The L.A. City Transportation Department (LADOT) recently installed new plastic bollards along a block of existing bike lanes on Manchester Avenue, from Sepulveda Boulevard to Sepulveda Westway in the Westchester neighborhood very near LAX. The block-long project importantly closes a gap.
The city approved protected bike lanes on Manchester in 2015 as part of its Mobility Plan. The city Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) repaved this block earlier this month, and LADOT took advantage of the resurfacing to reconfigure the street.
(Resurfacing an eighth of a mile or longer now triggers Measure HLA-required bus/bike/walk improvements. At 0.1-mile, this appears to be just short of requiring upgrades. The city did repave this block in two separate projects - north roadway and south roadway - so adding those two lengths together arguably triggers HLA?)
The new bikeway includes plastic-bollard protection and green pavement treatments in conflict areas, including at bus stops. It's not full-on curb protection, but it is an improvement over the former unprotected lanes there.
East of the current project, in 2020, LADOT upgraded nearly a mile of Manchester, adding plastic bollard protection from Truxton Avenue to Osage Avenue (essentially the L.A. City limit, two blocks from the current Metro K Line terminus at Westchester/Veterans Station in the city of Inglewood).
West of the current project, in 2022, LADOT similarly upgraded a third of a mile of bikeway, from Sepulveda Westway to Emerson Avenue. That year, the department also added protection to the westbound lane from Emerson west to Georgetown Avenue.
With the newest upgrade connecting east to west, Manchester has about 1.5 miles of protected bike lanes. Though a couple of relatively small stretches remain unprotected, the major gap west of Sepulveda has been closed.
Not to dwell too much on a negative aspect of positive modest project, but... look up from the bike lanes to the sidewalks.
West of Sepulveda, massive ficus tree roots are wrecking Manchester Avenue sidewalks along street segments resurfaced in both 2024 and 2022.
StreetsLA has claimed that the city complies with ADA, fixing sidewalks and adding ramps when it does resurfacing projects. In March, department leaders used this claim to argue against Measure HLA, citing exorbitant figures said to represent the cost of sidewalk work required if HLA were to pass. Voters approved HLA. But as Manchester's sidewalks (pre-HLA and post-HLA) show, the city has not and continues to not take sidewalk accessibility seriously during resurfacing.
