Freeway System for Bikes

 (Image from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved)

In the city known for its freeways, why shouldn't LA also have bike freeways?  I am late publicizing this effort, but thought it was a worthwhile one to pass along.  The L.A. Bike Working Group proposed a Backbone Bike Network to the City of Los Angeles to provide a network of continuous, long distance bike infrastructure for Los Angeles citizens.  The network would utilize major streets to help bikers get from one end of the city to the other successfully.  As the LA Times notes:

Conceptual maps of the proposed Backbone Bikeway Network envision a network of long-distance routes designed to provide cyclists safe passage between different neighborhoods along heavily-traveled corridors, including Wilshire, Venice, Whittier and Sepulveda boulevards.

"The city really is more palatable when you have a straight shot through it, with less lights and less stop signs," said Mihai Peteu, 28, who helped design the map after holding public meetings with cyclists throughout the city. "I think cyclists deserve to have something similar to the freeway system."

It's just an idea, Peteu said. But given a little funding to paint bike lanes, improve the pavement and create shared bike-car lanes called sharrows, such a system could give cyclists a speedier way around town.

There is no doubt that the strength of the plan lies in its focus on high-profile, direct corridors to different parts of the city.  As opposed to avoiding heavily trafficked areas, or creating circuitous bike routes out of side streets, the plan proposes affording bicycles the same direct routes through the city that cars use, with the potential to encourage more people to consider biking as a viable option for longer-distance trips, or daily commutes. It will be interesting to see whether the city adopts it.