Streetsblog Los Angeles

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It was a warm night last May when four racers gathered at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Amherst Boulevard to race. The race would take them east, for three miles to the corner of Wilshire and Beverly Glen Boulevard. The goal? To prove that even during Wilshire’s legendary rush hour, that our chosen mode of transportation was the fastest, the most efficient, and quite simply, the best.

The race teams departed at 6:15. Representing bike riders everywhere was Austin Sos, a UCLA graduate student. Sahra Sulaiman walked for pedestrians, while I rode the Wilshire Rapid on behalf of transit riders everywhere. Mike Gran, a regular Wilshire Boulevard commuter took his truck.

We honestly weren’t sure how the race would turn out. I’d love to tell you we were trying to make a point about bicycles and transit, but we weren’t. It was a real race. We aim to repeat it when the Bus-Only Lane is completed in two years to see how the transit striping changes the traffic patterns.

Thirteen minutes later, the race was over when the first racer arrived at the northwest corner of the finish markers, where we agreed to meet. Four minutes later, the silver medalist arrived. Ten minutes after that, the bronze medal winner crossed the street. After that, it was another 15 minutes before our runner up arrived at 6:57 pm.

Before publishing, I went back to Wilshire and repeated the race at the same time and same places to see if the race was accurate. To see what order people finished, read on after the jump. Read more…

Photo of Hilgard Terminal, courtesy of Google Maps

(Update: I received a question on why we published the name and address of the angry homeowner, questioning whether or not he qualifies as fare game to be signaled out by name.  I chatted with a friend of mine who doesn’t have a stake or opinion in the issue of how UCLA decides when to keep its transit stops open.  He advised me that it wasn’t illegal, but that we should have contacted him for a quote if we were going to feature him so prominently.  It was my call to leave his name in so any blame/fallout should fall on me, not Juan.   I just removed his name, address and references to his employment from the story and comments.- DN)

Just a few months ago, UCLA received accolades for reducing vehicle trips to campus.  The campus has a robust transportation demand management program and exceeds the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s reporting requirements to track travel trends in its annual State of the Commute report.

As the University released its latest report that highlighted that only 53% percent of UCLA’s employees commute in a single-occupancy automobile, it was also finalizing a decision to eliminate Big Blue Bus service to Hilgard Terminal (behind Murphy Hall) after 8 pm on weekdays. This decision will affect the 23.5% of campus visitors and commuters who travel to and from campus by public transit .

The University will implement this change on Monday, June 18.  Because the University places barriers at the terminal’s entrance, after 8:00 pm, Big Blue Bus service must re-route to the Ackerman Terminal, which is one-half mile away on foot.  A common rule of thumb used by transit practitioners (and supported by research) is that transit passengers are willing to walk about one quarter of a mile to a bus stop.  Because this, the detour may have a significant impact on trip generation to the UCLA campus by causing existing commuters and visitors to adjust travel patterns.

Though this decision is being implemented next week, it is largely the result of persistent complaints of a single resident over the past decade.  A short history puts the latest change into perspective: Read more…

Photo: LA Streetsblog/Flickr

The question of how far Neighbors for Smart Rail, a coalition of homeowners and community groups fighting the expansion of the Expo Line into West Los Angeles, were willing to take their legal challenges to the line is now answered.  They’re willing to take it all the way.

Last week, NFSR appealed to the California Supreme Court to overturn a decision of the 2nd Appellate Division of the California Superior Courts to uphold the environmental documents supporting the construction of Phase II of the Expo Line.  Phase II of the Expo Line will pick up where Phase I ends in Culver City and extend the line to Downtown Santa Monica.  The Supreme Court has not announced whether it will hear arguments or issue a ruling in the case.

While NFSR has many complaints with the Expo Line and how the line was approved; court watchers are pointing to one specific complaint that has likely caught the Supreme Court’s attention: “The Baseline Issue.”  NFSR has argued in two court rooms that the Expo Authority used an improper baseline for analyzing the impacts of the Expo Line on automobile traffic, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions.  The Expo Construction Authority evaluated the impacts on conditions it projected to exist in 2030. NFSR argues that instead of future conditions the Authority needed to look at current conditions as its baseline, not ones from an uncertain future.

NFSR’s legal team points to two cases Madera Oversight Coalition, Inc. v. County of Madera (5th District Court of Appeals, 2011) and Sunnyvale West Neighborhood Assn. v. City of Sunnyvale City Council (6th District Court of Appeals, 2010) where state appellate courts ruled that agencies cannot use future conditions as a baseline when evaluating the environmental impacts of proposed projects.

