The city of Glendale recently completed installation of green pavement bike lanes on Sonora Avenue. These are the first green bike lanes in Glendale.
Glendale's new green lanes run 1.3 miles from Garden Street to Glenoaks Boulevard. On the north end, the Sonora lanes connect with existing bike lanes on Glenoaks Boulevard. On the south end, the facility ends near Griffith Park's Bette Davis Picnic Area, with connections to both Glendale's and the city of Los Angeles' L.A. River bike paths.
The city of L.A.'s river bike path in that vicinity is unfortunately temporarily closed due to construction projects on the 5 Freeway and the Riverside Drive Bridge. Detour signage routes cyclists onto the parallel Zoo Drive bike lanes in Griffith Park.
The program improvements consist of primarily low-hanging fruit - projects that are easily implemented because they do not remove lanes from drivers. The bike projects include mostly sharrowed bike routes, with the only new bike lanes on Sonora Avenue. The pedestrian projects include new curb ramps and new high visibility Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons.
The freshly painted Sonora Avenue bike lanes are pleasantly highly-visible. They narrow existing car lanes, which should result in greater safety through reduced car speeds and better car positioning. At some intersections, the green lanes end and are replaced by sharrows.
Metro is already installing and testing on-bus cameras. Soon comes outreach, then warning tickets. Wilshire/5th/6th and La Brea will be the first bus routes in the bus lane enforcement program.