Green Bike Lanes in Los Angeles: City Officials Waste $15K on Premature Paint Job

By Simone Wilson Mon., Dec. 5 2011 at 4:30 PM

Second time's a charm. (We hope.)

Mixed feelings, these past few weeks, about L.A.'s quickly expanding arsenal of green bike lanes -- part of an adorable national trend.

The new lanes are, literally, neon green. Though some grumpy drivers see it as yet another blight on their crappy commute, as traffic lanes must be narrowed and/or removed, the very vocal biking community in L.A. has applauded City Hall's dedication to alternative transportation and the safety of those who use it.

So important is this biker-advocate support to L.A. officials...

... that they may have sorta kinda jumped the gun last month on the Spring Street paint job downtown.

Though the 1.5 miles of roadway set to be greened were wet, due to a late-November downpour, the L.A. Department of Transportation ordered a paint job anyway. LA Streetsblog speculated that the rush was in anticipation of a Monday press conference:

The culprit appears to be an overanxious LADOT who wanted to have the lanes ready for the Monday press conference, even though the weekend preceding the Monday event was a wet one. In the week preceding the press event, officials warned that the conference could be moved if weather didn't allow the painting to occur over the weekend.

Xander Davies/Downtown News

"Just days after it opened to the public, the paint on a bike lane on Spring Street has worn off. "

Indeed: The Los Angeles Times reported, pre-peel, that "work crews over the weekend, battling a downpour, were able to complete most of the lane with only a few touch-ups outstanding."

That's when the green paint started to corrode. The department wrote on its own blog: "Unfortunately, inclement weather did not allow for the paint to fully set, leading to some blotching that many of you have no-doubt seen."

Bruce Gillman, LADOT spokesman, explains to the Weekly today that "this is a pilot program for us. After seeing the results, the decision was made to try [an epoxy-based paint], which calls for primer."

So yesterday, as promised, the green stripe down Spring Street was restored to full glare.

However, Gillman says that the failed first coat cost the city $15,000. (Another green lane on 1st Street in Boyle Heights was more expensive -- $35,000 -- because it was coated in "thermoplastic." That one's still going strong.)

A glowing release from the original press conference downtown:

"[City Councilmembers Jan Perry and Jose Huizar] cut a green ribbon tied to the handles of two bicycles and then took the inaugural ride down the new Spring Street bike lane, which runs between Cesar Chavez Avenue and 9th Street. ...
LADOT is continuing to lead the way in the delivery of innovative and safe bicycle facilities in the City" said Deputy Mayor for Transportation Borja Leon. "The department has focused on public safety and outreach while accomplishing one of the Mayor's primary goals -- a robust transportation network."

One Streetsblog commenter opined that "the creation of this lane is about a DOT that isn't truly committed to better bike infrastructure, but instead is about political PR."

Veteran citywatcher Jack Humphreville likewise questions L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's much-hyped bike dreams.

"We haven't seen any studies, if you will, as to the impacts of the bike plan," says Humphreville. "How many bikers are there in this city? How many miles do they ride to work? We haven't seen any studies on the impacts this is going to have on slowing traffic."

He adds: "Bike lanes are very good for short distances. But for the guy who's commuting from the basin, with a longer distance to travel, does that work?"

Despite his great lengths to please the biking community, Villaraigosa hasn't exactly seen all love from that minority, either. As detailed by LA Weekly reporter Ryan Deto, City Hall's ambitious bike plan has no concrete promise for implementation. The League of American Bicyclists noticed as much earlier this year, snubbing our desperate city in its list of the top 25 "Bicycle Friendly Communities."

In response to the green lanes in particular, some are complaining that the paint disguises dangerous potholes. Oops. This isn't the first time LADOT has wasted money by bumbling past the planning/public-input phase. From the LA Weekly story:

Don Ward of the Midnight Ridazz cycling group fought hard to make the section of Wilbur Avenue in Northridge where he lives safer for pedestrians and cyclists after several people were killed in car accidents. But the L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT) almost comically botched the safety plan in June 2010 when it reduced Wilbur Avenue from four car lanes to three and added bike lanes and street parking -- without notifying area residents.

When said residents (predictably) complained about losing a lane, the department scrambled to clean up:

This time, the bike lanes were moved into the gutter -- and the speed limit was increased.
"LADOT spent $50,000 to repave the roads and paint lines again, which were just repaved and painted for the addition of bike lanes," Ward says. "That money could have fixed 9,000 potholes. The road is now more dangerous -- even the LADOT engineer admitted that."

At this rate, we might as well pay the guerilla green-laners down in Mexico City to come do the job for a fraction of the price. Or maybe this would be a fine opportunity to let that UC Davis cop to get his pepper-spray jitters out?

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @laweeklynews]

Tags:

Bicycle Friendly Community, bika plan, bike lanes, green bike lanes, LADOT

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Andrew Fung Yip

I was googling information about the Green Bicycle Lanes and I happened to click this. This article is pretty lame. Studies? There's actually studies out there and it says that bicycle ridership has gone up. Many parts of Downtown LA have installed bike racks and that in itself has attracted bicyclists...in fact, I'll be in Downtown LA tomorrow morning with a friend to ride around and have lunch. Keep your blame-mass-transit-biking attitude to yourself.

