I wanted to call your attention to a very lengthy post put up at LA.Streetsblog late this afternoon. Damien Newton, the editor of the site, went on a bike ride along the Eastside Gold Line Extension today with five other cyclists to study safety issues concerning the line.

Overall, Newton writes that the group came with a favorable impression of the line. But they did have concerns about some particular intersections, sufficient signal timing to help pedestrians and the lack of gates to separate pedestrians from trains.

I encourage everyone to give it a read, particularly if you’re headed out Sunday to check out the grand opening for yourself. The Streetsblog people think about this stuff a lot — you may agree or disagree with their conclusions, but I think their willingness to study these issues on a micro basis should be respected.

It’s also worth noting that the California Public Utilities Commission approved the line formally on Friday and said they had no major safety concerns.

I also wanted to pass along one of Newton’s ideas — a bike lane along 1st Street. That’s a fine proposition and it may help residents of the area more easily reach the Gold Line stations. In fact, it would be great to see bike lanes or designated bike routes on streets that feed into the train line, both on 1st and 3rd streets.