Griffith Park: One Step Closer to Safety from Speeding Vehicles with New Bike Path

Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA: On Monday, June 27, 2022, Griffith Park closed a 3/4 mile section of Griffith Park Drive “giving us a monumental step towards making Griffith Park safe for those who use it most – kids, families, runners, hikers, equestrians and cyclists,” said Damian Kevitt, executive director of SAFE (Streets Are For Everyone), at a gathering at the park around 9:00 a.m. Saturday, July 2, to celebrate the new path opening.

Kevitt continued speaking about the park to all in attendance,”Griffith Park is the crown jewel of all parks in the county of Los Angeles – nearly 4,300 acres of urban wilderness in the middle of a concrete jungle. It is one of the largest urban parks in the entire United States – bigger than Golden Gate Park and Central Park combined. It’s also the largest park in the entire U.S. that still allows cars to drive through it.

Today we celebrate as Griffith Park takes one step closer to once again becoming a park and not a highway for speeding vehicles.”

SAFE was working to accomplish this path over the past five to six years.

Kevitt recounted how the SAFE organization was born from his own tragedy in Griffith Park. In 2013, Kevitt was bicycling in Griffith Park with his wife when he was struck and pinned under a vehicle, and dragged nearly 1/4 of a mile from the streets of Griffith Park onto and down the 5 Freeway at freeway speed. It’s the reason why Kevitt is missing his right leg. “I should have lost my life,” he said.

“But that tragedy spawned a citywide movement for safer streets,”said Kevitt. “A movement that created Streets Are Safe For Everyone.”

Kevitt also mentioned it took a loss of life to take action. That life was that of Andrew Jelmert, 77, who lost his life on April 16, 2022 due to a drunk driver who was driving at nearly 80 mph through Griffith Park.

Immediate emergency action was taken by Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and Councilmember Nithya Raman (Council District 4) and staff, to slow the drivers in the park but also funded the first major comprehensive review of safety in Griffith Park in decades. Just over two months after Jelmerts death, the group gathered for this moment of making the park a safer place.

Kevitt said that technically the closure is a “pilot” – that it won’t be permanent for a couple of more weeks, assuming that the pilot goes well.

The bicyclists all gathered for a ride on the newly closed road.

Video: Oscar Sol, Photojournalist / KNN