Culver City and the Expo Bike Path
Culver City and the Expo Bike Path
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16790112
Just tried commuting on my bike from Santa Monica to downtown Culver City today. I took the Exposition bike path, which was fine until I needed to get off of it to head south.
Google recommended I take National and--lo and behold--there's no bike lane with cars flying past at 55mph+ on blind hills. That's a death trap.
On the way home I left early to avoid traffic. I took Venice Blvd, since it has a protected bike lane all the way until McLaughlin which Google Maps called "bicycle friendly." No bike lane, of course, with cars flying past leaving a foot of distance between me and death. One testy driver in a BMW didn't want to wait the 15 seconds for me to pedal into the left turn lane to get back onto the Exposition bike path, honking and then flying by nearly killing me. Jeez lady, I'm not the city planner. Don't kill me to save 15 seconds.
How does Culver City put zero bike lanes going north to south connecting to the Exposition path? How do these drivers maintain their licenses?
What's a cyclist to do?
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I often take the expo bike path to Culver City. It should get better this year when they finally connect the bike path to Motor, but until they do I usually take one of two routes:
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Take the expo bike path east until it ends at Overland, then take Northvale (a small residential street, but very hilly) Right on Motor (painted bike lanes but wide and feels fairly safe), Left on National (painted bike lanes, very low traffic), and when crossing Palms the expo bike path resumes again (you can get into the left hand turn lane on National but instead of completing it under the 10 just make a right onto the sidewalk to get back onto the bike path). You can take that all the way to Ivy station, or if you want to go further west I usually exit it at Durango, enter the parking lot there and cross Venice with the light onto Culver blvd which after 1 block has great bike lanes. You may be tempted to take Bagley but I recommend avoiding it, it's one of the few crossings under the 10, so many cars are aggressive.
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When I want to avoid the hills on Northvale, I exit the expo bike path onto Midvale, Right on Coventry, Left on Sprout, Right on Kelton (all of these are small residential streets). Then I take that all the way down to Venice. There's a protected crosswalk on Kelton to cross National, a light on Palms. If you cut back over to Midvale via Charnock there's a light on Venice. I've done this route very often and never encountered aggressive drivers on Kelton like I have taking other routes. You can also continue south on Midvale to Girard to Elenda which has a fantastic bike path -- stop by cofax for a good coffee.
Here is more information on the project to connect the bike path: https://ladotlivablestreets.org/projects/Exposition-Bike-Path-Northvale-Segment
Thank you, kind stranger. I'll check out these routes!
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