Carson will begin construction on almost 20 miles of bike lanes throughout the city in August — though the project won’t be finished until about six month before the Olympics.
The City Council last week approved two projects that will create defined, painted bike lanes along multiple streets, including Avalon Boulevard, Central Avenue, Del Amo Boulevard, 223rd Street, Main Street, Victoria Street and Carson Street.
A map showing the project locations for the new citywide bike lanes. (Map courtesy of the City of Carson)
The projects will cost about $4.2 million, with the city providing $2.7 million, and the rest coming from state and federal funding.
The projects are also in line with the Carson Master Plan of Bikeways. The master plan was created in 2013 in an effort to create safer roadways in the city for bicyclists and to align the city with the South Bay Cities Bicycle Master Plan.
The projects, officials said, are essential for creating a bike route long enough for bicyclists to train for riding the velodrome during the 2028 Olympics.
A velodrome is an indoor, circular bicycle racing track and Carson is home to the largest one in the U.S. But the city is lacking in bike lanes and paths for cyclists to use when training to compete in the velodrome – making it necessary for these projects to be completed before the 2028 Olympics, according to Councilmember Cedric Hicks.
“This is probably our last opportunity to make sure we have bike lanes for the velodrome,” he said. “We have world-class cyclists that will be coming through our city at that time and we don’t have anything that’s remotely close to them being able to cycle in our city.”
This has been a longtime coming, Hicks said, with the Carson Master Plan of Bikeways being created when he was on city staff. It outlined multiple barriers for bicyclists in the city, he said.
“By far the most common barrier is a lack of safe streets to ride on,” the master plan says about public comments the city received while drafting it. “The vast majority of respondents (92%) stated that this was a barrier. The next most common barrier was a lack of bicycle parking; nearly half of all respondents (53%) said this was a barrier to bicycling. Respondents who marked ‘Other’ stated a free response describing the barrier. Most of the free responses concerned the lack of bikeways in the City.”
The original plan required only Highway Safety Improvement Program grant funding. But when the City Council directed staff to eliminate any shared lanes, which would require median modifications, the cost of one of the projects – Project No. 1452 – increased significantly.
This delayed the project while staff looked for funding.
But last week, the Carson City Council finally approved a resolution to use up to $10.6 million in Metro M funds for Project No. 1452, which encompasses the bike lanes on University Drive, Avalon Boulevard, Central Avenue, Del Amo Boulevard and 223rd Street.
This will fund required modifications to “widen roadway sections and accommodate buffered bike lanes,” the staff report said.
Project No. 1451, which includes portions of Figueroa Street, Main Street, Victoria Street and Carson Street, does not require any median modifications, the staff report said. Instead, bike lanes in this project will only have striping and signing improvements.
The project is also eligible for nearly $1.6 million is federal HSIP reimbursements through Caltrans, the staff report said.
“Separating the projects in this manner ensures compliance with federal requirements,” the staff report said. “while allowing the City to efficiently deliver the most complex portion of the work.”
Once the agreement with the state for the $1.6 million in federal funding has been executed, the city will be able to advertise Project No. 1451 for construction bids.
However, Project. No. 1451 will be constructed after the completion of Project No. 1452 to avoid any construction conflicts that could arise because only one of those projects will modify medians. The city wants to make sure all bike lane painting and signage is uniform, which will depend on the repainting of the roadways that have narrowed medians under Project No. 1452.
Project No. 1452 is scheduled to begin construction in August, with an estimated completion date of May 2027. Project No. 1451 will then begin construction in June 2027, with an estimated completion date of December 2027.