Joe Linton

I think that the new green bike lanes are awesome! Kudos to LADOT, LACBC, DLANC, Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilmembers Perry and Huizar! Did they wear off some and need re-touching? Yes. Did LADOT learn something from that? I hope so. This is the very first time this has been done in the City of L.A. If we thrash LADOT for trying new things that don't work perfectly the first time out of the gate... then we'll get the same tried-and-true-and-awful cars-first-cars-only streets that don't serve anyone well.

There's plenty of other things to critique LADOT on... but, this isn't one. For today, let's celebrate and enjoy these great new lanes on Spring Street. Even with the re-do, they're way cheaper than a few inches of L.A. Freeway (or, say, the media budget for Carmageddon) and, even with the re-do, they were implemented way faster than any bike project in recent memory.

ChrisLoos

Seconded. First they're hating on the Expo line and Purple line extension plans, and now they're making fun of bike lanes? For an alternative paper, they have a 100% conservative attitude. Bike lanes are an "adorable" national trend? What a snarky, shitty thing to say. I would call them a "completely necessary, long-anticipated, life-saving national trend".

For the record, those of us that live downtown (the bikelane literally goes past my doorstep) we were a little disappointed with the first paint job, but we are THRILLED to have the bike lane. Considering this is the first green lane LADOT has done, there's going to be hiccups. I don't blame them for flubbing it the first time, but I commend them for fixing it so quickly.

Juan Carlos Esparza

Humphreville states,"We haven't seen any studies, if you will, as to the impacts of the bike plan," says Humphreville. "How many bikers are there in this city? How many miles do they ride to work? We haven't seen any studies on the impacts this is going to have on slowing traffic."He adds: "Bike lanes are very good for short distances. But for the guy who's commuting from the basin, with a longer distance to travel, does that work?"It is obvious Humphreville has not participated in the CicLavia. Back in 2007, I suffered a massive accident crushing my car into an accordion. In 2007, I had to find a way to commute from the Jefferson Park area to the Pacific Palisades to work. I decided that using public transportation was going to take me about 2 1/2 to 3 hours due to frequent stops and traffic. I decided to commute by using the Venice Blvd. bicycle lane. Drivers notice cyclist when a bicycle lane is available for them to use. I rode for 40 miles round trip to work. I used the bicycle lane and the Venice Beach Bike Path to get to work safely. People cannot accept change. Humphreville probably does not ride a bike. I am from Boyle Heights, but live near South Pasadena. I rode my bike to Boyle Heights into Downtown LA from South Pasadena using some of the new green bike lanes. I loved it. Please support the bike lanes.

Carter Rubin

Unfortunate that LA Weekly seeks to drum up controversy where there isn't much. LADOT has a LONG way to go, but it doesn't quite deserve this snarky hit-piece.

suckmylegaltestesallubiaches

so everything is about illegals nowyou phucking shitt paper youhave to ruin every story reminding us what a mexigarbage cesspoll the state has morphed intohow many readers you got left now?just make this the la semanista already and be done with it you phucking scum suckersim out

Don

I find that putting the entire blame on the LADOT is disingenuous in citing the Wilbur issue. My experience was that LADOT was basically forced to re-re-paint part of Wilbur at the behest of Councilman Greig Smith and his then Chief of Staff Mitch Englander who were responding largely to Porter Ranch complaints. Virtually 100% of the residents with frontages on the effected 2 miles of street signed petitions to KEEP the bike lanes and road diet configuration - NOT oppose them. Some 75% of near-by residents also signed petitions in favor of the safer street configuration. Meticulous statistics are on record via local resident and retired CSUN professor Paul Kirk who collected and analyzed the signatures.

The installation of the Wilbur "road diet" in 2010 was in fact to provide a contiguous (and far safer) center turning lane configuration which now allows residents to turn left and right without fear of conflict with speeders cutting through - the cause of a majority of collisions on that street. Because of the installation of the contiguous center lane, and the irregular widths from block to block, a travel lane in each direction was removed. In other words 4 lanes were converted to 3 lanes. This gave the wide yet residential street room for added residential parking AND bike lanes. Many local residents recognized that extra parking and bike lanes on a residential street are GOOD things. I agreed.

While it wasn't the best example and initially for the wrong reason, the LADOT did do outreach via posted notices and via Neighborhood Council Meetings regarding crosswalk removal in 2009. This prompted an all out lashing by local residents in the form of 600+ petition signatures collected by Kirk to KEEP the crosswalks and design Wilbur to be safer. In fact, the City General Plan in 1998 called for traffic calming measures on Wilbur specifically. This stretch of street featured 8 deaths and more than 300 serious collisions in the last 10 years according to SWTRS data (the only period of data available maintained by CHP and verified by LAPD) under the old 4 lane configuration. So, in fact, LADOT's installation of a road diet made the street SAFER with calmed traffic speeds of 35-40mph (rather than the usual 60mph.) In other words the LADOT heard from locals and responded with a safer street configuration.

Fast forward to 2011, instead of going with the will of the residents that live on that stretch of Wilbur which called for the street to be left as is with the new Road Diet complete and intact, CD12 decided to spend $50k in taxpayer funds to essentially shove the bike lanes into the pine needle / debris littered gutter for a 1/4 mile stretch. Both LADOT and CD12 decided also to ignore Northridge West's and local resident's petition signatures for an additional crosswalk situated between a future public park and Nobel Jr. High at Mayall and Wilbur. It was a mess, but I would only put part of the blame on LADOT, the lion's share goes to CD12 and vocal groups of Porter Ranch residents used to speeding through the area.