There it is. Ride it.
December 5, 2010 § 5 Comments
The Elysian Valley stretch of the Los Angeles River Bike Path is open – with festive grand opening ceremonies yesterday noon attended by hundreds. It’s a shared path – for cyclists, pedestrians, wheelchairs, and skaters. There’s quite a bit of concern about bike-ped conflict (for example read these), but I tend to think that we can all share and get along. For more information on the 11-years since this project received received funding, read through these earlier posts.
Elysian Valley L.A. River Bike/Walk Path Dedication Ceremonies, just upstream of Fletcher Drive
L.A. Creek Freak 
[…] in the Northeast Los Angeles area, just south of Occidental College. The week also included the opening of the newest stretch of the L.A. River Bike Path, also in NELA, in the Elysian Valley […]
It’s great that we now have 7.2 miles of bike lane following the LA River however, their remains much to do.
First and foremost, there is not one place where riders on the bike path can safely reach Griffith Park, a mere 50 yards away. Not at the north end at Victory where riders have to negotiate a shoulderless roadway with narrow lanes, high curbs and freeway ramps; not opposite the Autry Museum where riders again have to negotiate freeway ramps without so much as a sharrow; certainly not at Los Feliz Blvd where riders are faced with speeding right-lane drivers jockeying for advantage to get on the freeway first and then a most dangerous exit ramp where cars are literally slung into the roadway right before crossing a blind crosswalk and; not at the tennis courts where the pedestrian/bike bridge over the freeway dumps you onto a 50 yard dirt path, that quickly turns into a mud hole at the first sign of rain. And how about making the path safely accessible from Atwater Village via Glendale Blvd or Los Feliz Blvd and Toluca Lake via Victory. At the south end, how about marking a safe route over the bridge at the end of Riverside Drive (plenty of room for a lane), or better yet, all the way to the Gold Line Station.
When will the lights be repaired on the original stretch of the bike path? They have been out since before construction on the lower portion began.
Investing in such a great ammenity is only utile if its use is maximized. Making these small additional investments will ensure that the L A River Bike Path is a success and encourages more cycling.
[…] Elysian Valley segment of the L.A. River Bike Path is now open; Will suggests that we should all cooperate in not being an […]
[…] is outright hostile to bike riders. I recently found out from my friends at Bikeside LA that the Elysian Valley section of the L.A. River bike path opened back in December of 2010, and looking at a map I realized that I could now completely circumvent that nasty bit of road by […]
[…] My friend Ezra Horne shot and produced this fun short video documenting the December 2011 opening of the L.A. River bike and walk path through Elysian Valley. […]