Some Good Bicycle News – from Boyle Heights

Boyle Heights new bike lanes on First Street from Boyle Avenue to Lorena Street

Within the past day or two, city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) crews striped new bike lanes on First Street in Boyle Heights. The bike lanes are 1.6 miles long, extending from Boyle Avenue to Lorena Street. The actually connect two landmarks: Mariachi Plaza (1st and Boyle) and Evergreen Cemetery (bounded by Lorena, 1st, Evergreen, and Chavez.) The lanes connect with the Metro Gold Line stations at Soto and at Mariachi Plaza.

Here’s a map showing the location of the new lanes:

C.A.C. Bike Shop on Lorena Street

Near the east of the First Street lanes (on Lorena, just south of First) is one of my favorite mom-and-pop bike-shops – C.A.C. Bike Shop, a combination bike-shop and beauty parlor, and also sells halloween costumes seasonally.

As far as I could tell from looking at the street, the new lanes were added without removing any car lanes. The car lanes had been wide enough to split off a 5-foot bike lane and still have enough space remaining for the cars.

There were plenty of riders out this afternoon – youth on fixed gear bikes, older transportation riders. The project looks about 90% done; a few of the inner stripes of the bike lanes were still just the preliminary markings, hopefully it will be finished within a few days.

New bike lanes on First Street - almost finished

Kudos to the LADOT, Mayor Villaraigosa, and City Councilmember Jose Huizar for more successful bike lanes in population-dense urban communities!