The goal of the Road Diet, a street that works for all users. Off to a good start. All Pics by Joe Linton

The first time I biked down Main Street in Santa Monica and then into the Venice Neighborhood of Los Angeles was the summer of 2008.  I was following Santa Monica Critical Mass and part of the comically over-aggressive antics of the SMPD included herding cyclists into the lane by buzzing groups of cyclists on motorcycles and cruisers until we passed into Los Angeles.  When we crossed the border two things vanished, the police presence and the bike lane.

Fast-forward three and a half years and the situation has changed.  While Santa Monica has sporadic Critical Mass rides, they don’t draw near the number of riders or police presence their predecessors dud.  And as of Friday night, the transition from Santa Monica to Los Angeles on Main Street is seamless for bicyclists.

At long last, the Main Street Road Diet is in place.  The former five lane configuration has been re-striped to have three through travel lanes, including a turn lane, two bicycle lanes and two lanes of car parking.  The road diet connects Windward Circle at the south end to the Santa Monica border, just North of Rose Avenue.  The diet is .8 miles long.

There are many reasons to consider “putting a road on a diet” by reducing the capacity for cars and increasing capacity for everyone else.  Usually, diets are completed on streets with lower traffic volumes and higher than average bicycle and pedestrian use.  By giving more space to bicyclists, diets don’t just benefit cyclists but also pedestrians who benefit from a better walking environment and car drivers who get to drive in a safer environment.

After other road diets drew opposition from neighborhood groups and ABC 7, LADOT met twice with the Venice Neighborhood Council.   The feedback they received was requests that the Diet either give more space to cyclists or abandon the diet for a series of traffic calming and Sharrows.  In response, LADOT increased the width of the bike lanes by six inches so that the bike lane and adjacent parking weren’t both the minimum widths.  The “compromise” plan didn’t leave critics happy, but at least made the project better than “minimum width for bikes, maximum space for cars.”

Joe Linton reviewed the lanes over the weekend for the Eco-Village Blog.  Some more of his pictures are available after the jump.

Click on the image to go to a pdf map of the Crenshaw Line. The half white arrow on the bottom left points to the optional station in Westchester

Let’s start with the basics.

The budget for construction of the Crenshaw Light Rail Line is $1.7 billion which will connect the Expo Line to the Green Line and eventually LAX.  The budget includes at least six stations.  Thanks to a new resolution passed by the Metro Board of Directors,the total number of “approved” stations has ballooned to eight, but the total funding still only guarantees six.

A coalition of community activists, Westside City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and County Supervisor Don Knabe scored a victory yesterday, when the Metro Board of Directors unanimously passed a motion “approving” a station in Westschester for the Crenshaw Light Rail line.  The Westchester station would be the farthest west station in the Crenshaw Corridor.

“I am thrilled to see that a Manchester/Aviation station will be included in the construction bids,” commented Rosendahl, who hosted an online petition to the Metro Board asking for the Westchester Station’s inclusion.  ”Hats off to Supervisor Knabe for his leadership and the Westchester community for their support.”

But for station supporters, the victory could ultimately be a hollow one.  Westchester residents were stunned to learn earlier this year that funding for the station was not included in Metro’s final project alternative and scrambeled to get the station included again.  Yesterday’s vote makes it possible for the station to be built, but doesn’t guarantee it.  While the resolution authorizes the station, it doesn’t require it.  Contractors bidding on construction can include the station in their bids, it wouldn certainly make for a stronger bid, but adding the Westchester Station isn’t a requirement to submit a bid.

Further dimming the odds of the station being built, the resolution also required that no bids come in that include Westchester Station that don’t include the Leimert Park Station.  In other words, a contractor would have to propose building eight stations with a budget for six stations for the Westchester station to be built.

One thing that is clear with the strange politics of the Metro Board of Directors is that one should never say never.  Could an odd coalition spearheaded by Leimert Park representative Mark Ridley-Thomas and Knabe emerge to raise more funds for the Crenshaw Line even though Ridley-Thomas made headlines calling for a County redistricting plan that would have forced Knabe from office over the summer?  Absolutely.

But for now, Westchester advocates are breathing a sigh of relief that they’re at least back in the running for a Crenshaw Line Station.

“I am thankful to see our only station was kept alive into the bidding process,” writes Westchester Neighborhood Councilman Denny Schneider.  ”We have all of the burdens of the train going through the community including the maintenance facility, now we’d like to be able to get onto the train.”

Photo of the new Washington Place Bike Lanes via Sherri Akers/Facebook

Finally, L.A.’s new commitment to bike planning brings some paint to the Westside.  Last Friday Joe Linton noted at the Eco-Village blog that the city had placed down markers for 0.77 miles of new bike lanes from Grand View Blvd to Albright Avenue, in my own neighborhood of Mar Vista.

By Sunday morning, the new lanes were already in place and captured on film by local green living advocate Sherri Akers.  If you see new bike lanes somewhere in Los Angeles, drop us a line at damien at streetsblog dot org.

The lanes meet up with newly implemented lanes on Washington Place and Bentley Avenue in Culver City.  This sort of inter-city coordination is going to be necesary for real bike mobility to come to L.A. County, especially the Westside which has Culver City and Beverly Hills surrounded by City land and Santa Monica between much of the Westside and the ocean.

Linton has more to say about the lanes, and bike planning on the Westside in general.  For more on these lanes, check out the Eco-Village blog.

What a difference a few weeks make.

