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Prospect Avenue in Redondo Beach is a key North/South route along the inland portion of the city connecting Districts 1, 2, and 3. It spans approximately 3 miles in the city from Anita to PCH. While the city has made significant progress adding East/West bike lanes in the city and the Strand exists along the beach, there is currently no safe way to bike North/South along the inland portion of this part of the city.

The Prospect Ave Corridor connects at least 11 schools with nearly 7,000 students as well as homes, places of worship, and commercial areas. It is an important corridor for middle and high school students who travel to school by bicycle. Currently, over 300 high school students commute by bicycle to Redondo Union HS from across the city every day. Due to the lack of dedicated bicycle infrastructure on Prospect Ave, they are forced to ride on sidewalks or neighboring streets, and must face unsafe conditions in conflict with vehicles when riding on Prospect Ave.

In 2011, the South Bay Bicycle Coalition's (SBBC+) South Bay Bicycle Master Plan proposed Class II bike lanes on Prospect Ave. This plan was adopted by the City of Redondo Beach. In 2024, the SBBC+ updated this to call for Class IV protected bike lanes due to safety concerns with vehicle speeds, number of lanes, and street parking. Learn about the 2024 Updated Bicycle Master Plan here.

Speeding along Prospect Ave is a frequent community concern and the leading cause of crashes in the past five years. Lane reduction and narrowing is a demonstrated way to reduce speeding by design. In this grassroots community proposal, we are asking the Redondo Beach City Council to commission a corridor study of Prospect Ave to evaluate roadway configurations that incorporate safe, protected Class IV bike lanes.

Prospect Ave has a road width of around 64 ft from curb-to-curb along most of the corridor. This provides ample right-of-way to support protected bike lanes and sustainability improvements:

• Protected bike lanes (Class IV) have a hardened barrier such as curbs, bollards, or planters that physically separate cyclists from traffic to create a dedicated and safe bikeway.
• Where street parking exists along the corridor, street parking can be maintained and protected bike lanes can be added by reducing to one car lane in each direction.
• Where feasible, center medians and curbs can be added and planted with native plants to build habitat, soften the urban landscape, and sink rainwater.
• A corridor study can study street parking need based on traffic flow and parking utilization as well as potential roadway configurations that incorporate Class IV protected bike lanes.

Prospect Ave serves between 7,600 and 18,200 vehicles per day. Per the Federal Highway Administration, streets with less than 20,000 vehicles per day are considered good candidates for the proposed configuration.

This project would provide numerous benefits for the health, safety, and mobility of our community:

1. If you build it, they will come: Protected bicycle lanes are safer for all ages and abilities, and bolster bike ridership, which in turn reduces car traffic on the roads.

2. Safety for everyone: Protected bike lanes are shown to improve safety for all road users, including drivers. This project would also address speeding and truck traffic concerns by discouraging high speeds and truck movement through traffic calming.

3. Safe routes to schools: Prospect connects at least 11 schools with a total enrollment of nearly 7,000 students. A growing number of these students (and elementary school parents) travel to and from school via bicycle. Our children and youth deserve safe infrastructure to prevent crashes and injuries. California State PTA supports Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) as a focus area, and advocates for implementation of traffic calming and bike lanes.

4. Reduces potential conflicts and injuries: In local streets, cars, bikes, e-bikes and pedestrians contend for space. Protected bike infrastructure and intersections reduce conflict between different modes of travel as bikes are channeled into dedicated lanes. Bulbouts from bike lanes create shorter crossing distances for pedestrians at intersections, improving safety at crosswalks.

5. Native planting and environmental benefits: This project can include native plant landscaping along the center median of Prospect Ave and bioswales with curb cuts next to bike lanes. This would soften and quiet the urban landscape, build habitat, and soak and sink stormwater. Encouraging mode shift onto bikes from cars reduces greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles travelled, meeting our city's climate goals.

6. Key connector route and missing link: There are currently no safe North/South routes in this portion of the city to safely travel on bike. This route would connect many schools and destinations in Districts 1, 2, and 3 along a backbone, and also link to current and planned East/West bicycle infrastructure on: Flagler Ln, Diamond St, Torrance Blvd, Knob Hill, and PV Blvd.

In our community proposal, we ask the Redondo Beach City Council to:

1) Commission a corridor study for a Safer Prospect Avenue that incorporates Class IV protected bike lanes along the full route, and 2) Subsequently fund design and construction of this key corridor for health, safety, mobility, and sustainability in Redondo Beach.

Supported by:

South Bay Bicycle Coalition Plus	South Bay Forward	Beach Cities Health District

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