Some Good Bicycle News – from Culver City and Mar Vista

New bike lanes on Washington Place in Culver City - alongside Tito's Tacos on Washington Place just west of Sepulveda

I was on the Westside yesterday for L.A. Streetsblog‘s end-of-the-year party (at the wonderful, yummy Earl’s Gourmet Grub on Venice Blvd), so I got the opportunity to ride on Culver City’s new bike lanes on Washington Place and Bentley Avenue. Apologies that it was late at night, hence the really poor photos. 

I was tipped off to the new bike lanes on Washington Place by LADOT’s December 2011 Bikeways Report, which shows what bike projects the city of Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation is in the process of implementing. The report states that, this month December 2011, L.A. is implementing bike lanes 0.77 miles from Grand View Blvd to Albright Avenue, in the Mar Vista neighborhood. This stretch of Washington Place is listed in the city’s 5-year Implementation Plan as a “bike-friendly street” (ie: bike boulevard), but this isn’t quite right.  Washington Place is a big wide multi-lane street with plenty of room for bike lanes. The Washington Place stretch from Zanja Street to Centinela Avenue is also in the 5-year plan with the same incorrect designation as a bike boulevard.

While these L.A. City Washington Place lanes are not yet in place, I did notice that some work on them was underway. Part of the Washington Place roadway has been scraped (erasing existing lane markings) and new “V” marks show where the future lane markings will go.

White V-shaped markings on Washington Place at Grandview - show where the future bike lane will soon be implemented

I did discover, however, that Culver City had already implemented two new bike lanes:

• Washington Place – 0.4 miles from Albright Avenue to Washington Blvd (at Tilden Avenue)
• Bentley Avenue – 0.3 miles from Venice Blvd to Washington Place

You're going to have to take my word for it that this poor nighttime cellphone photo is actually the new bike lane on Bentley Avenue in Culver City

The Washington Place lanes are in Culver City’s recent Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (adopted November 2010.) As far as I can tell, Bentley Avenue wasn’t actually designated for lanes in the plan, but apparently the lanes fit and the city implemented them. They’re a good connection with the existing Venice Blvd bike lanes. I am not sure when either of these streets were  striped; they may be year-old news. The Washington Place lanes are already visible in google street view… but I couldn’t find an announcement anywhere on-line, so I am reporting them here.

Below is a map showing the new Washington and Bentley lanes (in green), the additional Washington Place lanes coming soon (in yellow), and the existing Venice Blvd lanes (in blue) – it looks like an emerging network:

The real good news here is inter-city cooperation. Washington Place is partially in the city of Los Angeles and partially in Culver City. Portions of it have one side Culver and one side L.A.  It’s great that, at least for this street in this stretch, both cities are implementing planned bike facilities.

Lastly, here’s a listing of the rest of the bike lane facilities on the way, from the December 2011 L.A. City LADOT Bikeways Report:

• Washington Place bike lanes (Grand view Blvd to Albright Ave) – 0.77 miles – to be installed December 2011.
• Vermont Avenue  bike lanes (Del Amo Blvd to Knox Ave) – 0.54 miles – to be installed December 2011.
• Chandler Blvd bike lanes (Woodman Ave to Leghorne Ave ) – 0.88 miles – to be installed December 2011.
• Foothill Blvd bike lanes (Wheatland Ave to Wentworth Street) – 1.5 miles –  design complete, installation pending other work there.
• Main Street bike lanes (Grand [Blvd] to city of Santa Monica) – 0.9 miles – installation planned mid-January 2012.
• Devonshire Blvd bike lanes (Reseda Blvd to Hayvenhurst Ave) – 2.49 miles – design complete, installation planned early 2012.
• York Blvd bike lanes (Ave 55 to Figueroa Street) – 0.9 miles – design complete,  installation planned early 2012.
• Rose Avenue bike lanes (Lincoln Blvd to 4th Street) – 0.47 miles – preliminary design started. Project requires parking removal, so community outreach is next.
• Aviation Blvd bike lanes (Imperial Hwy to Century Blvd) – 0.98 miles – design complete, installation work orders are being prepared.
• Vermont Avenue bike lanes (I-105 to 88th Street) – 2.1 miles – City controls east side of street which will receive bike lanes. County controls west side side of street which will receive bike route.