Before the Thanksgiving break, Streetsblog reported on how many Westside bicyclists were concerned about bike planning for Phase II of the Expo Line.  While planning for the second phase of the light rail portion of the Expo Light Rail project is nearly 60% complete, the bicycle planning hasn’t really begun.   One of the main reasons for the delay is that Caltrans had not certified environmental documents needed before the bike planning could begin.  To make matters worse, the Culver City Bicycle Coalition complained that a planned bike-transit center for the Culver City station seemed to be dropped from the plans.

But much of that has changed.  Caltrans has granted the Categorical Exclusion (CE) needed for bikeay construction to begin, a prerequisite for the Expo Construction Authority to begin planning the bikeway.  The Authority also announced that it will soon create a long-promised bicycle advisory committee to help with the bicycle plans for Phase II.

To top it all off, a bike parking plan for the Culver City Station was presented, although advocates want to see a greater commitment to bring a bike-transit facility to Culver City.

“Both the City of Los Angeles and City of Santa Monica have obtained environmental clearance for the bikeway project,” begins Gabriela Collins, spokesperson for the Expo Construction Authority.  ”Once the funding from both cities comes through, Expo plans to contract the bikeway design and construction to Skanska Rados, a Joint Venture, the current design-build contractor for the guideway.  The Bicycle Advisory Committee will be brought to the Expo Board for approval at that time.”

While many bike advocates cheered the news that the CE has been finalized, there are still some lingering concerns that the Expo Construction Authority wasted time waiting for environmental clearances for bikeways while the rail project planning moved forward.

Will this design ever become reality?

“The bikeway was inevitable, so it is unfortunate that preliminary engineering of the bikeway was not done at the same time,” says Jonathan Weiss, a member of the City of Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee.  ”How many bikeway options have been foreclosed because of this avoidable delay?  Thankfully, the City of L.A. has ramped up its support and unstuck the bikeway design.”

Federal funding for the bikeway project has already been guaranteed, so it would seem that the bikeway project could finally be moving forward.  However, there’s still one more hurdle that could be placed in front of the Bikeway.  There’s no guarantee that the group of homeowners that have sued to stall the bike project thus far could bring suit against the new CE as well.

Meanwhile in Culver City, a small campaign to urge the Construction Authority to bring a bike plan to the Culver City Expo stop has met with success.

“The Culver City station will have 10 bike racks and 8 bike lockers available to the public when the station opens in early 2012,” explains Collins. “The Clean Mobility Center (CMC) was deferred because its location conflicted with the construction staging area for the Venice Boulevard Bridge, which is being built as part of Phase 2.  However, the necessary provisions were made at the station site for the addition of the CMC in the future. “

Jim Shanman with the Culver City Bicycle Coalition wrote a letter to supporters after the last meeting of the Expo Construction Authority Board of Directors noting that staff said that, “the CMC could conceivably begin (construction) as soon as the bridge is far enough along that the area in question won’t be affected by the construction, maybe as soon as 12 months.”

It may not have happened as quickly as some would want, but bikeway planning is finally underway for Expo Phase II in the City of Los Angeles.  Whether it’s in time to create the bike infrastructure cyclists want and deserve remains to be seen.

Rendering of the Greenway from the Bureau of Sanitation's Watershed Protection Division's Concept Document via Expo Greenway

I have to admit that when Jonathan Weiss first described his idea for a Westwood-Expo Botanical Water Garden (WEBWG) at the Westwood Station for the Expo Line, I thought it would never happen.  Three years later, it would be a major upset if some sort of Botanical Garden wasn’t built at the station site, as the concept has gained traction even with groups opposing the rail line itself.

Today and tomorrow, WEBWG faces a new audience, the Proposition O Oversight Committee.  In 2004, the voters of Los Angeles passed Prop. O, which authorized the City of Los Angeles to issue a series of general obligation bonds for up to $500 million for projects to protect public health by cleaning up pollution, in the City’s watercourses to meet Federal Clean Water Act requirements.   The committee has an agenda item entitled “Discussion and Possible Action: Westwood-Expo Botanical Garden.”

Ryan Thiha, an Environmental Engineering Associate with the city’s Watershed Protection Division is the project manager for WEBWG and explains the project.

“The (WEBWG) is located on City owned properties located along Exposition Light Rail and Westwood Station Stop between Overland and Westwood,” Thiha explains.  ”The project proposes to divert, treat, and use dry-weather flow from Overland by using bioremediation such as plants, soil, and UV exposure (natural treatment process). Project also proposes educational display boards, pedestrian walkways, and outdoor classroom area where local students can come and learn about the ecology and local hydrology. In
summary, it provides environmental, educational, recreational benefits to local community, students, and Light Rail passengers.”

While the WEBWG concept has political momentum, the “no-parking” concept for the Westwood Station of the Expo Line was approved in March and the city unveiled its concept for the WEBWG in May, the project is not full funded.  Funding support from Prop. O could be the difference between having a beautiful and environmentally friendly park and a station surrounded by weeds.

WEWBG has important environmental benefits in addition to the benefits to the station.  It is these benefits that could attract the support of the Prop. O Oversight Committee.

The water garden would divert dry‐weather flow from now-buried streams and run it up and down city owned land adjacent to the Expo right of way helping to clean Ballona Creek and Santa Monica Bay,” explains Weiss via email. “The revived stream would support a restored ecosystem and enhance pedestrian and bike paths lining the Expo transitway.  Through interpretive signs and labeled trees and plants, the Water Garden would also provide educational opportunities teaching visitors about ocean-friendly gardens and yards that conserve and clean water.”

