Yesterday, the LADOT Bike Blog announced two new bike lane projects that were completed in the Valley this weekend.

On Rinaldi Street 1.3 miles of bike lanes were added over the weeked that closed a gap between two existing sets of lanes were completed for a continuous eight miles from Laurel Canyon Road to Mason Avenue.  Reseda Boulevard still has a .9 mile gap in its bike lane, but that gap was over halved with the painting of a 1.1 mile stretch from Valerio Street in the south to Roscoe Boulevard in the north.

While its certainly good news that the Valley is getting a better bike network, it’s also good to see the LADOT keeping its promise to paint the lanes on Reseda and Rinaldi.  Back in April of 2009, the Department had a bit of a public relations problem when plans surfaced that existing bike lanes on Reseda Boulevard would be removed to create more peak hour car capacity.

LADOT complained they were victim of a rumor that was being spread and that they were never considering such a thing.  As the Bike Advisory Committee Chair, Glenn Bailey, and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition turned up the heat and the LADOT promised that in the next couple of years the gaps on Reseda Boulevard and Rinaldi Street would be completed.

Some of the lanes were completed almost immediately.  More were painted immediately before the Mayor’s Bike Summit.  And now a third set were painted and Rinaldi Street features an eight mile continuous Bike Lane.  Of course, any racer will tell you that the last miles is the hardest.  LADOT has .9 miles left.