Op-Ed: Bike Lanes Poised to Shape the Future of Lankershim

The following opinion piece was submitted by Douglas John, who has lived in the Studio City/North Hollywood area for 13 years. He is also a bike ambassador for the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition.

Los Angeles is going through a bike renaissance. As the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) begins work on the next round of bike lanes, local Neighborhood Councils are in a unique position to strengthen the future of transportation, health, safety, and local business throughout L.A.

In 2011, the Los Angeles City Council approved the 2010 Master Bicycle Plan; a plan which calls for the addition of 1,600 miles of bicycle lanes and paths over the next several decades. Work is already underway with over 62 miles having been installed in 2012 and even more planned for 2013. Couple this with Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of A.B. 2245, which streamlines the environmental impact report process and relies more on local outreach to help expedite the approval of lanes, and you get a recipe for success for Angelinos.

At the forefront of this outreach is the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC), a non-profit, whose mission is to build a better, more bike-able Los Angeles. In late 2012, the LACBC initiated Ride Lankershim, the first of several outreach campaigns, aimed at raising awareness to the benefits of cycling and informing the public about the projects the city has planned. Lankershim Boulevard is an important part of the 2010 Master Bicycle Plan. It connects two major Metro Red Line stops, intersects preexisting east/west bike routes and extends from Universal City up to Sun Valley. It is also home of the NoHo Arts District, a region of the valley that has seen tremendous growth and revitalization over the past 10 years.

North of the Arts District are sections of Lankershim that are wide enough to accommodate bike lanes without any modifications to travel lanes or parking spaces. These sections will get the bike lane treatment, per the master plan, without requiring public input. But the portion of Lankershim that the LACBC is concerned with extends between Cahuenga Boulevard (west) in Universal City and Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood. This section is not wide enough to accommodate a bike line without removing either a travel lane or parking spots. The city has already performed an extensive EIR that determined that the removal of a single north bound traffic lane would result in, at most, a 2.5 minute delay during peak rush hour and almost no delay the rest of the day.

What makes Lankershim special is its destinations. The NoHo Arts District is now home to restaurants, bars, dance studios, gyms, several live theater venues and a Laemmle 7 NoHo. Cyclists are already riding here; whether they are coming off the NoHo Red Line Station or riding in from a surrounding neighborhood, the brave ones will ride on the street, while the majority stick to the sidewalks, creating hazards for pedestrians. And then, there are cyclists in the community who are not biking to North Hollywood at all out of their fear of the bike lane-less street.

The benefits of having bike lanes on a street such as Lankershim are tremendous. There are the obvious health benefits of getting the public out of their cars and onto a bike, but there are also less obvious ones. As locals bike to Lankershim, they free up valuable parking spaces for those who are physically unable to ride or live too far away. Businesses experience a positive economic impact as cyclists are more likely to notice local businesses and are much more likely to linger and spend money. Finally, the streets experience a calming effect because drivers slow down to pay attention to cyclists using the bike lanes and they are less likely to get angry since cyclists will no longer be blocking a lane of traffic.

There are alternatives to installing bike lanes on Lankershim, alternative streets that may be wider, which do not require the removal of a travel lane, which are easier to complete, but the truth is that these are not destination streets and cyclists will not make good use of them, rather they will opt for the streets and sidewalks of roads with destinations like Lankershim. According to a LADOT presentation, over the past decade, there have been 63 bicycle related accidents on Lankershim and without bike lanes it will only be a matter of time before the next one occurs.

It is now up to the Valley’s local Neighborhood Councils, such as the Mid-Town NoHo Neighborhood Council, to respond to the local residents and the LACBC, who have petitioned them for motions of support.  It is now up to the Neighborhood Councils to act, on behalf of their constituents and as an advisory to their local city councilman, and to recognize that the benefits of bike lanes on Lankershim far outweigh the perceived negative effects that come with the removal of a traffic lane. The future of transportation, health, safety, and local business throughout L.A. is now in their hands.

The city's department of transportation is holding a public hearing on the Lankershim bike lanes as well as lanes for other parts of the valley. The meeting is being held Thursday at 6 p.m. at North Hollywood Regional Library - 5211 Tujunga Ave.

The Mid-Town North Hollywood Neighborhood Council is putting together its own town hall on the issue of bike lanes in the NoHo Arts District. We'll let you know when the date for that meeting is finalized.