For full agenda listings for today’s and tomorrow’s meetings, click here.

Even though CPUC is supposed to look at projects on their merit and not consider politics, both opponents and supporters of the Expo Line were lobbying the Commissioners.  The Transit Coalition published a draft letter urging Commissioners to ignore letters by opponents.  At the same time, the Expo Construction Authority itself sponsored a letter writing campaign urging the commission to approve the crossings.

A coalition of community leaders calling themselves Neighbors for Smart Rail were urging the Commission to hold off on an approval vote until they’re appeal of the Expo Phase II environmental documents could be heard.  Their lobbying effort fell short.

Commissioner Simon was one of the Commissioners who had supported forcing a newly designed rail crossing and rail station for Phase I of the Expo Line and explained his change of heart to CPUC staff.  ”You forgot one thing. I was an assigned commissioner for Phase 1. I was a much younger man back then.”  The Commission had twice delayed votes on Phase I of the Expo Line and when they did rule ordered an overhead pedestrian bridge for the Farmdale Crossing which later turned into the station built at the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Farmdale Avenue.

Unless and appeals court overturns a previous ruling supporting the Expo Phase II rail environmental documents, there are no further obstacles preventing construction from beginning.  Phase II of the Expo Line will connect to the soon-to-be-opened Phase I which runs from Downtown Los Angeles to Culver City.  Phase II will complete the first rail line between Downtown Los Angeles and Downtown Santa Monica.

Activists toured the shuttered park with Councilman Rosendahl's staff earlier this year. Photo by Carter Rubin.

For those just joining the discussion, a group of activists in West Los Angeles has been working with the office of Los Angeles Dist. 11 Councilman Bill Rosendahl since April to re-open Bundy Triangle Park. This rare swath of green space in dense West LA sits at the intersection of Bundy Drive, Santa Monica Boulevard and Ohio Avenue.

The inviting spot, however, has been fenced off since the 1990s thanks to a shortsighted move that sought to place a band-aid on the perceived problem of the neighborhood’s homeless residents. Consequently, the thousands of Angelenos that pass by the park every day on transit, bike and foot are bereft of a calm shaded green space.

In a city so glaringly lacking in vibrant public space — and short on funds to create new ones — Bundy Triangle Park remains the lowest of low-hanging fruit. While there is strong support for re-opening the park — from the city of Los Angeles as well as from neighborhood groups — the process has been slow going.

There’s good news, however, on both the political and the design front. First, landscape architecture firm AHBE has generously drawn up five conceptual renderings for what a re-opened Bundy Triangle Park could look like.

Bundy Park Concept 2011-10-06

Second, to jump-start the political process, park advocates went before the city of Los Angeles’ Recreation and Parks Commission to urge that Bundy Triangle Park be included in the city’s plan for 50 new parks in under-served communities.

Below is the testimony from Joel Epstein, a leading Bundy Triangle Park supporter:

I am testifying today to urge you to adopt Bundy Triangle Park at Bundy Drive and Santa Monica Blvd as one of 50 new city parks serving park poor and under-served communities.

Troubled by the sight of the long shuttered West LA park, a group of concerned area residents has been working since April to get Bundy Triangle reopened.  The park was fenced off in the mid 1990s following the death of a homeless man there.  Local business owners concerned about the park being a magnet for the homeless and drug activity paid for the fence.  With its mature shade trees, lawn and benches the park is today a temptation forever out of reach of those who walk past or live nearby.  Census data for the zip code surrounding the park suggest that the area is sixteen percent Latino, twenty percent Asian, just under sixty percent Caucasian with African- and Native- Americans making up the rest of the population.  Many young families, the elderly and area workers will use the park when it is reopened.  Stoner Park is not close by enough to serve these residents.

The reopen Bundy Park group is committed to opening up the park so that the general public may again enjoy it.  One idea is to put a Metro service kiosk in the park that would sell TAP cards and offer the public information on existing transit options and the coming Expo Line.  The park sits at an intersection that is served by a half dozen Metro and Big Blue Bus lines and the nearest Metro Service Center is quite far east at La Brea and Wilshire.  Pocket parks like this next to public transit function well throughout the country and the world.

The park group has met a number of times with Councilman Rosendahl’s office and the Councilman is supportive of our effort if we can identify an active use that will prevent the park from again becoming a magnet for transients.  We have also met with local police about the location.  Developing a plan that maintains the park and addresses the needs of homeless men who “live” on the sidewalk outside of the fence are among the project’s challenges.  Please see the following link for more about the park: http://bit.ly/lxymft.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.  West LA will greatly benefit from the park’s reopening.

As efforts to re-open the park continue to press forward, we’ll be sure to keep Streetsblog readers posted on ways you can get involved. In the mean time, please consider sending an email in support of Bundy Triangle Park to the Recreation and Parks Commission at rap.commissioners@lacity.org or to Councilman Rosendahl’s office at via online form.

One of the key concerns of Neighbors for Smart Rail is that cars trying to access the 405 will get backed up along Sepulveda Boulevard causing paralysis for motorized traffic throughout the Westside. The Expo Construction Authority says these claims are overstated.

The Expo Construction Authority is anxious to stop history from repeating itself.

When clearances for the first phase of the Expo Line appeared all but certain, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), a regulatory agency which regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies, threw them a curve ball.  The last government body to look over the environmental documents for Phase I, CPUC ordered substantial new reviews of two rail crossings which led to an additional rail station at Farmdale Avenue near Dorsey High School and a pedestrian bridge elsewhere.  The new studies were championed by the Fix Expo campaign which compiled a large technical comments document and produced hundreds of letters of concern.

