Bike lanes on 7th Street at Figueroa Street in Downtown L.A.
For the first time ever, Downtown Los Angeles actually has a bike lane! Over the past weekend, LADOT completed the installation of the first phase of bike lanes on 7th Street. The 7th Street bike lanes currently extend 2.2 miles from Catalina Avenue to Figueroa Street. At some point soon, the 7th Street bike lanes will be extended an additional 2.9 miles approved through downtown and all the way to Soto Street in Boyle Heights.
These aren’t just the first bike lanes in Downtown, they’re also the first bike lanes in the Koreatown and Westlake neighborhoods. Those are three of the most dense neighborhoods in the city, and among the densest communities in the nation. According to the L.A. Times Mapping L.A. website, here are the population density numbers: Koreatown 42,611 people per square mile, Westlake 38,214 people per square mile, and Downtown 4,770 people per square mile.
7th Street has long been an unofficial bike route, convenient for bicycling into and out of Downtown Los Angeles. The street carries lots of cyclists – from working class Latino immigrants, to downtown office workers, to Korean-Americans, to bike messengers, to young fixed-gear cyclists, and more. Quite a few cyclists were riding the new lane on the quiet Sunday morning today.
Cyclist heading downtown on the new 7th Street bike lanes this morning
The new configuration is called a “Road Diet” – which is basically a configuration where a 4-lane road (2 lanes each direction) is turned into a 3-lane road (1 lane in each direction and a center turn lane) with added bike lanes. This means that 7th Street also has new (car) left turn lanes that never existed before. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) studied road diets and found them to be safer for everyone: drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians.
Bike lanes were approved on 7th Street in 2009 in the Downtown Street Standards. Soon thereafter, a 2009 draft of the city’s Bike Plan showed the 7th Street lanes as “infeasible.” Through the work of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) and others, the final Bike Plan, approved early 2011, approved the Seventh Street bike lanes extending from Catalina Avenue to Soto Street. LACBC has made the implementation of the 7th Street lanes a top priority. Watch LACBC’s cool 7th Street video here. LACBC’s City of Lights program, under the leadership of LACBC staffer Allison Manos, has worked with working class cyclists, community groups, and others to campaign for 7th Street implementation. LACBC created visuals to help folks understand the proposed new configuration, and reached out to businesses and residents along 7th Street.
In addition to credit to LACBC, I plan to write thank you letters to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A. City Councilmembers Ed Reyes, Herb Wesson and Jan Perry, and to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation General Manager Jaime de la Vega.
Come down and celebrate the new lanes at a press conference next week. From the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s 25 August 2011 e-newsletter:
7th St. Bike Lane [... ] Press Conference
When: Thursday, September 8th; 9 AM to 10 AM
Where: 7th & Alvarado, MacArthur Park [one block southwest of the Westlake/MacArthur Park/Alvarado Metro Red and Purple Line station]You may have seen the lanes starting to be striped [on] 7th Street in the past week or two. . . but do you know how they got there?
Come learn more and celebrate the first bicycle lane in Central LA from the LA Bicycle Plan with LACBC, Councilman Ed Reyes, LADOT, CARECEN, our community partners, and others at this press conference! A two-year campaign of LACBC’s City of Lights program, our dream is now being realized! Ride along 7th from Catalina and Figueroa, as the streets of Westlake become safer for families, workers, and commuters.
LACBC members and supporters alike are invited to our media event. The more, the merrier. Wear your LACBC shirt if you have one!
For more information on the project, read these earlier articles I wrote at CicLAvia (August 2011 and June 2011), L.A. Eco-Village, and this article at L.A. Streetsblog, and LACBC’s campaign page.
[...] 7th Street Bike Lanes Reach Downtown (Eco-Village) [...]
Drove down 7th this morning…the lanes look great! I can also confirm that they have made driving much more pleasant. There is far less lane changing and stop-and-go type stuff.
I’ve been waiting for this for a while. Going to start biking to work tomorrow.
Cycled to work on the 7th St. bike lane from Commonwealth to Figueroa 3 days last week and absolutely loved it. Thanks LACBC and the local officials involved in making this happen.
[...] Comments « First Bike Lanes Reach Downtown L.A. [...]
I commute by bike from DTLA to Fairfax. 7th street in Downtown is the worst part of the ride. It was so nice to see the bike lane starting at Fig this week – can’t wait for it to continue downtown. Due to it being a dead end street, 7th through Ktown was always a pretty decent ride but the painted bike lane clarifies for bikes and motorists who goes where. Thank you to all involved who made this happen.
[...] Most of the LADOT list’s 4.4 mile stretch of Hoover Street is designated tow-away no parking from 7am to 8am. A portion of Vine Street (north of Hollywood Boulevard) has parking restricted from 6pm to 3am. Does LADOT plan to remove the parking restrictions? My recommendation for that part of Hoover would be road diet bike lanes. [...]
[...] A crowd of about 200 celebrated the completion of the 7th Street bike lanes. These are among the first projects implemented under the city’s new bike plan. They’re also the city’s first bike lanes in the population-dense central Los Angeles neighborhoods of Koreatown and Westlake. And they’re the first bike lanes to reach downtown Los Angeles. Today’s press conference included a ceremonial melting of the thermoplastic on the final bicycle lane icon for the project. Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes, assisted by city staff, wielded a blowtorch and melted in the bike symbol. Also taking turns at thermoplastic installation were Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition executive director Jennifer Klausner, and city Department of Transportation bikeway staffers Michelle Mowery and Tim Fremaux. For more information on these bike lanes, see earlier coverage at Eco-Village and CicLAvia. [...]
[...] of buffered bike lane in the city, the first real bike lanes through Downtown Los Angeles. (The 7th Street bike lanes are buffered from Alvarado to Parkview, along MacArthur Park – and the 7th Street lanes do [...]
[...] has completed their first bike lanes in Boyle Heights, Downtown L.A., Hollywood, Koreatown, and Westlake. While the majority of the projects have been [...]
[...] lack of bicycle lanes among them. But that is changing. Last weekend, 2.2 miles of bike lanes opened in downtown Los Angeles along 7th Street. Eventually that lane will extend all the way to East [...]