Complete the LA River Bike Path.
The delivery of the in-channel LA River Bike Path would transform underused infrastructure into a continuous, safe, and active mobility corridor. The project envisions the river as both a connector and a catalyst, linking the LA region through recreation, ecology, and everyday movement.
Once-in-a-generation investment for Los Angeles
A continuous, uninterrupted bikeway, free from cars and traffic, will connect parks, transit hubs, and neighborhoods.
Not just for mobility, this investment will support communities historically neglected and marginalized, and new communities being developed in this corridor.
The spine of the Festival Trail, giving visitors and Angelenos alike easy access to Olympic and Paralympics from the Valley to Long Beach.
It was fully funded ten years ago, and promised by 2026.
Voters approved funding in 2016 as part of Measure M.
LA Metro has more than $487 million to complete the project — more than enough to complete an in-channel bikeway along the entire 8 miles of the existing gap.
A broken promise?
LA Metro owns the project, and is only looking at a bikeway suspended above the channel at a cost of at least $1.1 billion, with no plans to find additional funding.
“There’s no way it can be built by 2028,” they said. Without funding, it’s unlikely to be built within the next decade.
It’s not too late. An in-channel path is deliverable by 2028.
A new special purpose agency dedicated to the trail’s construction and maintenance can get the job done by summer 2028, only if…
LA Metro’s Board gives the project to a special agency, called a “joint powers authority,” immediately
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How often will the path be unusable, due to rain?
Hydrological studies by the firm Geosyntec estimated that a path built six inches above the floor of the channel will be ridable 350 days of the year.
What about flash floods? Isn't it dangerous to be in the channel?
Stream gauges, precipitation gauges and the weather forecast will trigger automatic closures of this portion of the path. Studies indicate we have four hours to clear the channel before floodwaters rise. With five points of access along this 8.5-mile stretch, that's plenty of time, even if an emergency crew has to go into the channel to remove someone who is injured.
Will this reduce the capacity of the channel to carry water?
No. Hydrological studies show the path will not change water flow.
Why create a whole new government agency?
In a huge agency like LA Metro, with responsibility for hundreds of projects and a $9.8 billion budget, it is easy for a relatively simple but important project like a bike path to be neglected as a priority. A Festival Trail analysis of special purpose agencies around the country independent agency solely responsible for a singular piece of public infrastructure is a common strategy to expedite construction and ensure attention.
Why is it so expensive to build an above-channel path?
The above-channel path is so expensive because adjacent land uses come right up against the edge of the channel and can’t be moved (train tracks, mostly). The path is practically an 8-mile long bridge. The in-channel path will probably cost less than $400 million, with extra funding to build connections like an extension of the Arroyo Seco path, but we can’t be sure.
TAKE ACTION
Contact your Los Angeles County Supervisor, in her capacity as an LA Metro Board member, and ask her to support the change to an in-channel design and create a Joint Powers Authority.