The Metro Board of Directors and the L.A. City Council in July 2019 authorized the Bus Speed Engineering Working Group, a collaborative effort between Metro and LADOT to speed up transit service as part of Metro’s NextGen Bus Plan.
Metro and LADOT’s work have resulted in three projects ready to begin implementation this month. These projects include phase 1 of the Venice Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project, the initial phase of the La Brea Avenue Bus Priority Lanes Project and the final phase of the Alvarado Street Bus Priority Lanes Project.
As part of the Venice Blvd. project, LADOT will construct project features on Venice between Inglewood and National this winter, including parking-protected and buffered bike lanes, improved crosswalks, improved left-turn pockets at Sepulveda and Sawtelle boulevards (in response to community feedback), and a new left-turn signal at the intersection of Venice and Hughes Avenue (coming in Summer 2023). Work on phase 1 of the project will begin in December 2022.
Phase 1 of the project also includes a dedicated bus-only lane, which will operate along Venice Blvd between the segments of Inglewood Blvd and Bledsoe Ave in the eastbound direction, and between Tilden Ave and Culver Blvd in both directions. Three mixed-flow lanes would remain in the segment between Sepulveda and Sawtelle Boulevards to help traffic flow at the intersections with the on- and offramps from the 405 freeway.
For phase 2 of the project, LADOT and Metro will continue collaborating with local stakeholders to develop future enhancements including bus boarding islands, transit amenities, and other high-quality transportation corridors features to create a balanced and well-functioning Venice Blvd for all. Continued community engagement of the Venice Blvd. Safety and Mobility Project between Lincoln and Beethoven is anticipated in Spring and Summer of 2023.
Additional projects ready to begin construction this month include the first phase of the La Brea bus lanes and the final phase of the Alvarado bus lanes.
The initial phase of the La Brea project will add bus priority lanes on La Brea between Sunset and Olympic Boulevards. The bus lanes will be in effect on weekdays between 7-9am and 4-7pm. The short segment between 6th and 8th Streets will be completed after Purple Line Extension construction has concluded at the future Wilshire/La Brea Station area.
Installation of the second phase of the project, between Olympic and Coliseum Street, will be announced at a later date.
Also, the final phase of the Alvarado St Bus Priority Lanes Project will add bus priority lanes on Alvarado between the 101 freeway and Sunset Boulevard, and will be in operation on weekdays only, southbound from 7-10am and northbound from 3-7pm.
The initial phase of the project, from 7th St to the 101, was completed in June 2021. Overall, we are excited for the new year as Metro and LADOT collaborate and usher in ongoing implementation of NextGen Speed & Reliability improvements throughout Los Angeles.
For more information on the Venice Blvd Safety and Mobility Project, please visit the project website at ladotlivablestreets.org/projects/venice, ladot.active@lacity.org and busimprovements@metro.net.
To learn more about the La Brea Av Bus Priority Lanes Project and Alvarado St Bus Priority Lanes Project, please visit their respective websites at metro.net/labrea and metro.net/alvaradost .
Here’s a fact sheet from the city of L.A. on the Venice project:
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
“Metro bus lanes at La Brea and Wilshire Purple Line construction ends” Ha ! they had the same disruption at Wilshire La Brea for about 7 years with no improvement. What are they using to dig the tunnel, garden trowels? When will they be done, in 2049 when I’m 100 years old ?
Bus priority lanes are certainly a step in the right direction, but aren’t enough. Heavy traffic can and does exist outside of peak weekday hours, slowing buses. So all-day bus lanes are needed. NIMBYS are gonna NIMBY no matter what. Might as well commit to the full thing. The new Van Ness ave. bus only lanes in San Francisco are a good example of this (and actually drew suprisingly little opposition once they were up and running).
Wow! Painting lines on the roads will do the trick.
No wonder in the recent few bus shake-ups, Metro keeps using the wordings like “revise the schedule in order to improve service reliability”. Oh sure! Merely rearranging the timetables and the buses will magically come on time!!
Hello?? Improving service reliability can only be done by actually making sure there are buses and drivers to fill all the trips on all the bus runs on all the schedules.
The ONLY ACCEPTABLE BIKE LANES are those that have physical barriers between the Bike Lanes and vehicular traffic including buses. Anything less is a potential accident involving a bike rider and a motor vehicle. Pretty white lines protect no one. They only instill a false sense of safety when in fact none exists. If it’s not a passing car of truck, its the driver of said vehicles opening their driver side door into the path of a bike rider who is unable los top in time. AS a former bike rider this has happened to me. As a former RTD/MTA Road Supervisor the majority of accidents I investigated were drivers of parked vehicles opening their driver side door into the side of a passing bus. Wake up MTA!! If your going to engage in the construction of Bike Lanes do it the RIGHT way the First time. How many serious injuries and deaths do we need before the current fiasco of pretty white lines is corrcted?
Metro’s NextGen eliminated Rapid lines County-wide, with the promise of bus speed infrastructure such as these making up the difference. Pretty sure none of the smaller cities will ever cooperate, but Metro made that promise anyway.