Maybe Modifying the CicLAvia Route – Part 1: East End

The eastern end of the 10-10-10 route - mostly on 4th Street

CicLAvia is getting going on the permitting process for our April 10th 2011 event. As we announced the route is more-or-less the same as 10-10-10 when we did 7.5 miles from Boyle Heights to East Hollywood. We love the 10-10-10 route, but we are looking into making a few tweaks that we think could improve it.

We want to hear your input on possible changes to the route – but first a few disclaimers:

This isn’t a vote or a poll… it’s input. Ultimately the CicLAvia non-profit board will be working with various route stakeholders, neighborhood councils, community groups, city of Los Angeles staff, Metro, and others – and using our best judgement to negotiate and finalize the route that can work best. We expect that almost any route chosen (including keeping the exact same 10-10-10 route again) will be great – and will almost certainly have a drawback or two. Please help make us more aware of concerns on the route, but please be aware that, ultimately, we may or may not be able to address all concerns raised.

At this point we’re thinking that we probably are not planning any changes to the central part of the route on First Street, Spring Street, 7th Street, Parkview Street, and Sixth Street. That’s from: First Street / Central Avenue to 6th Street / Virgil Avenue. This includes most of Little Tokyo, and all of Downtown and Westlake – with MacArthur Park and LaFayette Park. We’re interested in hearing suggestions on that stretch, please include in the comments below.

There are two sections that we’ve been discussing possibly changing: 1) the east end of the route and 2) the west end of the route. Today’s post is just looking at the eastern end – from Little Tokyo to Boyle Heights. Tomorrow, we’ll be posting on the west end (from Lafayette Park to the Bicycle District.)

The 10-10-10 route went though Little Tokyo on 1st Street, then onto Central Avenue, and out 4th Street (actually with a tiny bit of 3rd Street, and 4th Place) to Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights. That 10-10-10 route is  shown on the below map in light blue:

The change we’re considering is to keep the route on 1st Street, instead of 4th. It’s not 100% clear how far east we’d go on 1st Street, but we’re thinking probably ending at Soto Street. This new proposed route is shown in red on the above map. These routes are basically the same distance.

Some advantages of 1st Street instead of 4th Street could be:

• Better transit connections with the Metro Gold Line, including very easy access from stations at Soto, Mariachi Plaza, Pico Aliso, and Little Toyko.
• Connections with more commercial areas, including restaurants, on 1st Street, especially in Boyle Heights.
• Connections with public spaces at: Pecan Park, Mariachi Plaza, and Vest Pocket Park, and 1st/Soto Metro Station Plaza.
• Avoiding conflicts with: Little Tokyo buildings on Central Avenue (the 10-10-10 blocked car access to a few residential buildings, a temple and a church.)
• Using the 1929 First Street Bridge over the L.A. River

On the other hand, some advantages of staying on 4th Street (same as 10-10-10) could be:

• Connections with commercial spaces on Central Avenue, and 3rd/4th Streets, including the Little Tokyo Galleria.
• Connections with public spaces at: Hollenbeck Park, Aliso Pico Recreation Center, and the Downtown Dog Park.
• Avoiding conflicts with: buildings along 1st Street and the Metro Gold Line trains running in the middle of 1st Street (running CicLAvia next to the middle-of-the-street trains makes L.A.’s Metro very visible, which we like… but we will need to make sure that there are no conflicts between cyclists/pedestrians/skaters and trains – which likely means the expense of some sort of temporary barrier.)
• Using the 1931 Fourth Street Bridge over the L.A. River – avoiding conflict with the construction underway on the First Street Bridge.

What do you think? Are there other advantages/disadvantages that we haven’t considered? Should we keep the east end of the route on 4th Street? or try to move to 1st Street? Are there other tweaks to the east end of the route that you think we should consider?