West LA

When Jonathan Weiss emailed me two weeks ago announcing that Sharrows placeholders appeared on Motor Avenue, I didn't think too much of it. After all, stencils marking a place for bike racks have been on the ground next to my Big Blue Bus stop for almost five months.

As promised, Neighbors for Smart Rail (NFSR) is appealing the decision of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew to dismiss their lawsuit alleging that the Expo Construction Authority violated state environmental law when doing their studies of the future light rail lines route.  The appeal was filed nearly two weeks ago, on September 15, to the California Court of Appeals

Earlier this week, Joe Linton noticed that marking were appearing on mid-town streets to mark the spot where Sharrows would be placed.  Linton is one of the harshest critics of the city's attempts to jump off the Bike Plan to add Sharrows to city streets to reach the Mayor's stated promise of 40 miles of bike projects every year for the next five.

Last night, the Venice Neighborhood Council agreed  to the Main Street Road Diet/Bike Lanes plan proposed by LADOT.  The new road striping ought to be on the ground "in the next couple of weeks."  Despite its approval, the Neighborhood Council had some concerns with the project and wanted LADOT to return with more safety measures to protect cyclists and calm traffic.  The Road Diet will run on Main Street from Navy St. to Windward Circle, and will extend the Santa Monica bike lanes and road diet into Venice.

(Update: Bart Reed of the Transit Coalition reports from the Metro Board Committee hearings that "pre-revenue testing" has not started yet, but other tests continue. Metro staff also confirmed the long-standing rumor that the Expo Line Phase I will open in early 2012.) The past 24 hours brought mixed news for backers of the Expo Line. On the Transit Coalition message boards, Gökhan Esirgen reports that "prerevenue operations" for Phase I of the Expo Line has begun Testing for Phase I of the Expo Line continues. But while Phase I moves forward, Phase II remains mired in legal challenges, despite this week's ground breaking.

When people try to describe the future Expo Bikeway that will provide a bike connection from Downtown Los Angeles to Downtown Santa Monica they reference the Orange Line Bike Path as the example. The Orange Line Path runs parallel to the Bus Rapid Transit Line in the Valley and many people are at least aware of it, even on the other side of hills.

At nearly 3:00 A.M. on the morning of June 16, a man was crossing Venice Boulevard heading North when he was struck by a black late-model Volkswagon Jetta heading west. The victims wife tells the story:

There are two theories to transportation engineering and traffic.  One theory is that traffic is like a raging river.  If you block it in one place, it will flow someplace else.  If you add more space for it to flow, it will flow more smoothly.  This theory has dominated traffic and transportation plans for years.

Yesterday, while plotting out my Bike to Work Day route that would allow me to see the most booths as possible, I got a phone call from my Mom.  She was biking to work, and wanted to know if I wanted to join her.  Longtime Streetsblog readers will note that Mom and I have had several bike adventures together in L.A. at Tour de Ballona's, the 2009 River Ride, and a pair of CicLAvia.  Now we're rounding out our experience with a Bike to Work Day Ride.