Are Bike Lanes Imminent on Colorado? Not Quite Yet, City Clarifies

A day after the Los Angeles Department of Transportation issued a report announcing its decision to begin installing bicycle lanes along Colorado Boulevard and North Figueroa Street, a city planner clarified Friday that the DOT has not finalized its plans to install bike lanes but that “the City is committed to continuing to ensure that many multiple perspectives are listened to and taken into consideration before a final decision is reached.”

Claire Bowin, a planner in the Department of City Planning’s Policy Planning and Historic Resources Division, told a number of community stakeholders in an e-mail Friday afternoon that she wished to “clarify the intent of the [DOT’s] staff report” and to “apologize for any confusion that this report may have caused.”

A copy of Bowin’s e-mail was made available to Patch by the office of Councilmember José Huizar.

“The staff report that was distributed yesterday is simply one procedural step in the exemption process and is not an indication that the City has finalized its plans regarding implementation of these bicycle lanes,” Bowin said, referring to a May 30 notice of exemption filed by the LADOT with the City Clerk regarding the California Environmental Quality Act. (According to AB2245, a new law signed last fall by Gov. Jerry Brown, city planners may substitute environmental impact reports with public hearings in the case of bike lanes likely to cause significant traffic delays.)

The “confusion” Bowin referred to in her e-mail was rooted in a so-called “determination letter” sent Thursday by David Somers, a bicycle planner in the Department of City Planning, to community stakeholders. An excerpt from the letter was posted Thursday on the Facebook page of Take Back the Boulevard,
Eagle Rock’s homegrown initiative to make Colorado more of a community hub by increasing its accessibility to bicyclists and pedestrians.

Dated May 30 and signed by LADOT General Manager Jaime de la Vega, the letter states that the transportation department is planning to install “8.1 miles of new bicycle lanes” along Colorado Boulevard and North Figueroa Street by striping the lanes “within the existing public right-of-way.”

The letter added that the city of Los Angeles is in compliance with the so-called “public resource code” for creating bike lanes, which includes not just the assessment of traffic, environmental and safety impacts for installing the lanes but also a public hearing “in the area affected by the new bicycle lanes.”

“Pursuant to the Los Angeles Municipal Code Sections 80.08.2 and Section 89.01, I hereby approve to install 5.1 miles of a combination of standard and buffered bicycle lanes along N. Figueroa Street, from San Fernando Road to Colorado Boulevard in accordance with the 2010 Bicycle Plan,” de la Vega wrote in his letter, adding:

“Council District 14 has indicated a need to conduct additional outreach in Highland Park. Therefore, the N. Figueroa Street bicycle lanes shall be implemented in two phases, with the section from Avenue 22 to York Boulevard completed first, followed by the section from York Boulevard to Colorado Boulevard later in 2013, following the additional outreach.”

The letter concluded: “The Determination in this matter will become effective and final 15 days after the date of mailing the Notice of General Manager’s Determination.”

A public meeting on Colorado Boulevard’s bike lanes is scheduled Monday at 7 p.m. at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock.

Council District 14 Communications Director Rick Coca told Patch that “part of what we’ll be hearing on Monday, based on the feedback that a lot of people gave,” will be an “improved version” of the DOT’s presentation about bike lanes at a public meeting at Occidental College this past March.

“We’re not just talking about bike lanes but about making Colorado Boulevard safer as well as creating an environment that will also help businesses” on the six-lane thoroughfare, Coca said, adding: “We want to make sure that we look at Colorado Boulevard comprehensively from all aspects.”

(The Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce has opposed the DOT’s plan to create lanes exclusively for bicycles by removing one auto traffic lane on each side of Colorado.)

“We’d also like to hear from people who are against the [bike lanes] plan, based on misinformation,” Coca said, alluding to anecdotal evidence that many stakeholders believe that the installation of bike lanes will remove street parking and leave just one auto traffic lane on each side of Colorado.