Officials with the California Department of Transportation are considering adding bike lanes to the nine-mile stretch of heavily used Topanga Canyon Boulevard between Mulholland Drive and the 118 Freeway.
Busy today with the vast Westfield Topanga Shopping Center, restaurants, and luxury residential homes like The Q Topanga which have sprung up along the boulevard, things are about to get much busier as Rams owner Stan Kroenke looks to turn his 100-acre holdings just east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard into a major entertainment and sports destination.
The Caltrans project is still in the early phases of development, but potential features under consideration include protected bike lanes stretching from Mulholland Drive on the south to the 118 Freeway on the north, in addition to bike turn signals, upgraded crosswalks, new crossings, and bicycle-oriented signage. Some concepts could potentially mean taking away car lanes.
“I’m happy to see them provide more safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, however, if it’s at the cost of gridlock, is it worth it?” asked Jeff Bornstein, a Woodland Hills resident and president of the nonprofit West Valley Alliance for Optimal Living. “If they can do it without causing gridlock, that’s fine. But if they are going to make the streets harder for cars to use on a regular basis, it may not be worth it.”
Caltrans has extended the deadline for community members to comment on the project until Monday, April 22 at https://bit.ly/49QSz5Q.
Bornstein said he hoped Caltrans would keep the number of car lanes in place while “providing safer environments for bicycles and pedestrians.”
John Walker, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowner Organization, said residents who live in the area would rather see the funds spent on safety issues like better sidewalks and other pedestrian safety improvements.
He said Caltrans officials’ emphasis on bicycling is an attempt to send a message “to get people out of their cars because they are going to cause more congestion. I don’t think it’s going to work.”
The West Valley’s commuter routes and key boulevards are already congested and expected to get busier as Kroenke plans and then opens the Rams practice facility in Warner Center on the site occupied for years by health insurer Anthem Inc.
Adding new bicycle lanes, and potentially removing car lanes, can hurt businesses said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a longtime business lobby in the San Fernando Valley.
“If they are taking away lanes, that is going to increase traffic (jams), and that will discourage people from coming to the businesses in that area,” he said, and will “make it harder for consumers to park at those businesses.”
Waldman said the West Valley is “the hottest part in all of Los Angeles and the odds of it being heavily used by cyclists are very unlikely. To put in dedicated bike lanes and take away other lanes is a little short-sighted.”
Still, adding lanes in busy areas can boost the number of cyclists across an entire city, according to a 2021 study.
Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that in regions with newly installed bike lanes, cycling grew by 48% compared to cities where similar infrastructure wasn’t installed.
Proponents of the Healthy Streets LA, known as Measure HLA, approved by Los Angeles voters in March, argued that the city has seen an unprecedented surge in traffic deaths in recent years, with 336 people killed in traffic last year. Measure HLA, which mandates constructing a bicycle and transit network that would sometimes remove street parking in neighborhoods across the city, was sold as a way to make L.A. safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Michael Schneider, the founder of Streets For All and author of Measure HLA, said Topanga Canyon is 85 feet wide, and even though it’s a state highway, “it acts as any other major arterial street. … There’s really no great bike infrastructure in the area.”
If Caltrans builds bike lanes with “paint on the street and no dedicated space, I don’t think anyone will be comfortable with that.” He added that if Caltrans installs protective bike lanes that are separated from traffic by a curb or parked cars, “I think a lot of people would use this.”
Los Angeles Councilmember John Lee, who represents Council District 12 and the community of Chatsworth, which is split into two halves by Topanga Canyon Boulevard, posted on his Facebook page a link to a Caltrans survey, inviting community members to share their feedback, on the Caltrans project.
Some who gave feedback praised the idea while saying that even with special bike lanes along Topanga Canyon Boulevard, it would still be challenging to cycle along a busy Valley boulevard, a highway where drivers don’t keep an eye on bike riders.
“I do support bicycling and bike safety,” one wrote, adding that “as long as motorists slow down and keep an eye out for drivers (who are) parking, and drivers (who are) parking look out, these newly designated lanes for vehicle parking may work. But when a bus comes … that will be scary.”
Another wrote that driving on Topanga Canyon is risky and installing bike lanes would only add more distractions.
“There are plenty of other avenues to bog down. Bike lanes should be restricted to avenues and streets with lesser traffic,” she wrote.