NoHo Bike Lane War: Lankershim Blvd. vs. Vineland Detour

There's a bike war brewing in the Valley, where the city's 2010 bike master plan lays out a bike lane that would run along seven miles of Lankershim Boulevard, from Ventura Boulevard in Studio City to San Fernando Road in Sun Valley. That proposal includes a "road diet" (basically the removal of car lanes) for a 2.4-mile stretch of Lankershim between the Universal City Red Line station and the Orange/Red Line hub at Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood. Locals love that plan, saying it would make the area so much safer for bikers, but Councilmember Tom LaBonge thinks the route is plain too dangerous. As an alternative, he wants to "create a bicycle corridor on Vineland Avenue, which would require bicyclists to double back to Lankershim by turning left on Chandler Boulevard," according to the Daily News. LaBonge says there's too much traffic in NoHo and that Lankershim is already too narrow there: "It would be tighter than a drum. There's no extra space for bike lanes." (It should be noted that LaBonge is not opposed to road diets in general--he recently helped put Rowena on one in Silver Lake.) But bike advocates say the Vineland route is too out of the way and won't encourage more bike ridership, which is a major goal of the plan.
· Bike riders spar with L.A. Councilman Tom LaBonge over proposed bike lane route [LADN]
· LA Starts Process to Close Gaps in the Backbone Bike Network [Curbed LA]