What's Happening To Wilshire Blvd?
Why Do Bicyclists Need To know?

A project to redo Wilshire Blvd went underway in June 2003. This project was approved by vote by the Santa Monica City Council August 8, 2000 (see: http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/cityclerk/council/agendas/2000/s2000080809-A.html ) The report called for adding a center pedestrian haven median of 6 feet. To do this they would reduce the left turn lane from 12 to 10 Feet, the inner lane reduced in both directions of traffic from 12 to 10 feet and maintain the outside lane width. The report stated that the out side lane width and all lanes would result in "Standard Lane Widths" It also stated the outside lane would be 20 feet(8 feet for curbside parking and 12 feet for outside traffic lane.

Why is this a concern for cyclists. First there is debate about what a "standard Lane Width". The City of Santa Monica Bicycle Master Plan illustrates a standard lane width in its appendices of between 21 to 26 feet Appendices A (see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyclesantamonica/files/BMP/Page65.pdf ) Further the Santa Monica Bicycle Master Plan calls for the outside lane to be restriped to make it WIDER when ever it is redone(ref: SMBMP, Page 28
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyclesantamonica/files/BMP/Page14to43.pdf ). Why is this important to bicyclists? This is another example of how the city of Santa Monica has ignored the needs of bicyclists and bicycling in Santa Monica. This recommendation was made for a purpose. And the City Staff failed to bring this to the attention of the Santa Monica City Council within their report that sought council approval by vote.

You can see another place where the city left bicycling and bicyclist OUT OF THE PICTURE. The city constructed a new Transit Mall in downtown Santa Monica. This mall ran along Santa Monica Blvd and Broadway. The City put a full page ad in the Los Angeles Times promoting the opening of the Transit Mall. The ad had a picture of what the transit mall would look like , graphic rendition. It also included descriptions and other information for the public about the transit mall. In this ad there was no bicyclists or bicycles in the picture. And bicycles were not mentioned, even though bicyclists use Broadway every day to connect from the Bicycle Lane along Broadway to the bicycle lanes on Ocean. And there were some new bike racks installed in the transit mall. There was a big Blue Bus that had no bicycle rack or bicycle installed on it. (bicycle racks are on virtually all Big Blue Buses). ( see: http://www.geocities.com/cyclesantamonica/buslane.html#latimes ).

Cycle Santa Monica! brought this to the attention to Santa Monica City Council. This is what they had to say.

Cycles Santa Monica!'s letter:

Honorable Santa Monica Mayor and Council Members:

We discussed the introduction of medians on Wilshire
Blvd. during a meeting with Ms. Lucy Dyke (the City's
transportation manager) not so long ago, in September
of 2002. Apparently these changes were paid for with
California "Safe Routes to School" money, which is
often used to create safe BIKE routes for children.

Our concern was that that adding a median would
decrease the width of the curb lanes and thus would
seriously compromise the riding comfort of bicyclists
and moreover their very safety on Wilshire, an
important commercial street.

We were assured by Ms. Dyke that the width of curb
lanes on Wilshire Blvd. would not be decreased,
because wider curb lanes were good for bicyclists and
also buses, trucks and parking vehicles. Only the
inside lanes were to be narrowed. However now that the
work is being executed we observe that the new curb
lanes are substantially narrower than before. The curb
lanes now measure less than 20 feet wide, squeezing
out bicyclist space in a hazardous manner.

This week's Santa Monica Mirror (July 2-8) features
two editorials which are related. One, written by a
pedestrian, decries the numbers of bicyclists riding
on the sidewalks, which is illegal in Santa Monica.
The other letter, written by a motorist, decries the
narrowing of both travel lanes on Wilshire, and the
impact on motorist comfort. It is true that motorists
must slow down to be safer in narrower lanes. But no
mention is made of bicyclist discomfort, caused by
narrower CURB lanes. These letters are related because
it is the lack of planning for safe bicycle travel in
Santa Monica which causes bicyclists to ride on the
sidewalks.

First, we would like to request the City government to
rectify the problem that is currently being created
for bicyclists on Wilshire Blvd. Please re-stripe the
curb lanes to their original 20 feet or wider now or
soon, when you repave the asphalt.

Second, we would like to discuss the way the City
government communicates with its residents. Our group
started its activities about two years ago with the
intent of improving the conditions for bicycling in
Santa Monica. We hope and expect that better bicycling
conditions will increase the use of environmentally
friendly means of transportation and therefore the
sustainability of the City.