“The Westside of Los Angeles has waited too long for the arrival of mass transit and the community wants an alternative to the gridlock and congestion of the I-10 freeway,” writes Gabriela Collins of the Expo Construction Authority.   “CPUC approval of the Resolution on November 10, 2011 is an important step in keeping this project on track.”

As Expo Phase II heads towards its date with CPUC on November 10, the Expo Construction Authority has set up a website for people to easily send comments to the Commission.  Comments are due on Friday of this week, but supporters of the project won’t have to comb through the environmental documents themselves, the Expo Construction Authority has already written the support letter outlining the clearances that the rail crossings have already earned and the outreach that Expo has done on Phase II.  You can read the letter and submit it to CPUC if you wish by clicking here.

For it’s part, the Authority believes that Expo Phase II deserves quick apporval from CPUC.  

“Phase 2 of the Expo Line has had extensive public participation as over 9,000 comments were submitted and responded to during the environmental process and hundreds of people have attended hearings and meetings to provide input and comments on the project,” Collins continues. “The Authority conducted an extensive study to environmentally clear the grade crossings, and the crossings have been deemed safe by the cities of LA and Santa Monica, Metro and CPUC staff. This petition, coupled with individual letters of support, will enable the community to express their strong support for the Resolution pending before the CPUC Commission.”

Neighbors for Smart Rail, a Westside coalition of homeowners and community groups has argued in court that several of the crossings at major intersections are both unsafe for all road users and will create massive traffic backups.  Opposition to final approval of the crossings at CPUC is expected, although a spokesperson from NFSR declined to comment for this story.

Photos: Jonathan Weiss

When Jonathan Weiss emailed me two weeks ago announcing that Sharrows placeholders appeared on Motor Avenue, I didn’t think too much of it. After all, stencils marking a place for bike racks have been on the ground next to my Big Blue Bus stop for almost five months.

However, apparently LADOT contractors were working overtime again, because yesterday morning Weiss grabbed the above pictures while out on a Sunday morning Constitutional. He was greeted by these views cycling Southbound on Motor Avenue.  New Sharrows have already been spotted on Arden Ave.,  Fountain Avenue, Yucca Street and Vine Street in the Mid-/K-/Downtown areas.  If you see more Sharrows on the street, drop us a line and let us know.

I'm really getting good use out of this photo shoot of NFSR signs I did last August.

As promised, Neighbors for Smart Rail (NFSR) is appealing the decision of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew to dismiss their lawsuit alleging that the Expo Construction Authority violated state environmental law when doing their studies of the future light rail lines route.  The appeal was filed nearly two weeks ago, on September 15, to the California Court of Appeals

“NFSR is looking to prevent West L.A. gridlock by protecting access to the 10 freeway through West L.A.,” writes president Terri Tippett in a press statement.  ”Trains blocking Overland and Westwood 24 times per hour will have a devastating impact on the existing area traffic, and all evidence shows that Expo didn’t properly study it.”

At first glance, their legal filings don’t appear to be much different in substance than the arguments McKnew rejected earlier this year so NFSR isn’t arguing anything new, just that McKnew erred in ordering the case dismissed last year.   Their main point is that the recently decided  Sunnyvale West Neighborhood Association v. City of Sunnyvale City Council shows that traffic studies should examine the impact a new project will have on current conditions, not on conditions at the end of the “life of the project.”   In Sunnyvale, a state superior court ruled that the city’s environmental review of a road extension violated state law because it based it’s review on traffic projections for 2020 instead of current conditions.

In other words, NFSR is arguing that the Expo Construction Authority should be using conditions between 2007-2010 for its traffic modeling instead of modeling of what conditions should be in 2030.  McKnew rejected this argument last February ruling that the two cases are apples and oranges.

Meanwhile it could be months before we know the fate of this appeal.

Expo’s Response to the Appeal is due October 17 but could be extended to November 1 if the agency requests. Then NFSR has another three weeks to reply to the Authority’s brief.  Sometime in the 90 days after the filing of the last brief, the court will hear oral arguments before making it’s decision, sometime in the 90 days after that.  All in all, it could be mid-May before a final ruling is issued.

In the meantime, the Authority is continuing work on the line as McKnew’s decision allowed.  If NFSR is successful in stopping the project until a new environmental study is completed, it could lead to Expo actually deconstructing portions of the line.  (Update: Bart Reed points out that if the lawsuit is completed by May, then almost no construction will actually be underway, so there’s very little that would happen if the judge ruled for NFSR and gave a cease work order.)  McKnew also ordered that NFSR pay the legal fees for the Construction Authority related to this case.  That ruling is also under appeal.

Neighbors for Smart Rail is is supported in part by West of Westwood Homeowners Association, Westwood Gardens Civic Association, Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association, and Tract 7260 Homeowners Association, and other community based organizations mainly located in West Los Angeles.

Sharrows will appear on Motor Ave. right where that little arrow is...Photo: Jonathan Weiss

Earlier this week, Joe Linton noticed that marking were appearing on mid-town streets to mark the spot where Sharrows would be placed.  Linton is one of the harshest critics of the city’s attempts to jump off the Bike Plan to add Sharrows to city streets to reach the Mayor’s stated promise of 40 miles of bike projects every year for the next five.

Linton’s fellow Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee Member Jonathan Weiss spotted Sharrows markings (the x and arrow designating where a Sharrow should go) along Motor Avenue on the Westside.  The quick takeaway is that LADOT is serious about getting these 20 miles of new Sharrowed streets on the ground as quickly as possible.

