The latest bicycle lane in Los Angeles

[krebs303]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bike-lanes-20111121,0,4835734.story?track=rss
By Ari Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times

November 20, 2011, 9:42 p.m.
The latest bicycle lane in Los Angeles has an interesting twist: It's bright green.

The color is aimed at reducing collisions and to help cyclists feel safer on their north-south commute on Spring Street through bustling downtown, where two-wheeled travel is on the rise.

At 1.5 miles long — from Cesar Chavez Avenue to 9th Street — the lane is the first in downtown and the first full-color lane in the city.

"The really exciting thing with this bike lane is it goes right past City Hall. It links with Olvera Street … and down to the downtown core," said Alexis Lantz of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. "Our leaders will come out and see it every day."

City leaders planned to unveil the lane Monday. Work crews over the weekend, battling a downpour, were able to complete most of the lane with only a few touch-ups outstanding, officials said.

The lane is 6 feet wide and next to a 4-foot buffer zone, leaving an 8-foot parking lane on the west side of the street. Buses are allowed to cross over the buffer and green lane to make a stop but are not permitted to drive along stretches within the area, city officials said.

Cycling advocates say they hope to extend the lane to Venice Boulevard near the Los Angeles Convention Center.

 

[Martin318is]

Green lanes do seem to make a big difference to car behaviour. We have several here in Melbourne - only in high traffic issue areas unfortunately and you notice that cars seem to really stay off them. Standard lanes often get ignored...

 

[danjo007]

with all that spraying, im glad to see the guy holding the board has adequate safety breathing equipment... it even looks like he has a green tint to his face

 

[Boeing]

Wow interesting approach. However if the green is anything like some of the white lines round here it will be slick as snot i imagine.

 

[Eric8-A]

I have yet to see this. I'm gonna have to take a stroll down there one of these days to check it out.

 

[auscyclefan94]

In Melbourne they are allowing Cyclists to travel in a Bus lane in an inner city street as a government trial to see if they are safe for cyclists to ride in them all over the state. Will be interesting to see the results to such trials.

 

[Fus087]

Here in Copenhagen, we have a similar thing: When the cycling lane isn't separate from the cars' lane(s) it's painted solid blue. And yes, they stay off these (but that may also have to do with it being Copenhagen, bike-friendly and all).

It's not as slippery as the white lines when wet.

 

[frenchfry]

In Melbourne they are allowing Cyclists to travel in a Bus lane in an inner city street as a government trial to see if they are safe for cyclists to ride in them all over the state. Will be interesting to see the results to such trials.

In Paris bicycles are allowed in bus lanes. I don't live there but do use the Velib when visiting and haven't experienced any problems when riding in bus lanes.

The bike lane in LA looks pretty nice, 6 feet wide is pretty comfortable. It appears that there will be car parking between the bike lane and the curb, that doesn't look great though it is hard to tell how much room there will be.

At least it is good to see that cyclists are being considered in cities.

 

[oldborn]

We have some red lines but they are slippery as hell, and motorcycles just love it

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Of course as anywhere there is some brilliant solutions as well.

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[Caruut]

In Melbourne they are allowing Cyclists to travel in a Bus lane in an inner city street as a government trial to see if they are safe for cyclists to ride in them all over the state. Will be interesting to see the results to such trials.

In the UK it's like that everywhere. It's okay in the towns and the slightly further out bits of the bigger cities (not suburbs, but not dead centre), but the closer to rush hour and the closer to the centre, the less convenient it gets. It's very stop-start at those times anyway. Still, if you cycle properly (not going up the left of buses) it easier, and much better at the busier junctions.

 

[Martin318is]

The melbourne ones use a different paint mix that has a metallic component as well as a micro glass bead tratment that makes it show up better in low light as well. Not slippery at all that I have seen

Green painted lanes in Melbourne

There are a number of pictures on that report but here is an example:

 

[daveinzambia]

have seen a few green painted lanes in Sydney as well. There is one i ride on most weeks that does not get slippery in wet. in fact would go as far as to say it feels a little bit more grippy.