We have communicated with City officials when
advocating for several different issues concerning
bicycling. So far we have been met by willing ears to
listen to our concerns, but in reply to our concerns
we have been confronted with some empty or even false
promises. The development concerning Wilshire Blvd. is
only one instance of a false promise. This is not what
we expected when trying to support one of the City's
main policy objectives.

Currently we wonder if we should assume that this
quality of communication will continue unchanged, in
which case we shall have to look for other means to
induce improvements for bicyclists in Santa Monica, or
if we can expect better communication. Please let us
know what you think. In case of the latter, also
please let us know if we can contribute in any way to
improved communications with the City.

On behalf of Cycle Santa Monica!
Rob Boer

cc: to Lucy Dyke and Suzanne Frick

LUCY DYKE'S Reply:

Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 11:24:28 -0700
From: "Lucy Dyke"
Subject: Re: Width of Wilshire curb lanes

This project is almost, but  not yet complete, and we are actively
reviewing the work and determining where changes need to be made
before we can sign off on the work.  I appreciate your comments at
this time, before we let the contractor leaves town!!

I believe the striping on Wilshire is in conformance with the plan. 
It calls for 19' 6'' for the combined curb and parking lane.  This
allows for 11' 6'' to 12' for the travel lane 7'6" to and This
combined lane was previously 20ft,  with 12' travel lane and 8' for
the parking lane.  We intend to mark the parking stalls 6" closer to
the curb when they are redone.  By comparison, the inside travel lane
is about 10' and the left-turn lane is 9 ft. And there is now space
for a pedestrian refuge island (which was the goal).  

No Safe Routes To School funding is allocated to any of the work on
Wilshire.  City staff applied for grant funding to improve the access
to from JAMS/Santa Monica College for people walking, and received
funding for reconstruction of the intersection at 17th and Pearl and
some work on Ocean Park Boulevard from the State.  Although this work
is part of the same construction project, the Safe Routes to School
funding is not available for any of the work on Wilshire Boulevard. 

I apologize if there is misunderstanding about my discussion with
Cycle Santa Monica.  I was very pleased to be able to speak with
Cycle Santa Monica, and recall that there was a general discussion
about curb lanes, because the group felt that the City had taken
decisions about lane widths in the past that did not recognize the
importance of width in the curb lane for cyclists. 

I believe that what I said was that we in PCD/Transportation
Managment are aware of the importance of that space for cyclists (and
transit), that we are trying to maintain or increase and/or make that
space more effective with edge striping, and that you will not see
curb lanes as narrow as those on Pico Boulevard in future projects. 
On Wilshire Boulevard, you can see this awareness reflected in the
allocation of space among lanes, and the maintenance of a relatively
wide 19' 6'' combined parking travel lane. 

I recall more specific discussions, and follow-up questions, about
the curb extensions, and whether they would extend into travel lanes--
especially on Broadway, where those delineators made it look like the
curb extensions would block the path of travel for the cyclists.  I
believe you will find those curb extensions on Broadway, for which
Barbara requested dimensions and I provided them, are constructed as
I said they would be.

Finally, there was a lot of discussion about the Share-the-Road signs
and lack of signs on designated bike routes.  Over 150 of these signs
are going up on bike lanes all over town, making Santa Monica one of
the first Cities in the area to use them widely. 

Although this project was conceived of as a pedestrian safety
project, it extended the Bicycle lanes on Broadway, and added edge
striping all along 26th Street to improve conditions for cyclists. 
Curb extensions were all designed within the parking lane.  As a
result we are also looking at edge striping the north south streets
that also intersect with the Broadway curb extensions.  My own
experience is that there are lower speeds at all of the treated
intersections, and those allow motorists more time to be aware not
only of pedestrians, but cyclists as well. 

There are two locations on the project where curb extensions were
actually constructed wider than planned.  These locations are on the
west side of 26th Street at Alta and Marguerita.  The reason they are
larger than planned is that there were utility access holes in the
street that would have straddled the curb extensions.  A decision had
to be made about whether to make them substantially smaller, or two
feet wider, than designed.    They are wider.  To mitigate this
condition for cyclists, we are requiring the contractor to relocate
the edge striping on the west side of 26th street toward the
centerline of the street to make more space between the edge line and
the cub extension.  This will be redone before the project is
complete.