Our office just got moved 2 weeks ago to Culver City. I used to ride the nice smooth bike lane on Santa Monica blvd, but those days are over. Now I'm trying to find the best route from the Hollywood area down to Culver City.

I've got a decent route that i'm trying now as far as traffic goes, roughly LaBrea, over to Martel, down to Venice to the bike path which takes me to work, but that whole area from Hollywood to Venice is so horrible, it seems no matter which road I take is full of cracks, potholes, bumps, etc. It's killing my bike.. and my car too. I drove one day last week and a side marker light got knocked off, just from huge bumps. This morning it looks like one of my bar end caps fell off my bike, not to mention the beating my body takes. It's pretty annoying.

So... anybody know a better way? Should I just get a full suspension mtb?

take a metro rapid bus south?. Only $1.50 and its usually fast. The bus bike rack works great BTW i use it a lot. For the bike,.... maybe Big Apple tires, a thudbuster seatpost and foam grips.

I used to live in Culver City and commuted to just south of LAX, but that was 25 years ago, so I'm sure nothing I might suggest would help. Short of a mtb, are wider tires an option? I went from 25s to 35s on my commuter bike and it was a huge improvement in terms of tolerating rough roads.

I'm showing you a cut through using Castle Hieghts and Hughes to get into Culver City and other streets I'm familiar with to get there. It just reqires getting into Beverly Hills

https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4440335
or https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4440375


or if you want to use Venice
https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4440335

I'm coming from los feliz, but I go down the middle of hollywood to get to the mid wilshire area. My office is around la cienega/jefferson, where National ends. It looks like your route will add a couple miles for me, but if it's smooth it might be worth the extra ride. I'll give it a try and see how it goes, thanks.

I think Rossmore is smooth, but I havent been on it in a while
https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4440457

--washinton may be better than Venice
--or follow Houser all the way down

This thread makes me kind of sad. I mean... its 2011 and in a major metro area of a nuclear superpower country bike commuters are sharing tips for finding smooth roads... myself, I would move. Seriously. I did in fact do just that. The streets in NYC were a whole lot better too. I know, I just spent three days driving to, around in, and out of L.A. I'm still telling people about the experience. There should be some kind of PTSD counseling set up on the exit roads out of the area. If you won't move, how about forming large civil protest actions and making city and state officials accountable.

H

OH Things are changing here fast. To an outsider/visiter it may seem like total chaos. You can retreat to "safer" city but i prefer to stay on the front where the action is. A week ago i witnessed over 50,000 cyclists riding a car-free downtown LA (CycLAvia). Plus the weather is awesome here.

Yeah a lot is happening here for bikes. I was lucky enough to join in with Midnight Ridazz right around the time that people I became friends with started do work with City Council, hold demonstrations, and one even ran in the last CC election.

Soon you should be able to take the Exposition Line to Culver City but until that happens, try Venice or Washington. I used to talk the bus/train from Long Beach to Venice (because I don't care to drive) and the roads were not so smooth. If you run into this problem, do yourself a favor by reporting them to the pothole hotline (311 I think) and they should be patched up within two weeks.

Thanks for paving the way! let me know if i can help. PM me for graphics/illustrations if you need em'

Although I don't commute but picture me doing it every day when I drive basically the opposite of you I used to live off Normandie/Franklin until 4 months ago and now am in Pico/Robertson. I now go from Pico/Robertson to Sunset and Wilton...ANYWAY. I drive lots of different ways to check out the streets on the off chance I can get myself to commute 7ish miles.

I suggest trying this:
Get down to Van Ness. I'd head south to Fountain, turn right. Left on Van Ness. Lovely street, a few of those nice wide speed bumps but an easy ride and wide enough after you pass Santa Monica. Take Van Ness to (I think) 3rd, turn right and then go left immediately and turn right on 4th. 4th is marked with sharrows and has hardly any cars. I think that might be a good route to get you a bit south and a good ways east.

So: Fountain, Van Ness, 4th

7-ish miles eh? That sounds like a decent ride. You should give it a try! A weekend test ride should give you an idea of what it'd be like.

The problem with 4th is it's nearly unrideable due to cracks and potholes. I've taken it a few times and you're right that there are hardly any cars, which would make it awesome if it weren't for the quality of the road, but it's just too much for my bike and body to handle, especially after dark when it's harder to see the cracks. Then it's just too dangerous.

Check this out, imagine a whole width of the street like this for miles. Images near the bottom.
https://www.bicyclefixation.com/4thst.html

I actually found a decent route that i've taken yesterday afternoon and this morning. I take my normal route through Hollywood, to LaBrea. Ride down to Willoughby then down Pointsettia. This takes me as far as 2nd, where I shoot over to Cochran, then down to venice to the bike path. Still fine tuning it. I'm going to try a different way to get from Venice blvd to Poinsettia that I scoped out on google maps on my ride home in a bit, but so far this way isn't too shabby.

this is roughly my ride this morning.. i left out the first part from my apt. to the starting point on the map, but you get the idea from there
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...=UTF8&t=h&z=15

Hi Bhop. I know 7 is totally doable for someone who is in semi-shape and rides often. My problem is this: I haven't been on my bike in six months . When I was riding more often, like last summer, the most I rode was a 17 mile slow meandering about day. I'm so terribly out of shape that I really need to condition myself and well there's another problem. I wake up as it is at 6am. I'm not sure if I'm committed enough to wake up 30 minutes earlier. I teach high school and simply need to be at work by 7:30 each morning. I know, I'm pathetic