MultiModal Weekend (Part I)

The weekend of October 14-16th was a big experiment for me.  I used bike, bus, car and train to get around LA County.  I have been wanting to write about the experience and compare each way of getting to and from downtown Los Angeles for a resident of Glendale.

https://www.strava.com/activities/744729565

Friday, October 14th, after work I left California State University, Northridge around 2pm.  I rode along the Orange Line Busway Bike Path.  I rarely ride at this time, but there were lots of school-age teenagers walking on the sidewalks of Reseda and Van Nuys.  I got a little bored in NoHo, but that's normal.  It's not that fun riding in the bike lane along Chandler Blvd, especially when there aren't any other cyclists out there to chase.  After cutting down Keystone, I took an unplanned left turn on Alameda, which had a pretty nice bike lane (that I'm not seeing on Google Maps).  The video below shows it at 53 seconds in.

I went down Victory Blvd to a little side street called Ruberta, which used to have a cool "Halloween House" but now it doesn't.  I refilled my water bottles in the drinking fountain at the Glendale Narrows, then rode/pushed/carried my bike across the Bette Davis Picnic Area (Cyclocross training) and up to Riverside Dr to gawk at the closure of the Los Angeles River Path.  

The Army Corps of Engineers will be hosting a public meeting on Monday, November 7th, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at the Friendship Auditorium by Griffith Park (3201 Riverside Drive) and LACBC encourages all to attend and speak up.

All that being said, I took the detour through Griffith Park and entered the bike path by the dog park. I exited the path at Fletcher and took the route through Silver Lake and along Sunset Blvd to reach Spring St. I don't know why other people don't like going that way. It was also the first time I really didn't need a route sheet. That's what I love about CicLAvia, it makes me understand how to reach downtown LA without a car.

Raw crunchy four kale mix, shredded cabbage, apples, shredded carrots and avocado, grape tomato, tossed w/ maple orange dressing, topped w/ currants, hemp seeds & creamy hummus dressing drizzle 

http://thelacafe.com/salads.html

After reaching LACBC headquarters, I had dinner at the LA Cafe.  I don't know if it was the 2 hours and 40 minutes I'd just spent winding my way gradually from The Valley to Downtown LA, or if the salad was REALLY GREAT but I haven't had a better meal in years.  There were picnic tables in a parklet, a couple of nice bike racks to lock up.  It was the ideal way to wind down from my ride and take in a street view of the city.

Now I'm off to make the City of Glendale more walkable.  I'll have to finish this post in a multi-part series.