The recently endorsed Bicycle Master Plan should accommodate an estimated 12,000 residents who work locally but often cannot traverse areas because bike lanes end abruptly, officials said.
The 14 top-tier projects planned for the area include a 15.7-mile citywide bicycle boulevard, a San Fernando Path that picks up in Los Angeles and leads to the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station and a southern channel from that station to Alameda Avenue.
Los Angeles County, Glendale and Pasadena are all working on their own improvement projects and master plans, with the goal to eventually forge a network of street markings and bicycle lanes to create a more livable infrastructure.
Ernie Seiler, senior recreation leader and coordinator of Friends of the Chandler Bikeway, manned one of several pit stops for riders Thursday. Volunteers and city workers at each of the stops reported more people biking to work this year than last.
“The whole idea behind Bike to Work Day is getting people to try it — even if it’s just once,” Wilkerson said. “Maybe they start riding on Fridays and then they work their way up to where they’re doing it two, three days a week.”
John Rupkalvis, of Burbank, commutes the 10 minutes from his home to work at Stereoscopic 3-D Digital Cinema. Along with other riders, he identified a recurring dilemma: While those critical of sacrificing street parking and traffic lanes point to paltry ridership, while riders argue that ridership would be higher if the streets were safer.
