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LADOT Has Completed More Than 50 Miles of Road Diet Bike Lanes

4:49 PM PDT on July 2, 2014

LADOT recently installed road diet bike lanes on First Street in Koreatown. This is one of 53 road diet projects that LADOT has implemented since 1999. Photo: Joe Linton/Streetsblog L.A.
LADOT recently installed road diet bike lanes on First Street in Koreatown. This is one of 54 road diet projects that LADOT has implemented since 1999. Photo: Joe Linton/Streetsblog L.A.
At safety advocates urging, the L.A. Neighborhood Council Coalition has backed off of a anti-road-diet motion. Pictured is the First Street road diet in Koreatown. Photo: Joe Linton/Streetsblog L.A.

Earlier in 2014, the national Streetsblog Network website highlighted BikeSD's coverage of the city of San Diego's first road diet bike lanes. Streetsblog Los Angeles has covered quite a few city of Los Angeles road diets over the past few years; most of them non-controversial, including 7th Street, Grand Avenue, Hoover Street, and Myra Avenue. A few of these projects have encountered criticism; examples include Motor Avenue and Wilbur Avenue.

Speaking at yesterday's Bicycle Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) meeting, the city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation's (LADOT) Bikeways engineer Tim Fremaux remarked that LADOT had implemented 53 road diet bike lane projects. Fremaux clarified that these road diets are generally "safety projects," reducing speeding, making it easier for pedestrians to cross, and that adding bike lanes tended to be almost incidental to the overall purpose. Fremaux smiled stating that he has been happy to add a lot of new left turn lanes where they had not been before.

Fremaux provided Streetsblog the list of projects [PDF] which shows over 50 miles of road diet bike lanes. Fremaux revised the list after yesterday's meeting, increasing the total to 54 road diets. The projects listed were completed from 1999 to 2014, with the vast majority completed since 2011, after approval of the 2010 Bike Plan and Mayor Villaraigosa's subsequent 40-new-miles-per-year bikeway directive.

For readers unfamiliar with road diets, this Streetfilm provides a good guide. Generally road diets remove one car lane and replace it with two bike lanes, though there are variations. Road diets have been shown to improve safety for all road users, especially by removing blind spots for turning drivers.

The list of LADOT road diet streets follows the jump.

