The Expo Line Bikeway is a

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

rail with trail Rails with trails (RWT) are a small subset of rail trails in which a railway right-of-way remains in use by trains yet also has a parallel recreational trail. Hundreds of kilometers of RWTs exist in Canada, Europe, the United States, and Weste ...

bicycle path and pedestrian route that travels roughly parallel to the

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

’s E Line train tracks between the Exposition Park area near the USC campus and downtown Santa Monica near the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The Expo Line Bikeway is one of two major bicycle routes in Los Angeles that share dedicated rights-of-way with

mass transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

, the other being the Orange Line Bikeway in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

. The

Santa Monica Air Line The Santa Monica Air Line was an interurban railroad operated by the Pacific Electric between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Electric passenger service operated over the line between 1908 and 1953. After abandonment as a freight railroad, ...

used the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

from 1909 to 1953. The track was last used for freight in 1988; the county transportation agency bought the route from

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

in 1991.

Rails-to-trails A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

advocacy groups quickly began agitating for a bike route along the Exposition corridor, with one 1992 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' article prophetically headlined: “A Better Path: There Are 12.2 Miles of Abandoned Rail Beds That Could Be Turned Into a Trail for Bikers, Joggers and Walkers From USC to Santa Monica, but There Is Resistance.” Twenty years later, in 2012, the first section of the Exposition corridor bikeway opened to the public. The Expo Line Bikeway connects to the

Ballona Creek Bike Path The Ballona Creek Bike Path (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh" or “Buy-yo-nah” ) is a Class I bicycle path and pedestrian route in California. The bike path follows the north bank of Ballona Creek until it reaches Santa Monica Bay at the Pac ...

(and

Park to Playa Trail The Park to Playa Trail in Los Angeles County, California is a pedestrian and bicycle route that connects the Baldwin Hills parklands to the Pacific Ocean (''Playa'' is ''beach'' in Spanish). According to the ''Los Angeles Times'', “Good views ...

) at National Boulevard in Culver City. The connection between the two paths is at the Bike Path Bridge over Ballona Creek; the bridge originally carried the southbound lanes of National until the construction of the E Line overpass and a new four-lane National Boulevard bridge.

Route

* Eastern trailhead coordinates: * Western trailhead coordinates:

Eastern segment (aka Phase I)

* Trailhead:

Expo/Vermont station Expo/Vermont station is an at-grade light rail station on the E Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The station is located in the center median of Exposition Boulevard at its intersection with Vermont Avenue, after which the station is ...

* Trailhead:

Culver City station Culver City station is an elevated light rail station on the E Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The station is located on a dedicated right-of-way alongside Exposition Boulevard — between the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Ro ...

, specifically Platform Park at Washington and National under the track * Distance: * Route: This section is largely a Class III bike route (bicycles share a main road with a car traffic), but there is short separated bike path segment between LaCienega/Jefferson station and the western terminus. There is a dogleg turn on Harcourt Avenue between the stretch on Jefferson Blvd. and the section on La Cienega Blvd. There is an eastbound crossing of the train tracks at South Gramercy Place. Just before the western end of the Phase I/eastern segment of the Expo Bikeway, there is access to the

which continues six miles west to the ocean, connecting to the Coastal Bike Trail.

Central segment

* Trailhead:

* Trailhead: Palms station, Exposition Boulevard and Palms Boulevard northeast corner * Distance: * Notes: Separated from traffic except at crossings Expo Line Bikeway central segment

Western segment (aka Phase II)

* Trailhead: Westwood/Rancho Park station, corner of Selby Avenue and Exposition Blvd. * Trailhead: 17th Street/Santa Monica College station * Distance: * Notes: Separated from traffic except at crossings “There are good bikeway connections in the area, but people unfamiliar with the vicinity would be well served by ignageto the beach, the

Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

(MANGo), Santa Monica College, and other destinations.”

Gaps

There are two intervals lacking either clear on-street navigation or a separated route.

Culver Junction gap

* Trailhead: National Boulevard and Wesley Avenue * Trailhead: Behind Venice Crossroads shopping center * Distance:

Northvale gap

* Trailhead: Palms station * Trailhead: Westwood/Rancho Park station * Route: Northvale Avenue and Overland Avenue or National Boulevard and Westwood Boulevard, passing under

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

* Distance: * Notes: ''A plan to close the gap and connect the central and western segments is approved and funded; completion is expected by 2025.''

Access

Dedicated parking lots for “park and ride” commuters are available at 17th/SMC, Expo/Bundy, Expo/Sepulveda,

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

, Jefferson/La Cienega, and Expo/Crenshaw stations.

Points of interest

The origin point of the western segment includes the Westwood Neighborhood Greenway, a

linear park A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and shorelines. Examples of linear p ...

completed 2020, that “daylights” the Brown Canyon Creek that had been funneled underground since 1958. The Greenway was built on a railroad right-of-way that was not otherwise occupied by the train tracks or bike route. There is a bicycle repair shop and a secured bike garage located within the Culver City station at about the halfway point along the route.

References

External links

Los Angeles Bikeway Map (Metro.net) - HTML

Los Angeles Bikeway Map (Metro.net) - PDF hosted on Dropbox

Heal the Bay: City to the Sea/Expo Line scavenger hunt/points of interest (PDF)

Westwood Neighborhood Greenway

YouTube video of the route from Santa Monica to Culver City, via helmet cam (2016)

Helpful transportation engineer critique of Phase 1 design
{{Los Angeles bike paths Bikeway Bike paths in Los Angeles Rail trails in California Parks in Los Angeles County, California Transportation in Culver City, California Santa Monica, California 2012 establishments in California

Route

Eastern segment (aka Phase I)

Central segment

Western segment (aka Phase II)

Gaps

Culver Junction gap

Northvale gap

Access

Points of interest

See also

References

External links