How This LA City Is (Slowly) Turning Into Amsterdam

Santa Monica (an independent city within the greater LA area) built its painted bike lane network over the last 12 years, and is now beginning to construct concrete barriers on many of the existing lanes. When everything is done around 2026-2030, thousands of new bikers will be converted from new apartments that will open here. Although the city already has more daily bikers than anywhere in LA, as it grows denser will begin to approach something like Amsterdam...

[Urbanhandyman]

A great start to what could be one of the best examples of bicycle lane infrastructure in North America. Emphasis on, "...could be...". Culver City's recent decision to remove bicycle and bus lanes shows the incredibly strong addiction Americans have to personal cars.

[Cheshie]

Great work! Please continue to slap the shit out of Culver City NIMBYs!

[jojopuppyfish]

I lived in LA for 13 years and this is great to see. I now live in DC and I see how more bike lanes = more bike usage. But I've always felt that LA (and SM) could really be the best bike city in the USA. Because the weather is perfect for it.

[manu.yt]

2:38 I can confirm the concrete barrier do works fine, last year I had a large flight stopover at LAX and decided to take the bus to Santa Monica, as soon as I got out of the bus I saw this magnificient bike infrastructure and also heard a car who turned on that road without paying attention to the concrete barrier and damaged under their car 😅 That was a pretty good proof that those works well against cars.

[veziculorile]

I hope this continues in many areas of the US

[MichaelHinrichs]

Amazing video, I will be using this when people tell me that LA is a "car city" and it would be "literally impossible" to change that.

[mardiffv.]

05:22 WOW! A protected island for cyclists crossing the road. Reducing the change of a right hook accident. I love to see that Dutch bike infrastructure is used in Santa Monica.

[HotPink]

I'm from the UK, so I'm pretty used to seeing cycle infrastructure and pedestrian-friendly streets. When I left the E Line to visit Santa Monica, I was really impressed with what could actually be done in a North American city if properly executed. It reminded me of home as well as the Third Street Promenade looked like a typical, nice British high street, well done Santa Monica!

[chuckmorello]

Good video! The footage is crystal clear. I appreciate the focus on future projects and identification of the opposition (nimbys).
I hope more locals in the city will see us and feel encouraged to support further growth of the bike lanes.

[vistaxp]

this is an example of how LA can become the best city in america

with some areas like santa monica and culver city showing that bike infrastructure can work

also with the many projects of the metro i feel like in many years if they put in the work, la can become a world class city

[FlyingOverTrut]

Awesome video. So happy to see such a quality video focusing on supporting bike infrastructure in LA.

[Sunlest]

Hot damn this was a good video. More cities need to start renovating like this, and not like Culver city. Get bike lanes and walkable paths in. Then plant some greens, and it'll look amazing.

[no_name]

Great stuff man! Santa Monica has really gone a long way and hope it showcases to rest of SoCal how much you can do with some investments in alternative transit.

[cesarrojas]

It is awesome seeing the positive changes we desire in cities so close to me. As an occasional Santa Monica visitor, it has been awesome to see these changes unfold in real-time.

[hcblue]

I live a few blocks west from that protest location in Santa Monica (Broadway & 17th in the video). The fact is that Downtown Santa Monica (so closer to Broadway & 3rd) is already much nicer and more bikeable now compared to even 5 years ago. As a local, I feel safe walking. In downtown, they've also installed bollards separating the bike paths when they can't yet fit in concrete dividers; it's not perfect, but I'm so happy for all these incremental improvements.

And the thing is, as a resident, it's improved even the car traffic, when I have to occasionally drive. Five years ago, it would've taken me a good 20-ish minutes to get out of the neighborhood and onto the freeway. Now it's closer to 5 minutes even during the busiest weekends. I can't wait for more places to be connected by train and by safe paths, and be able to get rid of my car completely.

[wafflewafflegod]

I spent the summer in Santa Monica in 2022. Thought I’d bring my bike for fun, but the infrastructure made biking my primary transportation. Since I worked remote, I only ever used my car to travel out of town or go to a dodgers game.

[hansonel]

Visited Los Angeles in 2016 one of the highlights of my visit was taking the Expo line from Downtown LA to Santa Monica. "This is dangerous." Those NIMBY's and that councilman would have a heart attack visiting Amsterdam and other European cities.

Santa Monica planners have been watching Not Just Bikes videos on Dutch urban planning perhaps.

[Eric_Luke]

I'm an avid cyclist and I love living in Santa Monica! The cycling community here is fantastic and it's a delight to run errands and commute around on bike - it's WAY faster than driving in traffic and looking for parking. The video does a great job of highlighting how helpful the green-painted & protected lanes are in making cycling feel safe. Keep it up SM!

[bassyey]

Now that's a city! With real people walking/biking around. It's great to see.

[marknolan]

Thanks for highlighting these improvements. It's good to know that SM is being proactive and planning for the future and at the same being an exemplary. They realize the answer to a better quality of life is not more parking structures.