LA County Bicycle Coalition www.la-bike.org

LA City Council to Vote on Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes on Tuesday, June 14th

Metro buses stuck in traffic on Wilshire Boulevard.

Here’s an update on the Wilshire BOL Plan:

On Tuesday, LA City council will be voting on the route length of the Bus Only Lanes proposed for Wilshire Boulevard.  After a meeting on June 8th, the council’s Transportation Committee was split three ways: Richard Alarcon and Bernard Parks are in support of the original 8.7 mile plan that would include segments of the heavily contested “Condo Canyon” neighborhood; Tom LaBonge and Paul Koretz are advocating for 7.7 miles, which would exempt Condo Canyon from the plan; and Bill Rosendahl is aiming to exclude the Westside (west of the 405) entirely, reducing the route to a mere 5.4 miles.

Tuesday’s vote is crucial to the implementation of the BOL Plan. The federal funding application is due on June 15th, and the Federal Transit Administration has marked September 15th as the finalization deadline. If City Council votes for the full 8.7 miles, the Metro Board will have to vote again this month, which would put the plan in jeopardy of missing the federal deadlines. While we are in favor of all 8.7 miles of the plan being approved, LACBC recommends that Wilshire BOL supporters urge their city council representatives to vote for AT LEAST the 7.7 mile option, so the BOL plan doesn’t risk losing the federal funding entirely.

If implemented, the Wilshire plan will be the first on-street Bus-Only Lanes in the City of LA. (The Orange Line currently consists of former railway lanes). The Wilshire Plan is a simple, affordable way to provide efficient public transportation to thousands people who commute daily via bus to the westside on Wilshire Boulevard. This plan will also be a major benefit to cyclists: it allows for shared bus-bike lanes and will involve a major re-pathing of the boulevard, which is currently riddled with pot-holes.  Hopefully, it will be a model for other major BOL projects in LA in the future.

Click here to contact your city council representative and urge them to vote against Rosendahl’s 5.4 mile option of the plan.

-India Brookover