New dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes debut on 5th and 6th streets in DTLA

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Dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes officially opened on Monday in downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti held a Facebook Live event this morning (see above) to introduce this key transit improvement in DTLA. The lanes were created by a partnership between the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), StreetsLA and Metro.

The bus and bike only lanes are located along 5th Street and 6th Street between just east of Flower Street and Central Avenue on the east. Road improvements and the special bus only lanes span the entire corridor. Protected bike lanes run from Spring Street to Central Avenue. The bus lanes will be in operation from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Metro operates about a dozen bus lines carrying about 29,000 riders on weekdays that use 5th and 6th streets. Both streets are also parts of bus routes by other muni operators including Torrance Transit, LADOT, Antelope Valley Transit and Montebello Bus Lines.

Phase 2 of the project calls for extending the bus only lane westbound on 5th Street from mid-block to Flower Street and installing a signal queue jumper for buses on 5th Street and Flower to improve bus flow through the intersection. Phase 2 is expected to be completed in Spring 2021.

This project is one of the many recommendations resulting from the Bus Speed Engineering Working Group that was authorized by the Metro Board of Directors and the L.A. City Council in 2019. The working group is a collaborative effort between Metro, the office of Mayor Garcetti and LADOT to identify, design, fund and implement transit supportive infrastructure to speed up transit services as part of Metro’s NextGen Bus Plan and the agency’s Vision 2028 Plan.

Metro’s Vision 2028 Plan calls for a series of key upgrades to the agency’s vast bus system this decade in order to speed up service, improve frequency and make buses more appealing to current and future riders. The NextGen effort will restructure the agency’s bus routes toward those goals.

For more information on the 5th Street and 6th Street Improvement Project, visit www.metro.net/dtlaimprovements.

Here are comments about the lanes from other key officials and stakeholders:

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects

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