Metro and the city of Los Angeles are partnering to improve 5th and 6th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. The goal is to enhance mobility and safety for the thousands of people who walk, bike, roll, ride transit or drive in the area. Up to 80 buses per hour use 6th Street and up to 70 buses per hour on 5th St.
Mayor Eric Garcetti has been supportive of the project, which advances the goals of Executive Directive 25, L.A.’s Green New Deal.
The 5th St/6th St Improvement Project is located between Flower Street on the west and Central Avenue on the east, and will make needed road improvements and add bus only lanes to the corridor, as well as protected bike lanes from Spring Street to Central Avenue, to better connect the eastern portion of downtown to the rest of the bike lane network.
Moving from west to east, StreetsLA construction crews began their repaving work last week on 6th Street and will be working on 5th Street this week. Construction activity* will continue through the end of the month, and is scheduled for weekdays only from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In early July, LADOT will begin restriping the lanes and installing bus only lanes and protected bike lanes on both streets. (*Please note this schedule is subject to change.)
This project is one of the many recommendations resulting from the Bus Speed Engineering Working Group, authorized by the Metro Board of Directors and the L.A. City Council in July 2019. It is a collaborative effort between Metro and LADOT to identify, design, fund and implement transit supportive infrastructure to speed up transit service as part of the NextGen Bus Plan.
A view of how the street will work.
For more information on the 5th St/6th St Improvement Project, please visit our website at metro.net/dtlaimprovements.
Categories: Projects
We need 24/7 bus only lanes on every major thoroughfare in the city. Bus Rapid Transit, like in Bogota, should be seriously considered.
Slightly off topic: Will the G Line ever get their traffic signals replaced with proper transit signals like the Metro Rail system? It would be cool to have buses follow the same specialized signals like the cab cut-out zones of the rail network instead of standard traffic signals, to truly mimic the Metro Rail network.
The G Line is slated to get the traffic signals replaced with transit signals around 2057-2060.
The bike lanes really need to be installed along the entire length of the bus lanes! It’s absurd to end it at Spring St when Pershing Square, the Central Library and the Metro Station are only a few short blocks west. How is Metro and LADOT anticipating bicyclists to continue west to these major destinations? Are bicyclists supposed to just share the lane with cars and buses? The sidewalks at Pershing Square are too narrow to ride a bike on and 5th and 6th streets can get very very congested during rush hour.
Also, there are bike share stations at Pershing Square and at Central Library but no bike lanes to those stations. The bike lanes must continue west to serve these stations!
Likely due to safety & traffic issues as 5th and 6th are primary entry and exit feeders of the Harbor Freeway.
Even so, just extending them to Grand where it is still 3 Full blocks away from the Freeway Enter/Exits. Beyond that I have to agree though, it might conflict with the traffic flow on Figueroa.
So. . . These will be 24 hour bus lanes like on Figueroa correct? Don’t see any mentioning of Rush hour only or 7am-7pm only anywhere, or I’m just blind.
Hi Dave;
The bus only lanes will be active Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
An earlier presentation showed them as M-F 7am-7pm https://la.streetsblog.org/2020/06/10/some-new-details-on-new-bus-lanes-and-bike-lanes-coming-to-downtown-l-a/
These bus lanes are awesome! Two small complaints, though: Metro’s map shows only the westbound alignment for the Silver Line / Silver Streak – the Eastbound Silver Line runs on Aliso Street (which is getting its own short bus lane) not Arcadia Street. Secondly, it’s unfortunate that Metro and LADOT are ending the bike lanes at Spring Street… they should go the same length as the bus lanes – all the way to Flower or Figueroa. Having a bike lane on the left side of bus lane one-way streets is good for both cyclists and transit riders – as it keeps slower-moving cyclists out of the way of buses.
Agreed fully. Extend the protected bike lanes to Figueroa. It’s a no brainer!