Bus service is on our minds this year more than ever. We hired over 1000 new operators. We restored service to pre-pandemic levels. We’re on our way to creating a zero emissions fleet. We even celebrated the centennial of continuous bus service in LA!
And we continue to tackle one of our biggest challenges –– ensuring that riding the bus is fast, safe, reliable, and efficient.
It’s no secret that traffic congestion affects everyone –– especially our bus riders. Not even the biggest and brightest team of bus operators can maneuver a vehicle out of gridlocked traffic. When more cars clog the roads, bus service suffers. We need to get creative to show you that riding the bus is as fast and convenient as driving a car.
That’s why we’re so pleased to announce that the City of Los Angeles and the City of West Hollywood officially opened 5.7 lane miles (2.8 miles end to end) of bus priority lanes on La Brea Avenue today, running from Sunset Boulevard to Olympic Boulevard. We quietly opened them last month, but a press event this morning –– emceed by Metro’s Chief Operations Officer Conan Cheung –– made it official.
“I worked on this project as a West Hollywood City Councilmember and also as Mayor of West Hollywood,” Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro Board Member Lindsey Horvath said. “So seeing this come full circle is very special for me.”
Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, County Supervisor Jackie Dupont-Walker, Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins, and Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass all attended (and spoke) at the event.
Why does this matter? A few reasons:
First, bus priority lanes are foolproof ways to improve travel speeds and ensure more reliable service. We now have 40 miles of bus priority lanes throughout the City of Los Angeles … and they’re making a difference. Bus service has been significantly faster in the areas where these special lanes have been implemented. The data isn’t all in quite yet, but on the stretch of La Brea Avenue where the priority bus lanes have been installed, we’re expecting bus speeds to improve by up to 15%.
Second, bus priority lanes are relatively fast and cost-effective to implement. After all, creating bus priority lanes doesn’t require us to widen any roads or alter the existing street infrastructure, which is expensive and time consuming. In this way, these lanes are part of a larger legacy of creativity that has characterized the last 100 years of bus service in LA.
Third, our bus priority lanes testify to the incredible partnerships that are so vital to improving travel in Los Angeles. Since we don’t own the public right of way, implementing these new lanes required working closely with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and other City departments, the City of West Hollywood … and numerous other stakeholders. We look forward to continuing the dialogue.
The project was a team effort.
So, if you haven’t already ridden yet, we invite you to join the 9,000 riders that use Line 212 each day and hop on board! The bus priority lanes will be operational during weekday peak hours (between 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.) and will run every ten minutes. Need a lift to the nearest Metro station? No problem! West Hollywood’s Cityline shuttle service will use the lanes to access the Hollywood/Highland B (Red) Line station.
This morning’s event was an exciting milestone, but we’re just getting started. Planning for a southern segment, which will continue down La Brea Avenue from Olympic Boulevard to Coliseum Street, is already in the works. And later this fall, more bus priority lanes are scheduled to be implemented along Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.
For Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins, the new bus priority lanes embody her ‘mobility triple bottom line’ –– they’re good for people, good for the planet, and examples of progress.
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again –– we want to be your first choice for getting around in Los Angeles, whether you travel by bus, train, bike, microtransit, or on foot. These new bus lanes are meaningful steps toward achieving this ambitious goal. So thanks for checking in about this important project. And thanks for riding Metro.
Categories: Transportation News
This isn’t 2.8 miles long (or 5.7 lane miles). The project omitted the blocks above and below Wilshire – from 6th Street to 8th Street – so it’s nearly 2.5 miles (using Google maps I get 2.47 miles long – 4.9 lane miles). It’s a great project, but it’s shorter than the length that Metro is touting. (And it will be even better when Metro and LADOT build the remaining three miles being blocked by L.A. City Councilmember Heather Hutt.)
Vote her out then
Why was this run up La Brea, which is the logical route choice for the K Line extension?
Shouldn’t this gone up Fairfax or Western?
Alternating subway/light rail lines with priority bus streets makes for a nice grid
Even if LaBrea is selected for the K North, that project likely won’t open for at least a dozen years.
Fairfax is not wide enough to handle a dedicated bus lane.
La Brea had the lowest ridership potential and could face opposition compared to the Crenshaw line going via Fairfax where the ridership is.
