Back in the day when I lived in Mid-town and regularly traveled Downtown 7th Street was by far my favorite route. I would pair it with 4th Street and a North-South connecting street and it was a relatively safe and easy ride excepting that one hill right before the end of Downtown where the wind always seemed to hit me like a wall.
Now that commute is much easier, because according to Joe Anthony the LADOT was Taking Care of Business and Workin' Overtime and some fresh bike lanes appeared on 7th Street over the weekend. In addition, the four lane surface street underwent a weekend diet and has shrunk down to two mixed use through lanes, one turn lane, and two bike lanes.
Unlike the new lanes on Woodley Avenue, these lanes were completed in just one weekend, avoiding any confusion that the partially completed Woodley Lanes created in their early existence.
A big tip of the bike helmet to the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition who have championed this project for years and conducted extensive outreach to get the surrounding community on board before the diet went down. Next stop, Abbott Kinney?
UPDATE: There's several new things we've learned about the lanes from LADOT staff and bike commuters, for more click on after the jump.
The road diet is currently in place from Catalina Avenue to Hoover Ave. The bike lanes currently run from Catalina Avenue to Rampart Blvd. and will be extended to Figueroa Street in the next couple of weeks.
(Note: A previous version of this story said that the Bureau of Street Services was responsible for the physical painting of the lanes.)
