Getting Ready For the 7th Street Bike Lane
The Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition just put out this video, creating some hype for the currently-in-the-works 7th Street bike lane. Part of the recently passed LA Bike Plan, the 7th Street lane is expected to be striped from Koreatown to Downtown by this coming October. Eventually, plans call for the lane to be expandedto 5.4 miles, all the way to Boyle Heights. Which would be amazing! But if we want that to happen sooner rather than later, making good use of the route as it stands will go a long way.
7th Street is the first road in Los Angeles to be targeted for bike lane construction under the city's new bicycle plan. The route parallels Wilshire in one of the densest, most trafficked parts of the city. If Angelenos are really as bike-hungry as many claim, there's no reason this route shouldn't see ample cycling traffic.
The LABC is right to start promoting the route months before the lane is even built. The 7th Street lane's success could go a long way towards determining the urgency with which the city carries out the rest of the bike plan.
Related:
- A Brief History of Bicycles in the Los Angeles Area
- Get Your Boss to Pay to Fix Up Your 10-Speed
- How We Can Make L.A.'s Bike Plan a Reality: An Interview With Bill Rosendahl
The L.A. Vitamin Report is a column about quality of life issues by Matthew Fleisher. It is brought to KCET's SoCal Focus blog in partnership with Spot.Us, which receives support from the Cailfornia Endowment.