Could this post please specify where this priority bus lane begins and ends and/or feature a map indicating as such? Difficult to figure out what exactly it’s talking about without that information.
Is there any information available about how Metro planes to enforce the lane to ensure the lane is operational and fully implemented? Are there any plans for automatic enforcement of priority bus lanes? Bus lane success depends on this implementation and enforcement information, and other U.S. cities have completed a number of studies on enforcement strategies indicating how crucial this is. (https://www.mwcog.org/assets/1/28/10062017_-_Item_12_-_DO_NOT_PRINT_-_Bus_Lane_Enforcement_Study_Final_Report.pdf)
Dear Metro (LACMTA),
This is amazing. Are there any plans to extend Line 212 from the Hawthorne/Lennox (C Line) Station to the Redondo Beach Transit Center, while Line 40 is shortened to the Downtown Inglewood (K Line) Station? The reason I am asking is because ever since the Redondo Beach Transit Center opened in January 2023, I have been anticipating on the changes for Lines 40, 212, and 211/215. Aside from what I mentioned for Lines 40 and 212 (per the NextGen Plan), Lines 211 and 215 were to be split into two separate routes. Particularly, Line 215 would be rerouted from the Redondo Beach (K Line) Station to the Redondo Beach Transit Center; and Line 211 on Inglewood Av north of Imperial Highway or Lennox Bl was to be renumbered Line 215, while Line 211 south of the Imperial or Lennox was to be Line 215. While the Downtown Inglewood Station (northernmost for Line 211) and the Redondo Beach Transit Center (southernmost for Line 215) are still the termini, the Hawthorne/Lennox (C Line) Station is the southern terminus for Line 211 and the northern terminus for Line 215.
-Alexander Martinez
P.S. A friend of mine on Instagram (Ruben) shared a picture of the updated bus sign with the new rail logo (The A (Blue) Line in Sierra Madre).
Bus lanes, crossing gates for trains, signal priority for transit, etc. are low hanging fruit to improve transit and should be more widespread and not limited to peak times. Any street with more than 2 lanes each way should get a bus/bike lane.
THIS!
I’m not the only person who wants to know why LaBrea bus #212 traveling north to Hollywood Blvd ends at Highland vs continuing along route to Argyle (Red Line) as it has for years. Makes no sense. How does this speed up travel. And help the riding public get to their final destination when you must transfer to bus #217 in order to go further along this heavily trafficked corridor. Still waiting for an answer.. METRO
I’ve seen that when they have to move their bus layover spot for whatever reason, it usually results in moving the last bus stop or two. Or maybe more riders were transferring to/from the Red Line at Hollywood and Highland than at Hollywood and Vine.
I agree. Why end Line 212 at the shy of a major intersection that barely connects with the B Line? Line 212 should still serve Hollywood/Vine Station to provide connections with buses to Burbank Airport/San Fernando Valley, Torrance, or Glendale/Pasadena. Connections are MORE IMPORTANT than DUPLICATION. Now Line 212 only connects with a bus line that runs from East Hollywood to West LA (similar directions as Line 212). Line 51 is another example of why the original northern terminal should’ve been maintained in Wilshire/Vermont. Ridership on 7th St (including the abandoned segment) was very high (oddly some stops had higher ridership than Line 66 on 8th St). Before it was shortened to Westlake at a reduced frequency west of DTLA, Line 51 had about 20,000 riders, now it only has 16,000 riders. A 25% DECREASE over a route change.
Even worse, is that, according to the schedule, southbound 212 runs after 6pm board from Hollywood / sycamore which is a quarter mile west from the Hollywood / Highland B line station so any transfer being made from there after said time, while walkable, is unnecessarily cumbersome for what should be a very simple transfer. The logistics of this make absolutely no sense and it’s disrespectful to riders to have them walk all the way to the other bus stop when there’s already a stop right outside said rail station which for some incomprehensible reason isn’t used after 6pm now for this line going south. This is incredibly short sighted of metro to have things set up this way and will certainly be a deterrent for some choice riders wanting to use the B line > 212 to get where they’re going. Fix this, Metro! Better yet, as the above comment points out, just bring back the argyle turnaround, there was no need to truncate to highland (sycamore after 6 pm southbound). People want simple transfers. Period.