Alex Carmedelle
LA RIVER BIKE PATHS
Current bike paths
Joe Linton left his home in down town Long Beach and began his commute to northern Long Beach as he had done for six years. Joe didn’t get stuck in traffic or listen to the radio. Instead he just breathed in the cool morning air, felt his heart rate grow and watched a flock of egrets take flight.
Joe could enjoy his approximately 4 mile commute because he wasn’t driving. In fact, he was not driving at all. He was riding a bicycle along the Los Angeles River, an activity that in popularity, especially now.
The Los Angeles River is home to a number of bike paths that are used for recreation and commuting, and multiple organizations are attempting to expand the bike path system on the river but are meeting obstacles.
The largest bike path on the Los Angeles River, the
A Cyclist on the Lario Trail
“Long Beach has a great and well-used bike path,” explained Alicia Katano, director of educational programs for Friends of the L.A. River (FoLAR), an environmental organization that supports rejuvenation of rivers.
The South County L.A. River bike trail begins in Vernon and runs about 4.8 miles on the west side of the river and then crosses over to the Lario Trail for access to Long Beach. The path connects commuters from communities such as Maywood and Cudahy with access to Long Beach.
The Glendale Narrows bikeway is located in the middle stretch of the L.A. River and runs alongside a more scenic view because the river is unpaved and more natural at that point.
View of the Glendale Narrows section of the river.
Going west, the first 4.5 miles of the bikeway are paved but have a number of potholes and rough patches. From Fletcher St., the rest of the 3.3 miles is in disrepair and has uneven surfaces. The path ends on riverside drive which people can bike on to get to Lincoln Heights which still leaves commuters about 2.5 miles from downtown.
Riders have also complained about car exhaust due to the proximity of the bike-path to the freeway.
“If you look at the river instead of the freeway, it’s a pretty nice ride,” said an unnamed cyclist.
Some advocacy groups want the L.A. River to be completely bordered by bike paths.
One such group is the Los Angeles Bike Coalition, an organization that advocates safe streets and paths for L.A. cyclists.
“It’s a solution for a lot of L.A. problems such as rising gas prices and traffic,” said Dorothy Kieu Le, director of planning and policy for the coalition. “The task is included in the L.A. Bicycle Master Plan.”
The Master plan was first adopted by the city of Los Angeles in 1996 and then revised in 2002. It seeks to improve and expand bike facilities throughout the county. Included in that plan is a bike lane running the full length of the L.A. River.
The Plan includes a bike path that attaches the L.A. River to downtown L.A. via 1st street. This would open doors for commuters all along the river to bike to work.
Master Plan Bike Paths, LA River is the red path going down the middle.
The bicycle plan is meeting difficulties however. “There is a lack of will in City Hall to implement it as fast as cyclists need it,” explained Kieu Le. “We work to implement it to the fullest extent we can and we push the government to do the same. We go to important meeting in which the path is being talked about, we talk to city council members, and we raise awareness.”
The Master Plan states that it wants 5 percent of the L.A. population to travel by bike by the year 2015, a plan many organizations are skeptical about considering they are not currently building any new paths.
When it comes to completion of a bike path around the L.A. River, both FoLAR and the L.A. Bicycle Coalition do not expect it to be soon.
“At the rate it is going the master plan is probably going to be fully implemented in the next decade,” said Kieu Le.
“We hope it happens soon,” said Katano. “It will probably be done in pieces because doing the whole bike path all at once is a big project.”
Meanwhile current pieces are seeing more use. People are starting to commute more by bicycle due to rising gas prices.
“The pocket book is the greatest motivator for people to commute by bicycle,” said Katano.
“We’ve seen about a 30 percent increase in commuter cyclists nationwide over the last year,” said Andrea White, executive director of Bikestation, a nationwide organization that provides storage and other amenities for commuter cyclists.
Whether or not the city is working towards building new bike paths, more citizens continue to throw on a helmet and petal their way down the L.A. River every day.
“I think that these bike paths help connect the populace with the river in its midst,” mused Linton.
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