Ongoing Tiverton Drive closure creates frustrations for cyclists

The closure of Tiverton Drive for the construction of a new UCLA Health building has drawn criticism from some cyclists and the UCLA Bicycle Academy.

The construction of the Teaching and Learning Center for Health Sciences has been ongoing since September 2013 and is expected to end in fall 2016, according to a university statement.

During that time, a narrow walkway just wide enough for two people to walk next to each other is the only accessible portion of the road.

Cyclists are prohibited from riding their bicycles on the walkway, and are instructed to instead dismount and walk their bikes for the duration of the construction project.

Michael Cahn, secretary of the UCLA Bicycle Academy, which seeks to build university support for the cyclist community, said the group recently reached out to university officials requesting that they create a wider path so bicyclists can use it at the same time as pedestrians. Cahn said he recommended officials push back the location of a fence along the path and pave a different dirt area next to the current walkway.

Cahn, who commuted to campus from Santa Monica on his bicycle when he was a lecturer at UCLA,said dismounting and walking bicycles on the path is inconvenient, since many bikers have to stop and step aside on the path to let pedestrians by.

Some students who rely on their bikes to getto campus said they are upset about the closure.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Adam Frank, agraduate student in the UCLA School of Dentistry. “How else are we supposed to get up here? (Now) we have to go around the whole school.”

With the closure of Tiverton Drive, cyclists’ alternatives include traveling down Westwood Boulevard and Charles E. Young Drive South or Hilgard Avenue. These routes, in addition to being longer, are also much more traffic-congested and steeper.

Simon Li, a second-year physiological science student, said he sometimes still rides his bike down the walkway, despite the road closure.

“It’s frustrating,” Li said. “The school should widen the path.”

To avoid biking around the school and to avoid the narrow walkway, he said he goes through the Center for Health Sciences plaza. However, this is only accessible to students with a medical center BruinCard after business hours.

Though the closure frustrates him, Li said biking on Tiverton Drive compared to other roads does not shave off too much time from his trip home. And he thinks biking on Westwood Boulevard and Charles E. Young Drive South is not too much of a hassle.

In the email statement, campus architect Jeffrey Averill said that when the road reopens, he thinks it will be an improvement for cyclists because the new building and grounds will also include more space for pedestrians and cyclists than previously existed.