L.A.’s 6th Street Bridge Bike Lane Disappoints

“The brand-new 6th Street Bridge over the L.A. River, connecting Boyle Heights to the Arts District, was supposed to be a symbol of the city’s move away from a car-centric past and toward a future of more pedestrians and cyclists. It had been open for about a week before drivers plowed into not just one bike lane but both of them simultaneously,” writes Alissa Walker in Curbed.

Despite years of warnings from pedestrian and bike advocates and an ambitious early design, which included a separate level for pedestrians and cyclists, Walker argues that the bridge was not built to prevent such crashes or protect pedestrians and people on bikes. “There are four lanes of fast-moving traffic separated from its two bike lanes by plastic tubes mounted on rubber slabs screwed into the roadway more than a vehicle-width apart.” Additionally, “At either end, where the $588 million bridge touches back down to the grid, the walkways peter out into a narrow sidewalk with a single diagonal curb ramp and the barely protected bike lanes evaporate into sharrows, forcing cyclists to share vehicular lanes without any plastic between them at all.” After Monday’s crash, a bumper from one of the three cars involved still lay in the bike lane, forcing commuters to swerve around it.

Walker describes some “relatively easy fixes” the city could make to improve the as-yet-unfinished bridge: a median to prevent racing, dedicated bus lanes, K-rail barriers protecting the bike lanes. However, Walker opines that “the city almost certainly won’t make them,” focusing instead on civic events and film shoots—the latter of which will likely close the bridge to everyone during filming.