We should note that the same section of Motor Avenue that is going to receive the Sharrows is due to receive bike lanes in the Bike Plan that was passed in March of this year.  There is no timeline on when the Sharrows will be converted to Bike Lanes.  But in the meantime, the city that took almost eight years to implement its first Sharrows now seems to be embracing them with gusto.

Some Neighborhood Council Members wanted separated bike lanes, similar to the ones pictured here, for Main Street in Venice. LADOT wouldn't commit to that design, and the NC gave a conditional go ahead to go forward with standard bike lanes.

Last night, the Venice Neighborhood Council agreed  to the Main Street Road Diet/Bike Lanes plan proposed by LADOT.  The new road striping ought to be on the ground “in the next couple of weeks.”  Despite its approval, the Neighborhood Council had some concerns with the project and wanted LADOT to return with more safety measures to protect cyclists and calm traffic.  The Road Diet will run on Main Street from Navy St. to Windward Circle, and will extend the Santa Monica bike lanes and road diet into Venice.

There was a minor change from the original plan.  Currently, Main Street has four eleven foot through travel lanes with seven feet on each side of the street for car parking.  The original road diet changed the configuration to two eleven foot travel lanes, one eleven foot turn lane, two 5 foot bike lanes and two seven foot car parking areas.  Some cyclists, notably Alex Thompson at Bikeside, complained the new configuration had cyclists planted squarely in the door zone, especially since many vehicles in today’s world are larger than seven feet wide.

LADOT  responded that eleven feet was the minimum for the car travel lanes because Main Street is a regularly traveled route for both the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and Metro buses.  However, the new design does take a foot out of the turning lane to make the bike lanes five and a half feet larger.  This 10% increase will give cyclists more room to maneuver when car doors are (illegally) opened in their path, but doesn’t completely solve the problem of door zone bicycle lanes.

As we saw back in January, the debate over the plan was because members of the Neighborhood Council wanted a more progressive plan for Main Street than LADOT was willing to provide.  Questions about extending the lanes all the way south to the Venice Street Bike Lane or separating the lanes as they did on 3rd Street and Broadway in Long Beach and in Portland were dismissed.  The Main Street Road Diet is designed to link up with the three lane with bike lanes configuration of the road north on Main Street.

As Santa Monica Spoke’s Gary Kavanagh points out on Gary Rides Bikes, Santa Monica’s Bike Plan calls for reconfiguring its portion of Main Street to separate the bike lanes from the through traffic.  When that configuration is completed, riders heading south on Main Street will have to adjust their riding from the separated lanes to the traditional bike lanes in L.A.

However, the good news from the day is that LADOT is removing car lanes for bike lanes, and doing it with the blessing of the Neighborhood Council.  Given the struggles on 4th Street and especially on Wilbur Ave. in the Valley, that’s some good news in and of itself.

(Note: I made a bit of a journalism snafu in an article earlier this week where I quoted Gary Kavanagh as opposed to the diet from comments he made nine months ago.  He has since changed his mind although he still has some concerns with LADOT’s plans, notably the bike lane width and that LADOT should have gotten ahead of the game.  I should have followed up with him before posting.  Sorry, Gary.)

Some Expo supporters thought this webpagemeant the legal challenges to Phase II were over. It doesn't.

(Update: Bart Reed of the Transit Coalition reports from the Metro Board Committee hearings that “pre-revenue testing” has not started yet, but other tests continue. Metro staff also confirmed the long-standing rumor that the Expo Line Phase I will open in early 2012.)

The past 24 hours brought mixed news for backers of the Expo Line. On the Transit Coalition message boards, Gökhan Esirgen reports that “prerevenue operations” for Phase I of the Expo Line has begun Testing for Phase I of the Expo Line continues. But while Phase I moves forward, Phase II remains mired in legal challenges, despite this week’s ground breaking.

Last December,  Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew issued a preliminary ruling to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a coalition of Westside homeowner and community groups challenging the environmental documents issues for the Expo Line Phase II.  One month later, McKnew issued a final ruling affirming his initial view.

The plaintiffs, Neighbors for Smart Rail (NFSR), vowed they would appeal and have confirmed to me that their appeal would be filed later today.  Yesterday, rumors swirled that the lawsuit had been dismissed based on the above screen capture from the California Apellate Courts page, but the line saying the case would be dismissed later today only states what would happen if NFSR didn’t get their filing in.

As for Phase I pre-revenue operations, such a program usually lasts for two months and then the revenue operation begins. The prerevenue operation simulates the revenue operation and allows the operator (Metro) to optimize the performance and generate the timetable.  Because of some of the special challenges Expo Phase I has encountered, including the difficulties at Farmdale Station and Culver City, the prerevenue operations could last into early 2012.

To see a video of two Siemens trains running prerevenue routes, click here.  For more information on the fate of the NFSR appeal, check back here regularly.

A "bicycle freeway" probably won't look like this turn of the 20th Century wooden highway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena. Photo: Wikimedia

When people try to describe the future Expo Bikeway that will provide a bike connection from Downtown Los Angeles to Downtown Santa Monica they reference the Orange Line Bike Path as the example. The Orange Line Path runs parallel to the Bus Rapid Transit Line in the Valley and many people are at least aware of it, even on the other side of hills.

