Due to smudging of the green paint on the bike lane down Spring Street, the lane will be repainted green this Sunday
It’s hard to believe but the image you see above (with the smudged and missing green paint) is a completely brand new bike lane on Spring Street that is a little more than a week old. The bike lane, which stretches from Cesar Chavez to the north to 9th Street to the south, was painted green over the weekend before Thanksgiving, but because of two reasons (explained below), the bike lane ended up a tattered version from something we all envisioned with much higher expectations. It really just broke my heart when I saw how destroyed the bike lane looked only after one day.
One reason the green paint is missing through many parts along the extent of the bike lane was out of our control due to mother nature pouring rain down that weekend, which never allowed the paint to dry and washed a lot of it away. Another reason was technically within our control, but according to some eye witnesses in the neighborhood, film crews and other motorist chose to ignore the orange cones that signaled “Wet Paint,” driving their vehicles over and leaving green tire tracks trailing from the lane. Frustrating to say the least.
With that being said, I am glad to learn that the Spring Street bike lane project will get a second chance. According to Christopher Rider, the media contact for the LADOT Bike Program, the lane will be repainted this Sunday and extra precautions will be taken to hopefully ensure that vehicles do not drive over the wet paint this time, such as putting up “No Stopping” signs along the curb restricting parking so cars won’t be tempted to drive over the bike lane and setting up more orange cones. I’m hoping to see a near-perfect green bike lane by this time next week.
Most of the green paint was washed away during the rainy weekend this lane was painted
Thank you for letting us know when this is getting corrected and thank you for your interest in reporting on the lane in general. However, I’d just like to mention 50% or greater of the bike lane likely does not need to be redone. Only really between 4th and 7th was the paint impacted. Which points to the more probable cause being the rain/driving on the lane while still not settled the likely cause. Rain by itself seemed to not damage the paint much. So next time they just need to MAKE SURE people don’t drive on the paint until 1-2 days after it’s applied. If this means do the lane in smaller segments to be able to have the resources to accomplish this, than so be it. It’d be cheaper than doing things twice.
I dont think any blame should go towards drivers. This street is very active, people cannot be expected to stop using there cars for 2 days as the above poster suggested. It is part of the municipal code that driveways cannot be blocked for an extended period of time. There was very little notice that the paint was going down (I didn’t hear about it, I found out when I walked outside and saw it), and there was absolutely no enforcement. No one was out there making sure people did not drive over the paint or direct people to an appropriate route into and out of the driveways. Again, people should not and cannot be expected to give up access to their buildings.
Also, rain was absolutely the main factor. If you look at the gutter in front of LA Cafe, there is a fine dust of green paint covered glass beads (what makes it reflective) everywhere. This is clearly from it being washed away, not the tracking left behind by cars driving through the paint. Which brings me to another point, are they going to clean up the paint tracks when they redo the paint? It’s all over the sidewalks.
And finally, I wish the buses would stop driving down the bike lane. Since it was painted I’ve constantly seen the buses ignore the fact that it’s a bike lane, not a special lane for them to use.
I may have come off a little harsh about the commenter’s post before mine, I hope it doesn’t get taken that way. The city really messed up with this one, it should have checked the weather forecast and made sure people had the ability to circumnavigate the fresh paint.
Doing it right first time, would have saved them time and money on the project. Great idea, but horrible execution.
David C, I completely agree with you. There are many residential driveways and parking lots on the west side of Spring Street. Residents were not informed of the initial painting of the bike lane (and there has been no mention of Sunday’s re-painting). A simple flyer sent to the affected buildings would have sufficed. Unless you read this blog or Blogdowntown, you didn’t know about it until you left the garage. Residents didn’t “choose to ignore” the cones; we were forced to drive across the lane in order to get in and out of our buildings. Have they solved this issue yet? Somehow I doubt it.
This brings up another question: why did they place the lane on the west side of the street? Not only are the majority of residential garages and parking lots on that side of the street, but the bus stops are on the west side. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to place the lane on the other side, thus eliminating the problem of buses crossing into the bike lane?
I’m guessing that the lane is on the right to conform to the “slower traffic on the right” convention. People making left turns off of Spring wouldn’t be looking out for cyclists behind them and on their left. Many bike accidents occur because the riders are not in their usual position.
@DavidC, Lauren on Spring, and All: The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, DLANC, (your volunteer neighborhood representatives) went door-to-door today to all of the affected addresses on the west side of Spring with an informational flyer put together with LADOT on how to access parking through the day on Sunday. We do our best to give the flyer to building managers so that it’s sent out via email lists and posted in elevators and common areas. If you don’t see one in your building, please download, print and put one up! We all have to pitch in to get the word out. You can grab the flyer from DLANC’s Facebook or from Blogdowntown’s story today. Or if you want I’m happy to deliver more printed flyers to your building. Just email me valerie[dot]watson[at]dlanc.com — Thanks in advance for your help letting everyone know!