Beverly Hills

Eyes on the Street: Beverly Hills Bikeways

From LA.Streetsblog.org

A trickle of new bike facilities – including one sweet protected bike lane – in recent years means that Beverly Hills is no longer a gap in the growing countywide bike network

By Joe Linton

It’s not really news that Beverly Hills has bike lanes. Streetsblog recently visited the 90210 city and shares photos of bikeways implemented there in the past couple years.

If I remember correctly, Beverly Hills didn’t have any bike lanes about a decade ago. Circa 2012-14 the city added basic bike lanes on Burton Way and Crescent Drive. Cyclists pushed for the city to incorporate lanes on the city’s revamp of Santa Monica Boulevard; the city installed bright green lanes there in 2018.

Those three segments were the city’s only bike lanes in 2019, when the city developed its complete streets plan.

Since then, the city hasn’t become a bike paradise, but it’s clearly no longer a biking gap. There has been a trickle of new bike facilities, with more on the way. Also, the city’s first subway station (some there opposed, some welcomed) will open next year.

Reading news coverage of bikeway approvals (in the face of some complaints) I expected more bike lanes there than there actually are. For example, last year the Beverly Press stated, “The new [Doheny Drive] bike lanes will connect to other bike lanes in the city on Clifton Way, Charleville Boulevard and Gregory Way.” But Clifton, Charleville, and Gregory don’t have bike lanes, just shared lane markings, called sharrows. (Sharrows have been termed the dregs of bike infrastructure; safety-wise they are basically useless. Beverly Hills calls them its “minimum grid bicycle pavement markings.”)

Photo by David Vives on Unsplash

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Beverly Hills closes gaps in bicycle infrastructure

From BeverlyPress.com

BY

Beverly Hills bicyclists might one day have a new way of traveling to West Hollywood, as staff prepares to install bike lanes on Beverly Boulevard that could connect to the neighboring city, transportation planner Jessie Holzer Carpenter said.

City officials will provide more details about the proposed bike lanes during a Traffic and Parking Commission meeting on Sept. 7, and residents are encouraged to give their thoughts in person or by contacting the city at askpw@beverlyhills.org.

The Beverly Boulevard bike lanes were identified in the city’s 2021 Complete Streets Plan because they connect to existing bikeways on North Santa Monica Boulevard and North Palm Drive, and because the street does not have existing parking spaces, meaning that the lanes will not reduce parking, Carpenter said.

Also, the city of West Hollywood is planning to install its own bike lanes on Beverly Boulevard, creating a new link between the two cities, Carpenter said. Beverly Hills is also working to close a “short gap” of bike lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard that would create another inter-city bikeway.

West Hollywood officials approved a contract for a feasibility study on expanding bike lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Beverly Hills officials have been soliciting public input on the bikeway expansions for months, and so far, the feedback has been positive, Carpenter said.

“What we’ve heard so far is a lot of support for the project because it closes that gap in the network,” Carpenter added. “There is no on-street parking on this segment … so it doesn’t remove any street parking. All it does is narrow traveling to provide a dedicated bike way.”

Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash

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Beverly Hills bike lane project approved

From BeverlyPress.com

BY

The city of Beverly Hills is continuing its efforts to make the city more bicycle-friendly, as evidenced by the City Council’s June 21 approval of bike lanes and shared lane bicycle markings – or “sharrows” – on Doheny Drive, from Burton Way to Whitworth Drive.

The bike lanes are part of the city’s Complete Streets Plan, which described the Doheny Drive project as “high priority,” according to a staff report. The installation of the on-street, striped bike lanes is expected to occur later this year.

According to a staff report, the project is not expected to impact parking or traffic lanes, but it would connect with bikeways recently installed on Clifton Way, Charleville Boulevard and Gregory Way, and other bike lanes on Burton Way.

“First, this is not about people not being able to use their cars,” Councilman Robert Wunderlich said. “Nobody is saying that cars can’t go on Doheny [or that] cars can’t park on Doheny, or for that matter, the rest of the city. This has never been about [saying] people cannot use cars. What this is about is providing an opportunity for people who choose not to use a car to actually make it safe for them to do so.”

He said city officials regularly discuss maintaining a “village atmosphere” in Beverly Hills and attracting younger families, and that neither of those goals are accomplished by city streets being “race courses.” Wunderlich said residents want quiet streets that are walkable and safe for bicyclists.

“Of course, [this project] is not going to cure that,” he added. “Is it helpful? Yes. Obviously, most people are not going to choose the bicycle instead of being in their cars. But, for everybody who does, that takes a car off the street by choice. It reduces congestion. It reduces the need for parking.”

Photo by Markus Spiske

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