Brand New Bike Lanes for Glendale’s Brand Blvd.

The City of Glendale has completed its North Brand Boulevard Complete Streets Demonstration Project, which has transformed the half-mile stretch of Brand into a multi-modal corridor, complete with barrier-protected lanes and colorfully painted intersection bumpouts. 

The quick-build project, which runs from Glenoaks Blvd. north to Mountain St., offers walkers and cyclists two protected bike lanes, and the street still features ample diagonal parking and three lanes for cars — down from the five car-dedicated lanes before April 9, when the city began work on North Brand. 

When SAFE checked out the new and improved stretch of North Brand this week, the main takeaway was just how safe, bright, and welcoming the street felt. The North Brand stretch greets visitors with brightly painted mosaics to help calm traffic near intersections and Technicolor-green pavement in the conflict zones and bike boxes.

Cyclists and pedestrians are protected in the bike lanes by concrete jersey barriers, which helps give riding in the new bike lanes a pleasant, neighborhood feel: neighbors leisurely stroll and roll past al fresco dining options and soak in the sun, and this cyclist found it a needed respite after a few miles of navigating the gnarls of LA traffic.

If you’d like to learn more about the North Brand project, visit the Glendale Share Space and Place site or just ride over and check it yourself, but do so soon: the project is temporary. The city plans to keep the improvements in place through the fall, and they will make the changes permanent — if the community wants it.  

Fill out the city’s short survey to let Glendale know that we want a calmer, safer North Brand Boulevard permanently. 

Shout out to StreetsblogLA’s Joe Linton for his great coverage of the North Brand quick-build project; check out Joe’s work and follow StreetsblogLA on Twitter.