This month, the County of Los Angeles released it’s long-awaited Bicycle Master Plan (214p. PDF), along with extensive technical appendices (195p.)
This comprehensive approach to accomodating bicycle transportation throughout the County led us to dust off a very early predecessor.
Back in 1975, the County unveiled a Plan of Bikeways as a sub-element to the transportation element of the Los Angeles County General Plan.
The plan served as the draft environmental impact report for the proposed network of bicycle infrastructure throughout the County.
Believe it or not, 148 bikeways were up for consideration, and the accompanying draft EIR weighed in at a scant 19 pages.
(Yes, you read that correct. The introduction to the draft EIR even states that it was “prepared in accordance with State and County guidelines to be an information document and a full disclosure of environmental effects.”)
The plan states that the accompanying map for the proposed routes had already been reviewed by all 78 cities that then existed in the County, as well as Federal, State and Regional agencies, including the Southern California Association of Governments, Caltrans, the Citizens Planning Council and other governmental committees.
The plan identifies assets and opportunities associated with bikeways, designates standard criteria for their selection and design, explains how it will be implemented alongside then-existing programs, and lists the 148 routes selected.
If 148 is simply not enough, this version, found on the County’s website, lists 172 bikeways along with a different map (but not the cool 1970s cover art).