This article originally appeared in our parent publication, Streetsblog LA.
Long Beach recently debuted a new northbound protected bike lane along Long Beach Blvd. in front of the newly opened Harbor Yard Apartments. The new four story 194-unit affordable housing broke ground in 2023, and opened earlier this month. The location is 2400-2490 Long Beach Boulevard – extending from Burnett Street to 25th Street. It is located along the A Line tracks, about a quarter mile south of the Metro A Line Willow Street Station.
Harbor Yard Apartments are now leasing.
But the focus of this post is the new bike and bus improvements. Streetsblog has covered Long Beach’s strategy of having many new developments provide multimodal street improvements. This new facility is similar to three other projects along Long Beach Boulevard – at Anaheim Street, Pacific Coast Highway, and 51st Street.
The new stretch of protected bike lane on Long Beach Blvd.
The latest improvements are about 600 feet long; they include a northbound plastic-bollard-protected bike lane that weaves behind a bus shelter.
It’s short. There is still more work to do to make Long Beach Boulevard a great place to bike.
But Long Beach’s gradual upgrades are a stark contrast with the city of Los Angeles, which frequently requires new housing developments to widen streets, to make them more car-centric, and less conducive to bicycling, walking, and transit.
Last year, both L.A. City and the state basically ended road widening at new housing, but with many projects already in the L.A. pipeline (and some exceptions), SBLA continues to encounter L.A. City widening – see examples last week, and two months ago.
