With the opportunity to repave our streets in the midst of this covid crisis, following suit the Laurel Canyon bike lane entering North Hollywood recently got an upgrade.
I had gotten word through Streetsblog LA about these improvements popping around, but while I’ve known about the work on the segment from Burbank to Oxnard, I finally got to check it out.
Living just east of Laurel Canyon, I know very well about the current lanes extending from Riverside Bl. to Oxnard St.
Still, I don’t frequent the lanes that much as the street has a 40 mph speed limit with most driving around 50 mph.
If I use them at all, I’ll ride north from Magnolia Bl. to Chandler Bl. to ride the lanes along the Orange Line or to jump on a bus at the station there.
Most people prefer going north-south on Colfax Ave. as it’s a calmer street, so I was curious at his improvement.
When I heard about buffered lanes, I think of at least three feet of paint separating the lane from traffic, but this stretch was about half that.
Maybe having that expectation, riding along with the staggered lines didn’t feel like a lot of extra space, but traffic seemed to stay away (small sample size analysis).
At a half mile in length, I felt like I zipped through it pretty quickly which is a good thing.
Ending up at Oxnard St, there’s a gap in the lane for a half mile where it picks up again at Victory Bl.
It would be great if the Laurel Canyon bike lane would close this gap as NoHo West should be opening in the near future that already looks to have traffic issues once it opens.
I’m sure people will welcome having a bit more of a buffer, but it would be great to have more tools to slow down these streets to make travel safer for all.