New Bike Lanes Installed on Channel Drive in Pacific Palisades

The L.A. City Transportation Department (LADOT) recently installed new bike lanes on Channel Road in the L.A. City neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.

The lanes were announced by the community’s City Councilmember Mike Bonin via social media. Bonin noted that they were installed as part of street repaving. The added bike lanes did not remove any existing car lanes or car parking, but were added in place of an existing striped-off margin.

The new Channel Road bike lanes extend about about a fifth of mile from Mesa Road to Short Street. The lanes drop between Short and Pacific Coast Highway as through traffic lanes on Channel increase near the beach. The last block – about 600 feet between Short and PCH – has new sharrows.

The new bike facility connects to the beach bike path via the existing pedestrian undercrossing there (which features bike stair ramps – called a wheeling ramp or a runnel; they are rare in L.A. County).

This portion of Channel Road follows the course of the channelized Santa Monica Creek, which runs in the middle of Channel above Mesa Road. The intersection of Rustic Road and Channel Road is built over the confluence of Rustic Creek and Santa Monica Creek.