Eyes on the Street: New San Vicente Protected Bike Lanes Nearly Done

The city of L.A. Transportation Department (LADOT) is in the field today installing parking-protected bike lanes on San Vicente Boulevard in the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood just east of Little Ethiopia.

San Vicente is an overly wide street, a former streetcar right-of-way. It is a predominantly residential street with, until now, up to ten lanes (seven travel lanes and three parking lanes), all given over to cars. The bike lane improvements remove one car travel lane in each direction: a road diet.

The lanes have been in the works since 2020, when community groups began urging the city to add the upgrades (already approved in the 2015 Mobility Plan) when the city resurfaced the street. In early 2021, LADOT hosted outreach meetings, where they received favorable input. At that time, the project extended 1.2 miles from Olympic Boulevard to La Brea Avenue. In that area, there were already three blocks of existing bike lanes between Redondo Boulevard and La Brea, so the project would upgrade those lanes, and add nearly a mile of new bike lanes – from Redondo to Olympic. (It appears that the northwest portion of the project may have been shortened from what LADOT had announced, though this may become clearer as project installation finishes.)

The improvements are not quite completed, but the new bike lanes are already open between Curson Avenue and Redondo Boulevard.