In October, the day after CicLAvia, I pedaled west from Downtown to the Westside on Exposition Blvd. to test the bike lane that run parallel to Phase I of the Expo Line. I was surprised by the absolutely terrible state of the road and the impact it had on the quality of the ride. Less than two months later, the city repaved a lot of the route. Details of the repaving can be found on the Bureau of Street Services website. For a chart of what segments of the route were repaved, see the chart at the bottom of this article.
While I've ridden on the route once since then, I didn't have my camera with to do a story. However, Greg Spotts with the Mayor's Office was kind enough to provide a couple of pictures he took while visiting the site and we've included those with this article.
The route is a lot easier and smoother than it was before with some areas still having spotty road conditions. The repaved areas are smooth, even in the parts of the road where the repainted bike lanes are partially in the gutter. Spotts explains that blocks paved in concrete weren't eligible for resurfacing when the road was repaved. So while the conditions are improved, the project doesn't feel completely completed just yet.
The bad news is while the route is much improved, the absolute worst parts of the route in my experience were/are the concrete areas of the roadway. The picture to the right was taken just west of La Brea in October, which is part of the roadway that was not repaved.
The other knock on the resurfacing is that while the pavement conditions are improved, the "gutter bike lanes" issue also remains where the portion of the roadway used as a gutter seems to be included as part of the bike lane in areas where the street doesn't have automobile parking. (See picture above.)
The repaving was completed at the direction of the Mayor's new Transportation Project Delivery Team, the same group being partially funded through Measure R dollars. Last fall they toured the Expo Phase 1 alignment and came away with a similar view of the road that I did. In September they talked to the Bureau of Street Services to evaluate the pavement condition of Jefferson Blvd from Hauser to La Cienega and Exposition Boulevard North Roadway from USC to La Brea.
"The Mayor believes that improvements in public transportation must be coupled with attractive and up-to-date road conditions for all modes of commuters," writes Deputy Mayor for Transportation, Borja Leon.
So that's the good news, that the dissapointing ride on Exposition Boulevard is much improved from my bumpy ride three months ago when I wrote my review. If my first ride on the lanes was now instead of then, my review certainly wouldn't have been as harsh as t was then, but as I said above. The route is improved, but it doesn't feel quite complete yet.
