How do you travel to and from Union Station into the nearby neighborhoods of Downtown LA? How can those routes be made better, safer and more enjoyable? A new Linkages Study that’s being undertaken by Metro and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is looking for your feedback on how you’d like to walk, bike and take transit throughout downtown.

The primary objectives for the Linkages Study are to:

• Create connections between Union Station and the cultural/historic sites in the surrounding neighborhoods by means of a clear primary route
• Develop a plan for enhancing access on foot or bicycle between the 1st/Central Station, Little Tokyo and the Arts District.
• Improve pedestrian and bicycle linkages to/from Union Station to the destinations within each neighborhood and between neighborhoods
• Promote improvements that convey the unique identity of each neighborhood and street
• Create a sustainable Action Plan for implementation that has clear jurisdictional responsibility

Please fill out this brief online survey to tell the team about your pedestrian and bicycling experiences around Union Station and give them ideas on how you think it could be improved. Your input will help build a stronger and safer downtown!

Update: The city has submitted an application to extend the deadline for the bridge’s redesign and has created the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge Citizen’s Oversight Committee. The Committee will consist of six members that will meet with Bureau of Engineering and DOT along with CD 13 and CD 4 staff periodically on an as-needed basis to discuss the project design. Our executive director Deborah Murphy will be on the committee representing Los Angeles Walks.

Deborah was also quoted in this excellent piece about the bridge in the Los Angeles Times: “It feels like something out of Star Trek,” said Deborah Murphy, the executive director of pedestrian advocacy group Los Angeles Walks. “Beam me up and beam me down on the other side, because there is no other way to get across.”

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On Sunday, November 3 Los Angeles Walks joined Dan Koeppel of the Big Parade, Don Ward of Wolfpack Hustle and 50+ community members from Los Feliz, Atwater Village, Silver Lake to walk and discuss issues of accessibility on the Hyperion Bridge. Our walk included a trek through Griffith Park and along the LA River to North Atwater Park, as well as a crossing of the Los Feliz Blvd bridge, which also has a number of pedestrian and bicycle safety issues. Here are just a few of the problems we noticed:

Trying to cross the 5 freeway on-ramp on Hyperion Bridge was incredibly dangerous due to fast-moving cars and no crosswalk

Trying to safely cross from Hyperion Ave onto the Glendale Ave sidewalk at the Atwater Village end of the Hyperion Bridge, sidewalks are non-existent

Walking to Silver Lake on the Hyperion Bridge the sidewalk narrows from 6′ to 1.5′ violating federal accessibility laws.

The current bridge has many problems, however, a new Hyperion Bridge project is being managed by the City of LA’s Bureau of Engineering. The project will improve the seismic strength of the bridge and will address some of the current safety issues. The project will offer a number of benefits to motorists and include the addition of a new pedestrian walkway across the former Red Car trolley piers, which we support to provide an important connections to the Los Angeles River Ped-Bike Path.

However, the addition of the walkway does not reduce the need to make the Hyperion Bridge, the most direct route across the river and the freeway, into a safe and welcoming route for pedestrians and cyclists.

It’s also important to ensure the design of the bridge encourages safer vehicle speeds. Currently the design of the bridge allows vehicles to get up to 50+ miles an hour for this short stretch, which means vehicles are zooming onto the main streets of both communities at fast speeds, the proposed design only enhances this issue making the heart of both communities less safe for people shopping, dining out and enjoying their neighborhoods.

In addition, the bridge needs enhanced pedestrian crossings to allow pedestrians to safely cross the often high-speed traffic between Hyperion Avenue and Glendale Blvd. The project needs to include sidewalks on both sides of the bridge, the current proposed design only provides a sidewalk on one side and doesn’t include a way to access the proposed single sidewalk on Hyperion Avenue from the south side of Glendale Boulevard.

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Thanks to our partners at Santa Monica Walks, Walk Beverly Hills, and Walk Bike Glendale for making Walktober full of great walks. Here are some highlights!

On October 7th we walked the CicLAvia route from Mariachi Plaza to Chinatown

On October 14 we explored Beverly HIlls with Ellen Lutwak and Walk Beverly Hills

On October 19, we joined Walk Bike Glendale on their annual Zombie Walk

And on October 26, we got an amazing tour of the Expo Line Phase II and other pedestrian-related projects in Santa Monica, led by Gary Kavanagh

And of course, we hope you all had a great Halloween—our favorite walking holiday!

“We are realizing now like we did in the early days of our city, that there is a better way. And in our the dense urban metropolis, great streets are key to restoring and elevating our neighborhoods.”

                                         —Mayor Eric Garcetti, 10/10/13

Los Angeles Walks was thrilled to be in the audience at today’s Urban Land Institute conference where keynote speaker Mayor Eric Garcetti announced his first Executive Directive: The Great Streets Initiative.

In his keynote speech (watch it here, and check out the shout out to Los Angeles Walks at 11:05; he even showed a photo, below, from our Day of Action!), Mayor Garcetti reminded us of the walk-friendly history of this great city we all love—a city that was built by the Red Car, designed to encourage walking to transit, and support people of all backgrounds who lived in our communities—until we shifted our priorities to value our cars, how fast we could travel and how conveniently we could park. He plans to return to our roots and transform the main streets of up to 40 neighborhoods into vibrant, pedestrian-friendly destinations. Read more about the Mayor’s plan in this LA Times article.

We are so excited for this promising step forward and the Mayor’s vision for Los Angeles.  Our Executive Director Deborah Murphy sums it up for us all: “Los Angeles walks is proud and honored that we helped to inspire and support Mayor Garcetti to create his Great Streets initiative. We are dedicated to making safer, kinder, more beautiful streets in Los Angeles for all users, especially pedestrians. Los Angeles Waks will be there to support his effort with all our boundless energy and commitment.”

We’ve got lots to celebrate this Walktober with more great walking events. See you on the streets!