Eyes On The Street: L.A.’s Grand Avenue Bike Lanes Getting Grander

SBLA reader Ryan Johnson emailed us some photos of the nearly-completed bike lanes on Grand Avenue extending from Downtown Los Angeles into South Los Angeles.

The first phase of the Grand Avenue bike lanes, installed in 2012 (all installation dates per LADOT Bike Program website map), are part of the Downtown Network. They extend from the T-intersection end of Wilshire Blvd to Washington Blvd, where the Metro Blue Line runs in front of L.A. Trade Tech College. That stretch of Grand is one way southbound, so Grand is half of a paired bike lane couplet with a corresponding northbound bike lane on Olive Street.

In December 2013, the Grand Avenue bike lanes were extended to 30th Street. 30th is a sharrowed bike route that gets riders across the 110 Freeway and to the bike lane network just north of USC.

From the look of the fresh thermoplastic striping, LADOT extended the Grand lanes again over the past few weeks. They now extend to 39th Street, with the exception of a short gap where there's diagonal on-street parking at Mercado La Paloma. The lines are striped, but the bike symbols weren't there yet, as of late last week. This project is another city of Los Angeles road diet, reducing a travel lane and increasing safety. 

The new Grand Avenue bike lanes end at 39th Street, a block short of where Grand dead-ends at the 110 Freeway. Cyclists can turn onto 39th Street and, after just two short blocks, arrive at Exposition Park, right by the "Christmas Tree Lane" entrance near the California Science Center and Colliseum. The roughly 2.8-mile long facility now connects Downtown L.A. with Trade Tech, Mercado La Paloma, USC, Exposition Park, as well as neighborhoods in the northern end of South L.A.

As Ryan Johnson stated in his email: