Griffith Park has been making a number of improvements over the past year which I can say I’ve truly welcomed.

Riding down Vermont Canyon Tuesday morning, I was caught a little off guard.

 

 

It was one of those things that wasn’t overtly noticeable, but as I started to look closer there was some real change apparent.

I can’t really speak to when this happened as I’ve been sick for five weeks keeping me away from my regular bike commute through the park.

Maybe you can notice all the change just from this one minute video:

 

 

The first thing that caught my eye was the absence of parking on the east side of the road.

Normally, it’s half filled with cars at that hour of the morning, but every once in a while no parking signs have been posted when work is being done.

Seeing “BUS LANE” painted on the far side was my first real clue that change was permanent.

I correctly lost my focus on these differences as a driver darted out in front of me highlighting the need for stop signs coming out of the Greek parking lot.

Being the comprehensive jurnelust that I be, I rode back up to have a second look to get a better sense of what happened.

 

Looking up Vermont Canyon from the Commonwealth intersection

 

Seeing another lane ADDED on the uphill was hard to comprehend because why spread out the road like a highway for a short distance?

While there was still parking at the bottom, the diagonal orientation had been replaced by the more standard parallel formation meaning there’s less room for parking spots.

 

You can still see the diagonal lanes if you look closely.

 

The parking ended right as I passed the loading zone for the DASH Shuttle.

Before, this buffered area took up two lanes worth, but now there were some cones in place meaning some more action down the line.

At the same point where parking would have continued, a new crosswalk was added as many of the hiking trails to the east are popular in the morning hours.

 

New Bus Lane + Crosswalk

With this absence of parking, the Greek lot to my left was substantially more full than I would normally have seen it.

People still need to get their walks in.

As I approached the grassy area which I refer to as “Coyote Glade”, I noticed parking was prohibited on that side of the street as well.

 

 

8:45 AM – Greek lot is a lot more full than normal.

The regular traffic lanes quickly narrowed from three to two to one as I neared the big left hand turn towards the observatory while the bus lane ended near the curve too.

That was the end of the changes I experienced as that small lot around the hairpin was full with a dozen cars.
What does this all mean?

Without stating the obvious that there’s less parking, I’ll have to wait to see it in practice before figuring out how this will function.

 

 

Let’s see this all converge!

 

Also a note, spring break is here for a lot of visitors, so this is as good a time as any to see how this functions.

Previous improvements have worked well so far and even when they haven’t, the entities that be have been willing to adapt.

So yeah, change is a comin’ and hopefully for the better!