As currently planned, the future bike path runs onto the street in several places most notably at major intersections such as Sepulveda, Sawtelle, Pico/Gateway and Barrington.  The problem of the bike path running on and off the congested Westside roads is well put in blogger/activist Gary Kavanagh’s Raise Some Red Flags Bike Advocates, Expo Line Bike Path/Route Not Looking So Good.

But the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) has a different vision for the Bike Path, a vision first described by BAC Planning Subcommittee chair Kent Strumpell (previously, a 10-year LACBC board member).  Another BAC member, Jonathan Weiss, who led the surprisingly successful campaign to create additional green space at the Westwood Blvd. Station, is going to Neighborhood Councils on the Westside asking them to support a study of a “bicycle freeway” design to elevate the bikeway at the intersections of Sepulveda, Sawtelle, Pico-Gateway and Barrington, roughly three quarters of a mile.

In a letter to the Westside Neighborhood Council, who ultimately voted to ask the Expo Construction Authority to study elevating the listed Westside intersections, Weiss make that a mini-bicycle freeway will keep cyclists safe, and car traffic moving.  

Elevating the bikeway would encourage and facilitate cycling by providing a safe, convenient route over a series of intersections that otherwise entail circuitous, time-consuming and potentially hazardous crossings. It would also ease the flow of automobile traffic in the area by reducing the need for special bicycle accommodations within the roadway and additional signal phases.

Strumpell hopes that, even if the highway is not built now, the train bridges will be engineered so that they could hold a bikeway in the future.  But the environmental documents for the bikeway make no mention of an elevated bikeway, so it’s wildly unlikely that Metro, or the Expo Construction Authority which is building light rail and the bikeway for it, will take this issue seriously without strong political support.

And that support is growing.  The Westside Neighborhood Council is the first Neighborhood Council to join the Bicycle Advisory Committee asking for the study.  Weiss’ next target is the West L.A. Neighborhood Council who’s Chair, Jay Handel, is on-board with Weiss’ concept.Weiss’ next target is the West L.A. Neighborhood Council who’s Chair, Jay Slater, is on-board with Weiss’ concept.

I fully support the study of the elevated crossings for the EXPO bikeway.

Building these elevated sections are integral to the safety of cyclists who will use this new east/ west corridor across our city. Along with the rail line it will be another element in decreasing traffic congestion on the west side.

We should note that despite the opposition to the Expo Bikeway by some members of the Westside Neighborhood Council, their vote was done in good faith.  Some members of the Council who are also members of Neighbors for Smart Rail abstained from the vote to avoid any appearance of conflict.

The full poster from the LAPD can be viewed by clicking here.

At nearly 3:00 A.M. on the morning of June 16, a man was crossing Venice Boulevard heading North when he was struck by a black late-model Volkswagon Jetta heading west. The victims wife tells the story:

The accident occurred around 3am on June 16th. My husband was crossing the street (heading North) at Venice and Hughes. He had the signal to walk and once he was just past the median, he was struck by a car that ran a red light while headed West on Venice blvd. Two officers where in the area and after the accident, one of the officers took off after the car but lost him around Venice and Motor. The driver has still not been found.

Despite the media’s obsession with reporting on traffic crashes and other forms of homicide, this report has gone largely un-mentioned in the news, perhaps because of the spectacular crash involving Christine Dahab and the Koreatown Cyclists just a mile and a quarter away that happened earlier in the evening. While I don’t mean to sound as though I’m excusing Dahab’s carelessness, the driver in this case is far more dangerous.  It takes a special breed of criminal to leave a man dieing in the street because of your negligence and then speed away.

The LAPD is still looking for information related to this crime.  If you know anything, please call the West L.A. Traffic Division Officer O. Osbourne at 213-473-0234.  If you’re calling after-hours or on the weekend, please call 1-877-LAPD-24-7.

This banner appeared over the I-10 briefly on Saturday morning. L.A. without cars? It was kind of nice. Photo: Jonathan Weiss

There are two theories to transportation engineering and traffic.  One theory is that traffic is like a raging river.  If you block it in one place, it will flow someplace else.  If you add more space for it to flow, it will flow more smoothly.  This theory has dominated traffic and transportation plans for years.

This theory got kicked in the shins over the last weekend.

The other theory is that people make choices based on what they believe makes the most sense at the time.  Under that theory, if you spend a disproportionate amount of resources building and expanding highways, people will drive, even for short trips that could easily be completed on bike or foot.

If you believe the first theory, this weekend’s temporary closure of the I-405, “the most driven highway in the country,” should have been a disaster.  There should have been drivers everywhere stuck on surface streets and gridlock should have clogged up all the freeways as people used their high-tech Waze application to “Beat Carmageddon” by exercising their God-given right to drive wherever they want to.  If you believe the second, then everything should have been fine.

The sad thing is, most transportation planners, especially ones working in Greater Los Angeles, still seem to believe the first theory.  After all, while the city and surrounding area benefitted tremendously from the closure of the 405, the reason the project was closed was so that they could expand the freeway, creating another pipe to flush our car traffic through.

Sig alert.com at 3:47 P.M. on Saturday

Despite all the warnings, media induced panic, apocryphal visions and ABC 7′s constant messaging that we needed to “fight back” by downloading a phone application to help you drive somewhere else; Angelenos made the smart choices this weekend.  In fact, most people seemed to think this was a great weekend, even better and more relaxing than the usual two-day break.  Reporters interviewed more people extolling the virtues of the day and talk about how great the city was with less cars mucking up the system.

The flight path for the Jet Blue flight in #flightvbike flew 145 kms = 90 miles. Thanks, Diane in Toronto.