  1. Silver Lake Boulevard - Glendale Blvd. to Reservoir St. - 1.6 miles
  2. York Boulevard - Eagle Rock Blvd. to South Pasadena City Limit - 2.7 miles
  3. Hoover Street - 109th St. to 120th St. - 0.9 miles
  4. Myra Avenue - Fountain Ave. to Santa Monica Blvd. - 0.4 miles
  5. Wilbur Avenue - Devonshire St. to Nordhoff St. - 1.5 miles
  6. Via Dolce - Washington Blvd. to Marquesas Way - 0.4 miles
  7. 7th Street - Catalina St. to Main St. - 2.8 miles
  8. Spring Street - Cesar E. Chavez Ave. to 9th St. - 1.4 miles
  9. Main Street (Venice) - Santa Monica City Limit to Windward Cir. - 0.8 miles
  10. Main Street (Downtown) - 1st St. to 16th St./Venice Blvd. - 1.7 miles
  11. Winnetka Avenue - Devonshire St. to Nordhoff St. - 1.7 miles
  12. Los Angeles Street - Alameda St. to 1st St. - 0.5 miles
  13. 1st Street - Beaudry Ave. to San Pedro St. - 1 mile
  14. Olive Street - 7th St. to Washington Blvd. - 1.2 miles
  15. Grand Avenue - Wilshire Blvd. to Jefferson Blvd. - 2.2 miles
  16. Motor Avenue - National Blvd. to Venice Blvd. - 0.7 miles
  17. Santa Monica Boulevard - Virgil Ave. to Manzanita St. - 0.3 miles
  18. 8th Street - Boyle Ave. to Olympic Blvd. - 1.4 miles
  19. Opp Street - Fries Ave. to Banning Blvd. - 0.4 miles
  20. Wilmington Blvd. - Anaheim St. to C St. - 0.5 miles
  21. Neptune Ave. - Anaheim St. to C St. - 0.5 miles
  22. Via Marisol - Monterey Rd. to Lomitas Dr. - 0.2 miles
  23. Alla Road - Maxella Ave. to Marina Expwy. - 0.6 miles
  24. Rowena Avenue - Hyperion Ave. to Glendale Blvd. - 0.5 miles
  25. Cypress Avenue - Jeffries Ave. to Arroyo Seco Ave. - 0.2 miles
  26. San Pedro Street - Vernon Ave. to Jefferson Blvd. - 0.8 miles
  27. Griffin Avenue/Zonal Avenue - Altura St. to State St. - 1.1 miles
  28. 54th Street - 7th Ave. to Arlington Ave. - 0.4 miles
  29. Capitol Drive - Western Ave. to Gaffey St. - 1 mile
  30. Westmont Drive - Western Ave. to Gaffey St. - 1.1 miles
  31. Avalon Boulevard - L St. to Harry Bridges Blvd. - 1.1 miles
  32. Broad Avenue - Pacific Coast Hwy. to Anaheim St. - 0.8 miles
  33. San Pedro Street - Florence Ave. to 115th St. - 3.1 miles
  34. Clybourn Avenue - San Fernando Rd. to Sherman Way - 1 mile
  35. 25th Street - Mermaid Dr. to Patton Ave. - 1.2 miles
  36. E Street - Avalon Blvd. to Alameda St. - 0.7 miles
  37. San Pedro Place - 41st Pl. to Main St. - 0.5 miles
  38. Mission Road - North Broadway to North Main St. - 0.8 miles
  39. Compton Avenue - Century Blvd. to 104th St. - 0.3 miles
  40. Grand Boulevard - Windward Cir. to Venice Blvd. - 0.4 miles
  41. 120th Street - Vermont Ave. to Main St. - 1 mile
  42. Broadway (Eagle Rock) - Eagle Dale Ave. to Colorado Blvd. - 0.3 miles
  43. Colorado Boulevard - Broadway to Figueroa St. - 2.2 miles
  44. 2nd Street - Glendale Blvd. to Spring St. - 1 mile
  45. Clybourn Avenue -  Victory Blvd. to Vanowen St. - 0.5 miles
  46. Virgil Avenue - Santa Monica Blvd. to Melrose Ave. - 0.5 miles
  47. 48th Street - Crenshaw Blvd. to Normandie Ave. - 1.7 miles
  48. Chase Street - Van Nuys Blvd. to Woodman Ave. - 0.9 miles
  49. 1st Street - Vermont Ave. to Commonwealth Ave. - 0.4 miles
  50. San Vicente Boulevard - Bundy Dr. to Bringham Ave. - 0.7 miles
  51. Loyola Boulevard - Westchester Pkwy. to Lincoln Blvd. - 0.3 miles
  52. Wilmington Avenue - Century Blvd. to 104th St. - 0.3 miles
  53. West Boulevard - Slauson Ave. to 68th St. - 0.8 miles
  54. Califa Street - Topanga Cyn. Blvd. to 200' east of Canoga Ave.- 0.5 miles

Per LADOT, the overall total is 51.5 miles. For additional details on each project (including the before and after configurations), see the LADOT road diet project list [PDF].

Note that LADOT list includes distances and limits show only the road diet portion of each facility. In some cases, including Grand Avenue, there is additional (non-road-diet) bike lane mileage not included. There is at least one project where the city did a short portions of road diet bike lanes that doesn't appear on this list: Main Street (South Los Angeles) from 92nd Street for at least a couple blocks southward. Though they don't necessarily belong on this list, there are also streets where LADOT installed road diets, but did not add bike lanes, for example: Boyle Avenue in Boyle Heights. So the actual road diet and bike lane totals appear to be even higher than what LADOT has claimed.

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