Cyclists using Spring St.’s green bike lane. Photo by Jances Certeza.
There’s been and still is a constant quarrel between the film industry, city officials, and the residents of Downtown LA over just what’s to become of Spring Street’s green bike lane.
For those unaware, in 2011 the city of Los Angeles painted green 1.5 miles of Spring Street’s bike lane to encourage more Angelenos to start cycling. The idea was openly embraced by many of the businesses along the lane, and was seen by residents and the cycling community as a forward step for the Downtown neighborhood in its goal to become a more livable space.
Those in the film industry however want it gone, arguing that the bright green lanes would be distracting for viewers in shots, and would be difficult and costly to digitally remove…
Within the public discourse many attacked such an argument, stating that it would be easy to remove the green, and that the paint should stay. One reader at Streetsblog decided to disprove such an argument and take on the task of digitally removing the green from the lanes himself. According to Streetsblog, “It took the editor all of about twenty seconds to remove the green.” Watch the video below to see how the editor easily removes the bright green from his video shot.
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What do they do about the current MUTCD signage beside the road when they do period pieces?
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The San Gabriel Mountains in the background have never discouraged them from trying to pass Downtown Los Angeles off as New York City. Or maybe I’m the only one that catches this?
Yeah, Hollywood! Find another amazingly dense area of historic and pre-war architecture!
I guess Hollywood does not have the expertise to: a.) FILM SOMEWHERE ELSE (if they do not like the color/existence of a “bike lane”, or b.) find a way to “obsure” the bike lane when they are filming!
Compare with San Francisco’s Market Street: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/bhome/ColoredLanes.htm
This is what was approved (and why): http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/interim_approval/ia14/
Why does the film indystry have an issue with Spring st. bike lanes? I mean, they use it to park their big equipment carrying trucks on it all the time anyways.
That stuff is the exact same color as the green screen technology. Which leads me to believe its not hard to buff out.
The soon to be installed 7th St. bike lane through the industrial district of DTLA should be painted green! We would welcome the color!