – from Lomitas Drive/ South Pasadena border to Avenue 60 (0.4 miles)

San Pascual Avenue (~ 40 and 50 ft wide) – from York Boulevard to Comet Street (0.7 miles)

Avenue 66 (~ 50 and 55ft wide)  – from York Boulevard to Meridian Street (0.5 miles)

In all, implementing these facilities could provide almost 5 miles of bike lanes total. And a surprising number of these potential bike lane projects would connect to existing or planned bicycle facilities.

I attempted mapping these potential projects in a Google Maps document. Click here to see the map (with a couple projects not mentioned in this post).

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