Griffith Park Notes: Mt. Hollywood Drive a Highway & Olympics

No news is good news when it comes to Griffith Park.

It looks like the new Traffic and Transportation Plan is coming in effect, so we’ll have to wait and see what comes from it.

If there’s an interesting angle about what could of been, I got a glance of that last week as I descended Mt. Hollywood Drive.

Seeing drivers pass isn’t totally unusual, as work crews and film shoots bring the occasional vehicle, but what I caught was something different.

Coming at me were a sting of seven cars zipping by at a pretty good speed. I don’t know what they were there for, but for a moment, I felt like I was on Mulholland Drive.

 

If any portion of Mt. Hollywood Drive was ever opened, it would easily spell disaster. Seeing these cars ride up at surface street speed makes me think it would only be a matter of time until someone got hit.

I thought this video would be valuable to share if this ever became an issue again.

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Speaking of no news, a few months ago I addressed the dubious possibility about the Olympics bringing mountain biking to the park.

There was a big uproar from the community about compromising the park’s natural state and habitat the moment it was announced.

Many cyclists thought this was a bad idea too, but I didn’t attack this issue with DEFCON 1 urgency.

LA’s bid was thrown together in a very short time and they really had to upsell the Games anyway possible.

In the time since, many of the proposals have already been dropped, like the Olympic Village at Piggyback Yard.

Say bye bye to the Olympics Piggyback Yard

So when it was revealed that the mountain biking events would be held somewhere near Malibu in the Santa Monica Mountains, the news just dissipated like burp in the wind(that’s how my 3 year old would describe it).

In fact, this was announced sometime in the winter and I’m just getting to it now.

Still, I think it’s a moot point since I don’t think we’re getting the 2024 Games(I’m on the record for 2028), although the way things are going in Brazil, we may be holding one in a few months.

I welcome the Olympics and even moreso if someone bought me a mountain bike. Until then, I’ll just keep riding through Griffith Park enjoying every ride.