The city of Glendale recently completed installation of green pavement bike lanes on Sonora Avenue. These are the first green bike lanes in Glendale.
Glendale's new green lanes run 1.3 miles from Garden Street to Glenoaks Boulevard. On the north end, the Sonora lanes connect with existing bike lanes on Glenoaks Boulevard. On the south end, the facility ends near Griffith Park's Bette Davis Picnic Area, with connections to both Glendale's and the city of Los Angeles' L.A. River bike paths.
The city of L.A.'s river bike path in that vicinity is unfortunately temporarily closed due to construction projects on the 5 Freeway and the Riverside Drive Bridge. Detour signage routes cyclists onto the parallel Zoo Drive bike lanes in Griffith Park.
Map of city of Glendale's bicycle and pedestrian improvements being implemented in 2016. Map via city of GlendaleMap of city of Glendale's bicycle and pedestrian improvements being implemented in 2016. Map via city of Glendale
Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) example from Davis, CA. Photo by Lara Justine via FlickrRectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon example from Davis, CA. Photo by Lara Justine via Flickr
The program improvements consist of primarily low-hanging fruit - projects that are easily implemented because they do not remove lanes from drivers. The bike projects include mostly sharrowed bike routes, with the only new bike lanes on Sonora Avenue. The pedestrian projects include new curb ramps and new high visibility Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons.
The freshly painted Sonora Avenue bike lanes are pleasantly highly-visible. They narrow existing car lanes, which should result in greater safety through reduced car speeds and better car positioning. At some intersections, the green lanes end and are replaced by sharrows.
At some intersections, Glendale's Sonora Avenue bike lanes give way to sharrows. Photo by Joe Linton/Streetsblog L.A.xxx
New concepts for rapid bus service across the 626 have ironed out the questions of where an East-West route would run and where demonstrations could begin.
Metro and Caltrans eastbound 91 Freeway widening is especially alarming as it will increase tailpipe pollution in an already diesel-pollution-burdened community that is 69 percent Latino, and 28 percent Black