New Protected Bike Lanes On Monterey Road In Northeast L.A.

They are a month or two old now, but today Streetsblog L.A. got a chance to visit the recently reconfigured bike lanes on Monterey Road in the Northeast L.A. communities of El Sereno, Hermon, Rose Hill and Monterey Hills. The bike lanes extend 1.8 miles from the intersection with Cassatt Street/Lomitas Drive (near Huntington Drive) and the city border with South Pasadena. Bike lanes were added to Monterey Road in 2013; the street striping was recently reconfigured after resurfacing. A half dozen blocks (south of Avenue 60) received a road diet and upgraded basic bike lanes to buffered ones.

The reconfiguration also included about a quarter-mile of protected bike lanes through the 1930 Monterey Road Pass, sometimes called the "upside down bridge." The pass road is from the same era as L.A.'s historic river bridges, and exhibits similar elegant concrete details and handsome lighting standards. This appears to be the fifth protected bike lane project in the city of L.A., after the Second Street Tunnel, Reseda Boulevard, Los Angeles Street and Van Nuys Boulevard.

The area is fairly hilly, with relatively few bicyclists or pedestrians. The lanes connect with the existing steep bike lanes on Via Marisol.

The Monterey Road lanes also connect to a 0.2-mile stretch of new buffered bike lanes on Avenue 60 that extend from Monterey Road to Benner Street. The Avenue 60 lanes connect to the Arroyo Seco Bike Path via a ramp through Arroyo Seco/Hermon Park.