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When Los Angeles residents voted last year to implement the city’s nearly 10-year mobility plan, road safety advocates called it a victory for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers in Los Angeles. Sidewalks will be improved, traffic jams will be slower, bike lanes will be slower, bus lanes will be upgraded and built.
But the range of measurements for the HLA — a citywide initiative to track what the LA City Council adopted in 2015 — has been at the heart of recent debate between supporters and the metro after its advance into a project moving into the county’s busiest bus route project without the expected plans for new bike lanes.
Proponents of the Transit argue that the exclusion from the Vermont Avenue project ignores voters’ duties to follow a mobility plan that calls for improvements to bike lanes on that level. Metro and city officials have rebutted that the measure applies only to the city of Los Angeles. This is not countywide transportation.
“We don’t think it’s legal,” said Michael Schneider, who leads the streets for everyone, the advocacy group behind the voting law. “The HLA is a city measure, Metro is a county agent, but Vermont is owned by the city of Los Angeles, and the city works with Metro, they allow it and provide technical expertise.
Last week, the agency’s board voted to approve plans for the Vermont Transit Corridor. This is a project that will add 13 dedicated bus lanes and 26 stations along the 12.4-mile stretch on Vermont Avenue between 120th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. According to the metro, the route has 38,000 bus boards every day, and is expected to increase to 66,000 by 2045.
According to the Metro, the project is expected to particularly improve transport access for disadvantaged communities and for a large number of residents identified as black, indigenous and people of color. The hallways include the majority of low-income households, including residents who do not have access to cars.
The project is included in the Measure M spending plan, which allocated $425 million for construction.
“Metro supports the goals and objectives of the HLA. In particular, we have worked in all local jurisdictions and will continue to work in all local jurisdictions to provide better quality transportation and safer roads across Los Angeles County,” the statement said in the statement. “However, HLA does not apply to metro projects.”
The board’s votes did not include any discussion and ignored pleas from public commenters who asked them to reconsider their plans to include upgraded bike lanes to the Metro.
I’ve been studying this project for nearly 10 years. According to Metro, the addition of a new bike lane delays the project for up to five years, increases costs and forces Metro to acquire the property.
In a letter to Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins last month, Schneider disputed Metro’s claims, saying the addition of bike lanes would not cause delays or affect the property if parking is not prioritized over an upgrade. He warned that a plan without a bike lane would further compromise safety for cycling and pedestrian routes. Vermont Avenue is looking at one of the city’s highest pedestrian deaths and injuries counts, according to the Metro and Street.
Metro maintains that stance. In a letter sent to LA City Council President Marquez Harris Dawson last month, Metro lawyers said the agency would take legal action if the city forces the HLA to measure. The lawyer cited a letter that the city attorney sent everyone the streets in November. This said there is no need to comply with this measure, a repeating point at the LA City Transportation Commission in February.
The lawyer also pointed to an agreement between the city and the Metro. This acknowledges the institution’s “self-government authority.”
” [agreement] We don’t simply convert a metro project into an urban project,” the letter said.
Schneider and others say the agency’s plans are dismissing the needs of residents.
“We have a traffic death and injury outbreak,” said Eli Lipmen, executive director of the Transit Advocacy Group.
Lipmen said that if Metro doesn’t allow new, protected bike lanes in its plans, more people will be injured.
“Vermont needs to happen, it needs to happen as soon as possible. We can’t delay this project for another second,” Lipmen said.
The project is expected to be completed by the 2028 Olympics.
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