On Saturday morning, I took a bike ride to Culver City with my son and my Mom and we commented  how it was one of the more pleasant rides we had had on surface streets (without a police escort.)  One Fox L.A. anchor joked that after the re-opening of the 405 “we can all go back to being miserable.”

Of course, I was home in time to watch the now legendary flight v bike (v Metro v in-line skater) race that took place.  If you’re not one of the 20,000 people that visited L.A. Streetsblog this weekend, you can catchup on the story here, here and here.

People keep saying this picture, and one's like it, are "pretty." Yeah, except for the asphalt. Photo: Carter Rubin

While the warnings of the upcoming  Apocalypse were everywhere, the Wolfpack Hustle, Gary Kavanagh, Ezra Horne, Joe Anthony and Jet Blue Airlines gave Angelenos something fun to do on Saturday.  Never have so many watched a “race” on twitter and a webpage with a GPS map.  Thousands were entertained, a city’s spirits were raised, and cycling in Los Angeles was portrayed in a positive light. Did the Carmageddon sub-plot of this race have anything to do with Angelenos leaving their cars at home for the weekend?  We’ll never know; but more than anyone else this unlikely team were the heroes of the weekend.

The silver medal for the weekend has to go to the p.r. team at Metro for doing a masterful job of getting the word out about the closure.  They used every media trick in the book, both old and new, and there was pretty much nobody in the area that didn’t know what was happening.  Whether you thought the coverage was overblown or not, this p.r. team did a great job this weekend and the months leading up to Carmageddon.

The big losers have to be the local media.  From ABC 7′s bizarre campaign encouraging people to download a phone application to “beat” a highway closure and drive wherever they wanted, to their celebratory “We Beat Carmageddon!” coverage on Sunday; it was hard to tell if I was watching local news or the Colbert Report.  Check that, Colbert’s coverage was actually restrained comparatively.

It was particularly painful to watch the evening news on Saturday when every station had a team of reporters spread out throughout the city to tell the same story: that nothing was happening.  Some stations, including one that was specifically warned not to buy into the hype, didn’t have a “Plan B” and didn’t report on any news besides Carmageddon…and there was nothing happening.  The news about the early re-opening of the 405 didn’t come until much later.

While many of the people that appeared on the news were asking when we can do this again, the answer is easy.  People can have a Carmageddon every day that they don’t get in a car.  Ride a bike, clean the yard, walk to the park, everyday provides a new chance to forget the car and do something else.  When enough people do that, the crippling congestion which has grabbed the hearts and psyches of too many people vanishes.

So when’s the next Carmageddon?  There’s no time like the present.  And you don’t need politicians or the media to tell you it’s time, just the desire to be car-light and the beautiful Southern California weather.

Good use of the Bike Lane. For the record, this bus was stopped for at least a couple of minutes.

Yesterday, while plotting out my Bike to Work Day route that would allow me to see the most booths as possible, I got a phone call from my Mom.  She was biking to work, and wanted to know if I wanted to join her.  Longtime Streetsblog readers will note that Mom and I have had several bike adventures together in L.A. at Tour de Ballona’s, the 2009 River Ride, and a pair of CicLAvia.  Now we’re rounding out our experience with a Bike to Work Day Ride.

We met at the corner of McLaughlin and Venice, and had to travel to the corner of San Vicente Boulevard and Crescent Heights.  As one might expect when a couple of people are taking a ride on a route for the first time, there were some ups and downs.

Mom, post ride.

The good: For half the route, we had well marked and respected bike lanes.  Since we stayed to the left side of the lane, we were out of the door zone where there was car parking.  The first half of the ride was easy.

The bad: Not everyone respects the sanctity of the bike lane.  This Culver City Bus was the tip of the iceberg.  Twice along the route in Culver City we were forced to choose between slipping into the mixed use travel lane or on to the sidewalk.  In front of the above pictured bus was a row of trucks.  Later, a similar row of trucks was parked in front of “Crank Mob Park.”  When asked about the trip, Mom brought up the “large construction trucks in the bike lanes.”

The bad: I picked a route that would take us past the one “Bike to Work” pitstop that was near our route.  Sadly, the route wasn’t the best as the connection between Venice Boulevard and Robertson Boulevard isn’t an easy one.  Even worse, we couldn’t find the pit stop in front of the Kaiser Hospital on Cadillac Avenue.  Mom noted that it was “hard to make the transition to Crescent Heights,” but on my way home I found an easier way to make the transition.  Basically, just take La Cienega to Venice and ignore the side trip through Beverly Hills.

The good: Crescent Heights Boulevard was easy to bike on.  Even the part of the Heights covered in construction equipment was wide.

Now this is a bike friendly bus!

The neutral: For the most part drivers were respectful of us.  However, they sure do honk their horns a lot (not at us.)  I would also estimate that 90% of horn honking is by people who are upset that a car in front of them isn’t doing something dangerous.  Also, mom reports that “someone did yell at me to get off the road on Cadillac, didn’t you hear them?” Of course I didn’t hear them, or I would have caused a scene.

The good: Mom got an ovation when she walked in to the office from supportive office mates.  Not exactly an every day occurrence at the accounting firm at which she works, but a nice touch none the less.

We’ll start at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church at 11555 National Boulevard and ride down Barrington to Venice Boulevard. From there, we’ll head east and do a quick stop at the hub of the Westside bike scene, the Bikerowave.  Bikerowave volunteer Mihai Peteu will give us a quick intro to the co-op and to cyclists only local 501c(4), Bikeside.  After a brief rest, we’ll keep heading west to Abbot Kinney and turn left down to Washington Boulevard. From there it’s a straight shot to the ocean.

