Park to Park






Last week I wrote to complain the new LA River bike path extension from Fletcher Dr. to Riverside is missing signs to let you know where you are along the path.

Today I write to praise it.

Signs are easy to add; a bike path–especially in this day of budget cuts and the relentless pushback from motorheads desperate to keep their asphalt handouts–is much more difficult, and what we have now is an excellent bicycle freeway that can carry you from Griffith Park to Elysian Park, or back again, while neither immersing you in frenzied traffic, nor submitting you to dozens of stops signs or traffic lights.

Just a wide, smooth path running between the Los Angeles River and the backs of Griffith Park and the variegated neighborhoods south of it to Lincoln Heights. Once you’re south of Fletcher, there’s plenty of (presently unsigned) neighborhood access, and north of Los Feliz there are several gates leading to different areas of Griffith Park.

You can use it to get to or from Burbank, Glendale, Los Feliz, Atwater, Cypress Park, and Lincoln Heights, as well as Griffith Park itself, of course. There are problems, but they are minor–and some will be solved when the path is extended, as it simply must be, on both ends. (Eventually it should join to the Lario bike path leading from Slauson to Long Beach, and to the various segments of riverside bike path in the Valley.)

Yeah, there’s some graffiti…but every time I’ve been there I’ve seen pretty young women walking, jogging, or cycling alone, as well as old folks strolling, so it can’t be too dangerous. There’s extensive lighting on the southern half as well (looks like LEDs to me!), though I haven’t yet been there at night to see it work.

On the day I made these photos, I rode it from the Bette Davis Picnic Area at Riverside and Victory to the present southern terminus where Riverside vaults over the river to join Figueroa…whence it guides you to Flying Pigeon LA, of course.

A pretty ride to take for fun, and an effective route to use for travel.

Let’s see more of this!

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