Cyclists find observatory far from stellar

They traveled 8 miles and climbed 842 feet peddling their plan to reach for the stars.

But a pair of Hollywood newlyweds who helped convince City Hall to overturn a ban on bicycles at the remodeled Griffith Observatory contend cyclists still have light-years to go to reach their destination.

Los Angeles officials have agreed to allow bicyclists to skip a mandatory shuttle bus ride designed to prevent traffic tie-ups at the hillside landmark, which reopened Friday after a five-year, $93-million makeover.

Cyclists, however, grumble that authorities have not provided a safe place for bikes to be parked and cannot seem to figure out a way for them to make advance reservations needed to get inside.

“It’s absolute insanity,” said Stephen Box, who with wife Enci led a 1 1/2 -year campaign to allow bicycles to be ridden to the observatory. “We can ride up there now, but there’s no proper place to park your bike. And there’s no way to plan a visit more than two days in advance.”

Those spending $8 to ride shuttle buses to the observatory can make reservations 30 days in advance. But bicyclists are allowed to make reservations only within 48 hours.

City recreation and parks officials had planned to prohibit hikers and bicycle riders from entering the observatory grounds and require everyone to ride shuttle buses. The ban was dropped Oct. 5 when a city lawyer warned that a blanket shuttle bus requirement would possibly violate provisions of the Griffith Trust that call for the park to be open without charge.

Box, a music video producer, said he and his actress wife bicycled to the observatory’s opening last week but could not find a place to park and lock their bikes. Nonetheless, the pair attempted to organize a bicycle ride up the mountainside for tonight for other cycling fans.

When they tried to secure entrance reservations for the group, however, they learned that only a small number of reservations could be made through the observatory’s website. And because of the 48-hour reservation window, they were unable to proceed with the planned bike ride.

“It’s discriminatory,” Box said. “This is obscenely and unnecessarily cumbersome.”

A new bike rack apparently installed over the weekend behind the observatory’s parking lot restroom building can damage bicycles’ alloy wheel rims and leave bikes susceptible to theft, Box said.

It “falls far short of appropriate installation standards and appropriate design standards” used by the city, Box complained Tuesday to the office of L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents the Hollywood area.

Jane Galbraith, a spokeswoman for LaBonge, said the entry reservation system was a compromise aimed at allowing bicyclists and hikers to bypass the $8 shuttle fee. She said 1,500 of the 7,500 entrance tickets available daily are allocated to those not using the shuttle.

Bike racks were not part of the original observatory renovation master plan.

Neither, in fact, were the parking lot restrooms until LaBonge urged that they be built, she said.

Parks officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

So for now, Box said, he and other bicyclists are calling that agency the “Department of Recreation and Parking.”

bob.pool@latimes.com