Eyes on the Street: Budlong Bike Blvd Under Construction In West Athens

3:45 PM PDT on June 1, 2018

This traffic circle on Budlong Avenue at 127th Street is part of an L.A. County bicycle boulevard under construction. Photos by Joe Linton/Streetsblog L.A.

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Earlier this week, Streetsblog came across a new bicycle boulevard facility under construction and nearly complete. The bikeway is located on Budlong Avenue from El Segundo Boulevard to at least 120th Street, in the South L.A. neighborhood of West Athens, which is part of unincorporated L.A. County. The facility is immediately north of the city of Gardena, and a couple blocks from the Metro Green Line Vermont/Athens Station.

Bicycle Boulevards (sometimes called Neighborhood Greenways or Bicycle-Friendly Streets) are low traffic volume streets, generally with traffic calmed so that cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers can safely share space. They have been implemented in Berkeley, Portland, Santa Monica, and many other cities. Though many southern California cities have these sorts of quieter through streets that are attractive for bicycling and walking, this type of facility has not caught on much locally.

There is not a lot of detail online about the Budlong project, though one county document identifies it as a Safe Routes To School project to help folks walk and bike to get to 95th Street Elementary School, Woodcrest Elementary School, and West Athens Elementary School.

Below are photos of the under-construction bicycle boulevard.