Patch Blog: Signs on the Elysian Valley Bike Trail

The paving of the section of the Los Angeles River path from Fletcher to Figueroa through the Elysian Valley changed a bumpy cracked path to a smooth one.

Slow and fast bicyclists use the path. Rollerbladers, skateboarders, and a loud four wheeled engine-driven low, open vehicle that may be prohibited as a motorized bicycle under V C Section 21207.5-- also use the path. Young adults walk four abreast wearing ear buds along the path, and their heads are bent over their hands as they text messages.

Posted on the lamp posts are small signs with the stylized image of a bicycle and beneath the image are the words “yield peds,” which I assume means bicyclists must yield to pedestrians. Bicyclists can only see these signs heading towards Figueroa from the Rattlesnake Park entrance. There is no municipal code section noted after this warning on the signs. I have been unable to find a provision in the City's code that mandates bicyclists must yield to pedestrians. ( See, http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&vid=amlegal:lamc_ca)

A bicyclist in California has all the rights and responsibilities of a vehicle driver. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&group=21001-22000&file=21200-21212. Pedestrians have the right of way in cross-walks, but must yield to vehicles in places other than crosswalks. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&group=21001-22000&file=21949-21971. (I have not seen a driver stop for a pedestrian in a cross-walk in Los Angeles since I was about eight years old, although I have seen drivers stop for pedestrians in crosswalks in Glendale.) Other than in cross-walks, pedestrians need to yield to vehicles.

I could not find a state or local law that requires bicyclists to yield to pedestrians on shared use paths, although it seems to me that there should be such a requirement.

The Elysian Valley Neighborhood Council will soon post a sign “Share the Path,” with figures of a bicycle and a woman with a child. http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2011/08/new-signs-try-to-steer-elysian-valley-bike-riders-and-walkers-on-the-right-path/.

The neighboring community's Share the Path signs will tend to contradict the small signs that indicate bicyclists “yield peds” but will more accurately reflect the reality that everyone will have to be cautious on the path --  which is probably true everywhere in Los Angeles, where we frequently travel along the perimeter of total anarchy.