Newly protected bike lanes and other safety improvements added to a stretch of Venice Boulevard will be open to explore Sunday during a special event co-hosted by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and CicLAvia.
“Venice Boulevard: Explore the Corridor'' will offer a series of guided group bike rides and walking tours along the bike lanes and surrounding neighborhoods from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday on or near Venice between National and Sepulveda boulevards.
The improvements, part of the Venice Boulevard Priority Lane Project, include new crosswalks, signal upgrades, parking-protected bike lanes and a dedicated bus lane along roughly four miles.
“The project creates a safer corridor, improving reliable bus, bike and pedestrian connections between Palms and Mar Vista for the nearly 47,000 residents living within a five-minute walk of the project area,'' officials with the department and L.A. Metro said. ``The improvements also provide greater access for pedestrians, cyclists and bus riders to and from the (Expo) line at the Culver City Station on the eastern edge of the project area.''
Venice Boulevard has been designated part of the city's High Injury Network, the 6% of Los Angeles streets that account for more than 70% of severe and fatal injury collisions, transportation officials said.
Between 2012 to 2022, 1,203 collisions occurred on the section of Venice Boulevard west of Inglewood Avenue, including 58 fatalities, with 25% of those involving people walking or riding a bike, according to the transportation department.
Other improvements designed to ``combat the public health crisis of collisions and rising deaths on LA streets'' include protected left turn signals, high-visibility paint to alert drivers to areas where cyclists and pedestrians may be present and accessibility improvements for people on foot, department officials said.
Mayor Karen Bass hailed the projected for helping ``Angelenos ... to move around our city safely,'' a sentiment shared by City Councilwoman and L.A. Metro Board member Katy Yaroslavsky.
“All Angelenos deserve to live in safe, liveable communities - where we don't waste our lives sitting in traffic or fear for our or our child's safety every time we cross the street,'' she said in a recent statement. ``Just think about what we could do if we brought this kind of infrastructure to communities across Los Angeles and created a truly connected bike network and made bus travel times faster. It would fundamentally transform the way we live and move around in L.A.''
During Sunday's event, live music, games and other activities will be available at Venice and Bagley Avenue.
Organizers said people using bicycles, roller skates, skateboards, scooters and strollers, along with walkers and runners, are urged to participate.
But unlike a typical CicLAvia event, the streets will remain open to vehicle traffic.
