Green Bike Lane comes to Downtown

Leaving work the other  night I shot up Main to circle around to Spring in order to see if anything was happening at the Occupy Los Angeles encampment.  Turning on the Spring I immediately noticed a big bright neon green lane that I had never seen before.  WTF? Soon I notice an “Approved Bike Lane Stencil” (i.e. an outline of a bike) on the green lane. Ha Ha, a bike lane.

Turns out that Spring Street is the site of a new 1.5 mile Spring Street bike lane. The things you don’t know about your city but can find out. Los Angeles has a 2010 Bicycle Plan which was approved by the City Council on March 1, 2011.

The plan‘s technical design handbook indicates:

Shared Lane Marking with Colored Pavement (section 9, page 118)
Design Summary
A standard “Shared Roadway Bicycle Marking” per CA MUTCD,
is used in conjunction with colored pavement to indicate optimal
lane position for bicyclists on an urban, multilane roadway with
parallel on-street parking.

That night I had no idea as to how I am – as a car driver – supposed to engage with the neon green bike lane. Turns out the rules are the same: e.g., dashed lines are for a right turn merging area.

Bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as vehicle and motorcycle drivers.  More information for car drivers and bike riders can be found here and here