Power to the Pedal Finalist - éL: Elevated Cycleway: 2008

The éL: Elevated Cycleway did not win the "Power to the Pedal" design contest, but it was a finalist, and one of my favorite submittals

éL is a Product that can be implemented by city governments utilizing existing electric service poles or new structural poles when needed.

This Elevated Cycleway provides increased riding safety by connecting and filling gaps in a preexisting but patchy network of bicycle infrastructure.

The éL is inspired by the California Cycleway of 1900, a wooden elevated bike path, built after the “bike craze” of the late 1890s, which ran from Pasadena through the Arroyo Seco to downtown Los Angeles. “In 1901 nervous cyclists found the track safer than the widest roads, for there are no horses to avoid, no trains or trolley-cars, no stray dogs or wandering children.” Ironically, Ironically thethe cycleway was torn down to make way for the nation’s first freeway, “the 110.”