Eyes on the Street: New Bus and Bike Lanes in Progress in Downtown and South L.A.

10:11 AM PDT on July 17, 2020

None of them are quite done, but they are getting there. New bus lanes have been striped on 5th and 6th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. The eastern half of these will include new protected bike lanes. Also downtown, the existing Olive Street buffered bike lane is being moved to the left side and made parking-protected. In South L.A., the new 6.3-mile-long Avalon Boulevard bike lanes are nearly complete.

LADOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney estimates that all four of these projects - 5th, 6th, Olive and Avalon - will be completed in August.

5th Street

Pavement markings appear to have been completed (though no red paint) on the new 5th Street bus lane, which extends 1.2 miles from Central Avenue to Flower Street. Fifth is one-way westbound. The project will include a left-side one-way protected bike lane east of Main Street, through Skid Row.

5th20Jul162 — West of Main Street bikes share the bus lane, so there the signs read "BUS/BIKE ONLY"

East of Main Street, the project includes protected bike lanes, which have been striped, but bollards have not been installed yet — East of Main Street, largely through Skid Row, the 5th Street improvements include protected bike lanes. These have been striped, but bollards have not yet been installed.

As of today, with no bollards installed some drivers are parking in the 5th Street bike lane — As of today, with no bollards installed, some drivers are parking in the newly striped 5th Street bike lane

Soon 5th and 6th protected bike lanes will have bollards, similar to these on 7th Street. — Soon the 5th and 6th Street protected bike lanes will have bollards similar to these ones on 7th Street.

6th Street

Very similar to its westbound couplet partner 5th Street, the new 6th Street eastbound bus lane has pavement markings extending from 1.2 miles from Grand Avenue to Central Avenue. Like 5th, 6th will also feature a one-way left-side protected bike lane east of Main.

Cars parked in the 6th Street bus lane today

Olive Street

Olive Street was also supposed to have a bus lane soon, though there is no anticipated schedule for it yet. The city recently repaved Olive as part of its ADAPT accelerated repaving program. An existing right-side buffered bike lane is being moved to the left, and will be upgraded to a parking-protected bike lane. Crews were out today striping the street.

The new bike lane striping appears nearly complete, though no bollards have been installed. The one-way northbound protected bikeway extends 0.7-mile from Pico Boulevard to 7th Street.

Olive20Jul163 — New parking-protected bike lanes have been striped on Olive, though bollards have not yet been installed.

The new Olive Street protected bike lanes extend from Pico to 7th

Avalon Boulevard

LADOT is also installing new bike lanes on Avalon Boulevard through South Los Angeles. They will extend 6.3 miles from 120th Street to the five-way intersection at San Pedro Street and Jefferson Boulevard. These will be among the longest continuous on-street bikeways in the city of Los Angeles. They appear to be the third longest, after Venice Boulevard and Devonshire Street.

Much of the new Avalon bikeway was created mostly by removing a car lane, called a road diet. The new bike lanes are mostly buffered or conventional bike lanes, with about a dozen blocks of parking-protected bike lane.