Call for Bike Ban Near LA River After Woman Critically Hurt When Struck by Cyclist

The call comes after a string of collision with pedestrians, the most recent of which left an elderly woman hospitalized.

Residents in Elysian Valley are calling for a ban on cyclists after an elderly woman was seriously injured while walking down a bike path near the LA River.

"When the bike path first opened up, there were constantly ambulances here, because bicyclists were running over pedestrians," cyclist Sasha Binder said. "It's a huge problem here."

The woman has been in intensive care for more than a week, and now residents are demanding action for what has become a pattern of collisions.

The stretch of the LA River sits next to a residential neighborhood and is shared between cyclists and pedestrians.

Markings alerting cyclists of a pedestrian were put on the path two years ago, but the path’s narrow width and the speed of some cyclists have continued to cause collisions.

One resident said the cyclists are using the path to do "race training," and called for "better signage, better messaging" to alert the cyclists that the area is part of a neighborhood.

Others, though, feel the ban would be detrimental.

"I hope they don’t [ban bicycles] because a lot of the bicyclists and students like myself use this to get to school and get to go to places," Binder said, adding that there is "nothing" within walking distance in the neighborhood.

Council member Mitch O’Farrell’s office is asking the LA Department of Transportation to add more crossing markings on the path and is working with the Los Angeles Police Department to do targeted enforcement on the weekends.

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