We’ll meet at 10:30 at St. Andrews. Anyone who is interested in returning back to the Westside instead of hanging out at the beach, there will be a return ride that leaves about a half hour after we arrive at the Pier. At the start of the ride, we’ll have some goodies from Clif Bar and Luna Bar.  There’s no charge for the ride, but I certainly won’t stop someone from donating for Streetsblog.

All participants should be able to ride a bike safely with the ability to brake, change gears, and balance while stopping and starting. All participants under 18 must wear a helmet and be escorted by a parent or guardian. Children under age 8 should be on a tag-a-long, bike trailer, tandem, or other safe child-carrying device to participate in the ride.  Also, bring your own water.

The park behind a fence, open space behind bars. Photo: LA Streetsblog/Flickr

(Last week week, Carter Rubin filmed a couple of videos with Joel Epstein at the corner of Santa Monica and Bundy, in the area that would be the “Bundy Triangle Park” as proposed by Epstein.  Watch all four of his short interview videos at the Streetsblog YouTube page. – DN)

Nestled in the northeast corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Bundy Drive is a rare piece of open space on the Westside.  Benches dot a brick pathway and a dozen trees sprout up from grass lawns.  This could be a nice pocket park for the people of West L.A., but because of a rampant homeless problem and a dead body found in the lot in the 1990′s, the park is behind a fence.  Open space behind bars.

When people discuss “West L.A.,” the picture that comes to mind is of a Caucasian middle and upper class community.  However, the census data for the zip code surrounding the park paints a different picture.  Sixteen percent of the population is Latino, and nearly twenty percent are Asian.  Just under sixty percent of residents are Caucasian with African- and Native- Americans making up the rest of the population.

Recently, Huffington Post writer Joel Epstein has begun a crusade reopen “Bundy Triangle,” arguing that open-space starved West Los Angeles can’t afford not to figure out  a way to make the park work for the public without it becoming a homeless encampment.

Noting the ground breaking for the Cahuenga Alley project in Hollywood last week, Epstein argues that this project is even more of a no-brainer.

“That cost the CRA nearly $800,000.  Here, you can see we have mature trees.  We have benches.  We have an existing park and yet it’s been shuttered.  I hope we get a chance to reopen it and address the homeless problem.” Epstein says in the video after the jump.

The “Bundy Triangle Park” idea has its supporters and detractors.

“I’ve been challenged by it my six years in office,” comments the local City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, “Everytime I drive past it, it depresses me…Everything is on the table as far as I’m concerned.”

Following one of Epstein’s pieces in the Huffington Post, Rosendahl’s office has begun to look at ways to partner with some of the local businesses to figure out a way to reopen the park to the public.  Affordable housing developer Thomas Safran and Associates has pledged to help pay for any renovations.

“The ‘Bundy Triangle’ has been fenced in for quite a while. The reason for the fencing was for public safety. The area was occupied by homeless, drug dealers, and was not safe. There was a body found there and that was the last straw for the community, writes Jay Handal, the Chair of the West L.A. Neighborhood Council.

An illustration of the challenges, and the promise, of "Bundy Triangle."

“While opening the ‘park’ may sound enticing to those who don’t live or operate a store there, the fact is that the park is a magnet for bad activities and with the state of the current city budget it is impossible to police it as needed to ensure the community a clean safe place to go,” Handal continues.

But Epstein argues that opening the park is about providing the community open space.  While Rubin conducted the interview, I walked around the park and asked people walking past what they thought about taking down the fence.  This wildly unscientific survey found three people in support of the idea, none of whom were aware of the reason for the gates going up in the first place.

Another benefit to opening the park could be to make it a more appealing place to ride transit.  Metro runs two bus lines that board on the north border of the park.  Across Bundy Drive is a stop for the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus.  7.2% of commuters from within the zip code commute to work by bus, either Metro or Big Blue.

Rosendahl’s office admits that there’s a lot of work to be done before the park could be opened, “The coordination and support haven’t been there in the past.  My office can serve as facilitators, and we plan on meeting with businesses in the area.  Before we can open, we need to get the businesses, the community, and the LAPD on board.”

As the proposal moves forward, Streetsblog will continue its coverage.

The first is actually a pre-Bike Week ride for the Westside.  Over the years we noticed that there were no Bike Week events for West Los Angeles outside of a handful of stations on Bike to Work Day.  Thus, Streetsblog will be hosting the first annual Westside Ride to the Pier on Saturday, May 14.  We’ll start at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church at 11555 National Boulevard and ride down Barrington to Venice Boulevard.  From there, we’ll head east to Abbot Kinney and turn left down to Washington Boulevard.  From there it’s a straight shot to the ocean.

We’ll meet at 10:30 at St. Andrews.  Anyone who is interested in returning back to the Westside instead of hanging out at the beach, there will be a return ride that leaves about a half hour after we arrive at the Pier.  At the start of the ride, we’ll have some goodies from Clif Bar, Luna Bar and Trader Joe’s.  There’s no charge for the ride, but I certainly won’t stop someone from donating for Streetsblog.

Our second event is a night of Streetfilms hosted by C.I.C.L.E., REI and the Pasadena Playhouse District as part of Bike Week Pasadena on Monday, May 16 at 6:30 P.M. The DVD’s for the event arrived last week, and I watched through the series this weekend.  Join us at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena at 6:30.  You bring the streets, I’ll bring the films.