Of Bridges and Bikes
By Irvine City News staff
With traffic an issue in Irvine, any improvement to the transit infrastructure in the city is welcome. Irvine has some 54 miles of off-street bikeways that connect the community, along with 301 miles of on-street bike lanes.
Connecting the off-street miles together is key to making it more convenient and safer for cyclists and pedestrians to travel. That’s one of the purposes of the new $6-million pedestrian bridge across Irvine Blvd. in the Great Park Neighborhoods.
The contemporary design of the bridge makes it a cool contribution to connectivity in the area, especially as new communities being built by both FivePoint and the Irvine Co. take shape north of the Great Park.
The 282-foot-long bridge provides biking and walking access to important sections of the Orange County Great Park currently under construction – including Upper Bee Canyon and the Bosque. It will also connect to miles of bikeways and greenbelts in the Great Park, Great Park Neighborhoods, as well as the extensive Irvine and Orange County Bikeway systems.
When Irvine amended its Bicycle Transportation Plan in 2011, the highest priority from survey respondents was for “new off-street bikeways connecting to and through the Orange County Great Park.” The new bridge is part of that plan, and it joins other bridges in Irvine helping create connectivity, including the three bridges along the Jeffrey Open Space Trail from the 5 Freeway to Portola Parkway.
All should add to Irvine’s growth as a city amenable to cycling and walking. The city has a silver rating as a Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American bicyclists. Walkscore.com, a group that measures how bikeable and walkable cities, neighborhoods and even apartment communities are, gives Irvine a respectable score of 70, the highest in Orange County.
Building bridges between communities: it’s the Irvine way!
Connecting the off-street miles together is key to making it more convenient and safer for cyclists and pedestrians to travel. That’s one of the purposes of the new $6-million pedestrian bridge across Irvine Blvd. in the Great Park Neighborhoods.
The contemporary design of the bridge makes it a cool contribution to connectivity in the area, especially as new communities being built by both FivePoint and the Irvine Co. take shape north of the Great Park.
The 282-foot-long bridge provides biking and walking access to important sections of the Orange County Great Park currently under construction – including Upper Bee Canyon and the Bosque. It will also connect to miles of bikeways and greenbelts in the Great Park, Great Park Neighborhoods, as well as the extensive Irvine and Orange County Bikeway systems.
When Irvine amended its Bicycle Transportation Plan in 2011, the highest priority from survey respondents was for “new off-street bikeways connecting to and through the Orange County Great Park.” The new bridge is part of that plan, and it joins other bridges in Irvine helping create connectivity, including the three bridges along the Jeffrey Open Space Trail from the 5 Freeway to Portola Parkway.
All should add to Irvine’s growth as a city amenable to cycling and walking. The city has a silver rating as a Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American bicyclists. Walkscore.com, a group that measures how bikeable and walkable cities, neighborhoods and even apartment communities are, gives Irvine a respectable score of 70, the highest in Orange County.
Building bridges between communities: it’s the Irvine way!
