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It\u2019s a few minutes after 10 a.m. on a recent morning and the thermometer is closing in on 95 degrees, but Marc Papas isn\u2019t fazed. \u201cThe heat doesn\u2019t bother me much,\u201d he said, unloading his bicycle \u2014 a blue and yellow 1989 Trek 400 \u2014 from the trunk of his car on a side street in Reseda. \u201cI just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Papas adjusted the heart monitor underneath his T-shirt, checked the bike computer attached to his handlebars, then set off on the day\u2019s ride; he\u2019s taken it upon himself to bike every public street in Los Angeles. The Phoenix native has completed over 78% (about 5,840 miles) after two years. He calls it \u201cThe Project,\u201d and says there\u2019s about 7,516.07 miles in total, when you include various enclaves and adjacent cities like Beverly Hills or Burbank. Today he\u2019s headed toward the longest continuous bike lane in Southern California \u2014 a stretch of Reseda Boulevard. It\u2019s an unexpected amenity in a part of the city that seems otherwise hostile to pedestrians and cyclists, but one Papas wants incorporated around more of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody once asked me on a Reddit Ask Me Anything what is one street you think needs a bike lane,\u201d he said. \u201cI wrote him a whole essay in response, because I can\u2019t just say one street.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a few blocks on Reseda, Papas turned back into the neighborhood centered around Etiwanda and started tracing loops across the blocks. It\u2019s his standard pattern for covering any area he rides for the Project. \u201cI base my routes on a math theory called the Eulerian Path,\u201d said Papas, a mechanical engineer by training. Each new segment of the city he rides is generally a rectangle bound by major streets. \u201cThen, I start with loops around the edges and work my way in,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s the most efficient way to cover an area without overlapping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s ride would yield eight new miles for Papas. \u201cSo, I\u2019ll be about 12 miles away from 80%,\u201d he calculated.<\/p>\n
Papas started his biking project almost by accident. He moved to Los Angeles in late 2020 after finishing his PhD at Georgia Tech. He had taken up biking around Atlanta as part of triathlon training and worried he wouldn\u2019t be able to continue once arriving in L.A.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember having a sort of fear around it,\u201d said Papas. \u201cI\u2019d heard it\u2019s just so car-filled and dangerous to be on the roads.\u201d But riding along the beach and around much of the Westside quickly changed his mind. With perfect weather year-round and a mostly flat topography, why wasn\u2019t everyone in L.A. riding bikes?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing like exploring the city on two wheels.<\/p>\n
He was soon cycling to work in Monrovia from his apartment in Pasadena, and biking more than he ever had in his life. \u201cSometimes friends would be surprised to learn I have a car,\u201d he said. \u201cThey thought I bike everywhere because I don\u2019t drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, on Dec. 31, 2023, Papas decided to get in one last bike ride for the year. He rode a section of San Marino that he and friends refer to as \u201cThe Mitochondria\u201d for the shape the streets make when viewed in the tracking app Strava. After riding the Mitochondria, he decided to keep going \u2014 making a path up each street and block \u2014 until he was satisfied. It gave him the idea to ride every mile of street in San Marino. \u201cIt\u2019s only 60 miles total,\u201d said Papas. \u201cThat seemed doable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finishing the 60 miles of San Marino led to completing the 400 miles of Pasadena. He next found himself taking detours to cover new streets in Northeast Los Angeles as he\u2019d ride to and from Koreatown Run Club meet-ups at Los Angeles Community College. But it wasn\u2019t clear to himself, or anyone else, what he was doing. \u201cFriends were seeing my Strava activities and texting me like, \u2018What the heck are you doing, man?,\u2019\u201d Papas recalled. One friend jokingly asked if he was drawing the Nazca lines across the city, but Papas wrote it off as just trying to clock extra mileage. \u201cThere\u2019s a level of self-deception, because riding the whole city of Los Angeles seemed impossible to do,\u201d he said. Still, his treks around Northeast L.A., East Hollywood and Los Feliz were starting to build up mileage \u2014 he had completed about 18% of the city.<\/p>\n
When Papas drove out to North Hollywood in November 2024 specifically to track new mileage, he realized he had crossed the Rubicon. \u201cAt that point, I can\u2019t lie to myself anymore about what I\u2019m doing,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m driving out to these places to get miles more efficiently. When that happened, I was like, all right, I\u2019m in it for the long haul.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Papas covered more and more of the city, he began growing an appreciation for various architecturally-significant neighborhoods as well as the many murals across large swaths of South and East L.A. \u201cThere are beautiful pieces of art on the walls that you wouldn\u2019t imagine,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to take people to these places and do a mural tour.\u201d He was especially moved when he was riding in Pacoima and saw a Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens mural that memorializes the tragic plane crash that killed both Holly and Valens. \u201cSo many of these murals are commemorating people and events that are culturally important to those specific areas,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n