Although there has been a lot of new bicycle infrastructure in Westside locations like Santa Monica, exciting projects for bicyclists and pedestrians are also underway in central L.A., between Hollywood and downtown.
Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to Fountain Avenue
The Department of Transportation (LADOT) is finishing the planning phase of work and will soon begin implementation of the Hollywood Blvd. Safety and Mobility Project to add bike lanes between Gower St. and Fountain Ave. and reduce dangers to pedestrians in the area.
The 6.4-mile project is part of the city's Vision Zero initiative to eliminate L.A. traffic fatalities by 2025 - through forward-thinking approaches to road design, which take account the fact that drivers will inevitably make mistakes.
The project will also feature high-visibility crosswalks (with wider, Continental-style zebra stripes shown to greatly improve safety) and pedestrian islands.
Recently LADOT announced a virtual Town Hall for the project taking place on Thursday February 1 at 6 p.m. To attend this Town Hall, register online.
Sunset4All
Many readers will be familiar with grassroots efforts to make it safer to bike and walk along Sunset Avenue between Dodger Stadium and Fountain Ave. The group Sunset4All has made progress highlighting the opportunity to transform this corridor, so locals are expecting this to be an inevitable follow up project which is implemented as soon as possible.
Sunset4All’s proposal is to shift bike lanes away from traffic and put them adjacent to the curb, so that parked cars are between the flow of traffic and the bike lanes to make this section of Sunset Boulevard safer to shop, dine, and travel.
Regional mobility advocacy groups, such as Streets for All and BikeLA are excited to see the potential for more gap closure projects, such as these two efforts.
To the west of the Hollywood Blvd. project, another opportunity beckons although the project remains at the vision stage. Gensler & Associates developed conceptual plans for a “Complete Streets” vision of the Hollywood Walk of Fame area.
Visit Gensler's webpage to view more details of the vision for the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.
Advocates for Complete Streets hope the 2028 Olympics as well as the public’s heightened interest in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure will catalyze efforts to implement the plans.
It’s exciting to see many efforts begin to come together to make Los Angeles more bike-friendly and safer for pedestrians in this area of between DTLA and Hollywood.
Michael Halloran is a long-time reader of Streetsblog L.A. who serves on the steering committee for Bike Central L.A., a local chapter of BikeLA.
