Earlier this week, a pair of brand new bike lanes appeared on Rampart Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and 6th Street. What makes this development news worthy, outside of the excitement people feel whenever new lanes are added to the streets, is that these lanes come as something of a surprise.
Los Angeles cyclists have been frustrated with the pace of implementation of the city's surprisingly-progressive bike plan, which celebrated its first birthday earlier this month, but the Rampart lanes are something of an anomaly. While the lanes appear in the plan and even in the city's five year implementation plan, it never appeared on any of the lists LADOT has circulated with projects to be completed this year. This is good news as it opens the door to more bike projects happening in a shorter time frame than just strictly following the lists that LADOT and City Planning have circulated. Kudos to Mayor Villaraigosa's team for making this important change happen.
Rumor has it, that cyclist frustration is shared by some in the Mayor's office who have pushed for a project list expanded beyond those in the original short-term implementation plan list. If the city is looking for more "low hanging fruit," it could always crib off the list put together by Streetsblog Board Member Joe Linton at the Eco-Village blog. Of course, the Rampart bike lanes project is on that list, so maybe they already are.
So keep your eyes peeled cyclists, and if you see a new bike project on the street, be sure to let us know.
