Eyes on the Street: New Armadillo-Type Bike Lane Delineators on Adams

In 2021, the City of L.A. Transportation Department (LADOT) added buffered bike lanes to about two miles of Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles. The project removed a travel lane. A few aggressive drivers sometimes chose to ignore the new street markings and drive in the new bike space.

To keep drivers out of the bike lanes, the city later added some soft hit posts, at the start of most blocks.

Recently the city went further and installed bolted-down hard-plastic “delineators” in the buffer area. These are sometimes called armadillos, though that is apparently a proprietary name. They are basically the same hard-plastic stop used along the Elenda Street protected bikeway in Culver City.

The result is an improvement; fewer drivers appear to be using the bike lane. For L.A., it is a unique hybrid type of bike facility. The bike lane is not quite protected; drivers still cross it to get to and from curb parking spaces. But drivers have to slow down a bit to maneuver around – sometimes over – new plastic bumps.

The city installed similar plastic delineators on the Main Street protected bike lanes downtown. These sort of mini-plastic curbs help keep some drivers out of the bike lanes there. LADOT is adding new delineators along the Spring Street bikeway from 1st Street to 9th Street. As of today, they have already been installed on one block, between 2nd and 3rd.