Downtown and Wilmington Bikeway Updates: Ramirez/Center/Santa Fe, Los Angeles Street, and Anaheim Street

It's the day after Election Day. Many races are too close to call, with no new L.A. County vote tallies expected until Friday, so how about interrupting your doom-scrolling for a brief update on a couple of Los Angeles City bike lane projects?

Ramirez/Center/Santa Fe bike lanes completed

A week ago, Streetsblog reported that preliminary striping was done for new bike lanes between Union Station and the Arts District. Now, the city Transportation Department (LADOT) has completed them.

They're a couple blocks longer than what SBLA initially spotted; they extend one mile from Vignes Street (the back side of Union Station) to Mateo Street. That part of Mateo already has bike lanes that go the new Sixth Street Viaduct.

Los Angeles Street bike lanes extended one block

LADOT recently extended the Los Angeles Street bike lanes one block south, from First Street to Second Street. The facility runs along the back side of the Caltrans District 7 Headquarters building (which also houses LADOT offices), which is now surrounded on three sides by bikeways.

Bike Upgrades Coming to Anaheim Street in Wilmington

According to LADOT Twitter, work is getting underway on major upgrades to Anaheim Street in Wilmington. LADOT's 2.2-mile long Anaheim Street Safety Improvements include painted curb extensions, upgraded crosswalks (six newly signalized ones), pedestrian signs, leading pedestrian intervals (pedestrian head-start signals), new bike lanes (protected for about a third of their length), bicycle turn medians (at McDonald, Lagoon, and Lakme Avenues), and what is apparently the city's first protected intersection at Broad Avenue. (LADOT does have curb-protected intersections under construction on 7th Street.)

A decade ago, LADOT installed lots of bike lanes on wide Wilmington streets, but the main east-west artery there, Anaheim Street, remained an obstacle in the way of the neighborhood feeling truly bike-friendly. This new project should go a long way towards solving that problem.