urbanknight

I always figured they decided to open the Bike Path around the Sepulveda Basin up to skaters and runners to make it more useful, and such people use them all the time, but I noticed there is still a sign at the north-west corner of Balboa and Burbank that says pedestrians, skateboards, and roller skates prohibited. It's not posted anywhere else that I have seen, which means anyone doing the main 4 mile loop won't even see that one sign. Is there an official stand on this? I was thinking of trying the loop on my rollerblades (minding traffic and being aware, of course), but don't want to do it just because everyone else breaks the rules (not that I'm going to wage war against them either).

rubic

The California Vehicle Code states:

21966. No pedestrian shall proceed along a bicycle path or lane
where there is an adjacent adequate pedestrian facility.

Since there is a sidewalk beside the bike path on the west side of Balboa at Burbank, you are technically in violation if you rollerblade on the bike bath. However, I have never seen or heard of anybody being cited.

Just cross Balboa to the east or anyplace else on the Sepulveda bike path and you can freely rollerblade to your heart's content since there isn't an adjacent sidewalk. Just listen for "On yer left!"

magicant

Honestly don't know. I used to rollerblade around there, but that was like 15% of a century ago. It was pretty crummy terrain back then (lots of cracks and bumps - fine for a bike, but not great for rollerblading).

urbanknight

Rubic, thanks that seems to answer the question. The east loop does not have a sidewalk of any sort, while the restricting sign is on the west end which does have sidewalk as you mentioned. Not that I'm worried about being cited, but I also don't like to be a jerk.

Magicant, the path still does have quite a few nasty cracks and uneven expansion joints, but rollerblade wheels are getting larger now which makes the bumps more manageable. My skates are 10 year old speed skates that handle up to 80mm wheels while new models are now being made for up to 110mm!

I'm gonna give it a try tomorrow and see if that makes a decent alternative while I let my knees recover.