One concern regarding the potential installation of bike lanes on Colorado Boulevard is that it would cause a “traffic nightmare” since it would reduce the number of travel lanes available for motorists between Broadway and Townsend Avenue, a 1.5 mile stretch. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s (LADOT) Bikeways Division has communicated it doesn’t anticipate any major delays in travel times by implementing bike lanes but concerns among residents persist, and understandably so. However if a recent, temporary closure of a single travel lane is any indication, it seems Colorado Boulevard will function just fine if bike lanes are implemented.
Friday, January 11th, a film crew was out on Colorado Boulevard on the block between Caspar Avenue and Maywood Avenue and due to all the equipment present during the filming, one eastbound travel lane was closed to traffic on this block of the street. Generally speaking, such unanticipated lane closures tend to cause bottlenecking, but this was not the case on Colorado Boulevard during this particular filming. Eastbound traffic appeared to be moving just as smoothly with only two of three lanes available as the westbound traffic where there was no unexpected lane closure.
Could it be that the LADOT’s projections are accurate– that creating bike lanes by removing one travel lane for motorists really won’t have much impact on travel times?
This temporary block long lane closure can’t provide conclusive evidence of what conditions would be like with bike lanes but it was interesting to observe nonetheless. Below is a video of the traffic conditions as they appeared between 5pm to 5:25pm
(Note the block before the lane closure traffic was forced to merge from three lanes to two lanes and there didn’t appear to be any clogging of traffic there either.)
That was because all the traffic was diverting onto Hill! (joke)
What about the closure of the right lane between Figueroa and Ave 64 (site of the famous sink hole)? Obviously traffic volumes are entirely different on this stretch, but the city is planning to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair an entirely superfluous right lane, that could be a perfectly satisfactory bike lane. If the idea is to eventually have two lane in each direction continuity between Pasadena and Glendale, it makes no sense to be spending this money on restoring a three lane speedway between Figueroa and Ave 64.
Good point– I had forgotten there’s even been a lane closure on that part of Colorado Boulevard! I hope the LADOT realizes that righthand lane is unnecessary and creates buffered bike lanes on that portion.
LOOKS SMOOTH. WHAT DAY WAS IT? FRIDAYS SEEM BUSIER AT TIMES WHEN I HAVE TRAVEL COLORADO. REMEMBER, THERE WERE TWO LANES AVAILABLE. WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN ONE LANE? ON YORK, GOING EAST FROM ER BLVD, THE TRAFFIC DOES PILE UP AT TIMES BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE LANE AVAILABLE UNTIL ONE REACHES AVE. 52. FROM FIG AND YORK GOING WEST IT BOTTLES UP WHEN ONE LANE IS AVAILABLE. HOWEVER IT IS NOW EASIER TO TURN LEFT FROM ANY BLOCK ON YORK–JUST GET ON THE CENTER DIVIDER AND TURN IF AN OFFICIAL LEFT TURN ANE IS NOT AVAILABLE. I PERSONALLY AM GLAD TO HAVE THE ONE LANE BECAUSE IT ACHIEVES ITS PURPOSE; SLOWING DOWN TRAFFIC.
[...] « Observing A Temporary Lane Closure on Colorado Boulevard [...]