The Second Appellate Court didn’t just reject the argument affirmed by the other courts, it emphatically rejected it. Read more…

Looking down from a bridge in Cheviot Hills at the proposed future Expo Bike Path. Photo:LA Streetsblog/Flickr

A group of Cheviot Hills residents who’s property abuts the proposed Expo Bikeway on the Westside of Los Angeles have filed suit for the second time in two years alleging that environmental clearances given the bikeway were given in error.  Their first lawsuit, filed in June 2010, resulted in the City of Los Angeles and Caltrans reversing their original environmental clearance decisions and re-working their studies.  The bikeway was granted a second environmental clearance, known as a Categorical Exclusion (CE), in November of 2011.

The second Categorical Exclusion (published here, on Streetsblog) was received no better than the first.  Attorney S. Zachary Samuels filed suit again alleging that the new CE is no better than the old one.   While the current complaint is not available online, passages appearing on Courthouse News sound word for word identical to ones from the 2010 lawsuit.  Named in the suit are the FHWA, who provide the $2.5 million budget for the bikeway, Caltrans, who granted the CE, the City of Los Angeles, who applied for the CE and Metro, who is responsible for building the bike path.

The lawsuit only covers the portion of the bike route in the City of Los Angeles, and not the part in the City of Santa Monica.  The 3.85 miles of bikeway would run mostly along the Exposition right-of-way owned by Metro from Robertson Boulevard and Venice Boulevard to Centinela Boulevard and Exposition Boulevard where the path is picked up by Santa Monica.

Details on the lawsuit are sketchy, but based on what appears in the Courthouse News article, we can make some assumptions about the lawsuit’s chances of being successful.

The homeowners say the bike path would run behind their properties and “through what is now green space which serves as a buffer between the I-10 freeway and the plaintiff’s homes and other homes.”

Read more…

Do the math. "Constellation A" assumes a station entrance at the NE corner of Constellation and Ave. of the Stars on property owned by JMB Realty. "Constellation B" assumes a entrance at the SW corner in front of the Hyatt Regency. Note that the station on JMB property would actually cost $38.7 million less than the one in front of the Hyatt. Table from the Century City Station Report from the Westside Subway EIR.

(Hello Beverly Hills Courier readers!  Confused by allegations that Metro controls editorial decisions here at Streetsblog?  To help clear things up, we’ve compiled a list of the connections between Streetsblog and Metro right here.)

The headline was breathless, as many headlines in the Beverly Hills Courier often are. “Courier Exclusive Report: Century City Subway Station $38.7 Million Payoff to JMB,” blared last week’s lead story. Even by the sensationalist standards of the Courier, this one seemed a big story.

The gist of the Courier’s big scoop: Metro is planning to spend $38.7 million dollars more to purchase property for a Constellation Avenue Station on property owned by JMB Realty than it would for property located literally across the street.  Of course, as is often the case, the story isn’t factually accurate.

From the Courier Exclusive:

Although the disclosure is difficult to read, it appears that Metro will pay $38.7 million more for JMB’s property at 10131 Constellation Blvd. than a comparable site underneath Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, 2025 Avenue of the Stars.

The story plays right into the Courier’s narrative about the Westside Subway alignment.  JMB Realty and its ties to Mayor Villaraigosa have long been the culprit when discussion of why the Subway will probably go under Beverly Hills High School to a station at Constellation Ave and Avenue of the Stars rather than Santa Monica Boulevard adjacent to a golf course.

We should note that either of the stations discussed in this story  would require tunneling under Beverly Hills High School.  The purpose of the article is not to demand a station re-route, just to smear Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Metro and JMB Realty by claiming that the realty company will receive nearly $40 million more than the Hyatt across the street would if the station were built on its property.

This “payoff” seems the perfect story to continue the narrative of a realty giant colluding with a big city mayor to blow up Beverly Hills High School.

Except, of course, the story isn’t actually true.  As a matter of fact, the station on JMB owned property is actually $38.7 million less expensive to build than the one in front of the Hyatt according to Metro’s environmental documents.

Confused by the difficult to read document as many people are when confronted by hundreds of pages of government-speak, the Courier makes some pretty large assumptions that there are no differences in the cost between the two stations other than the real estate costs.  Using advanced research techniques commonly known as “reading the next page after the chart” Streetsblog was able to get to the bottom of why the Subway will cost 4,241,525,000 with a station on one side of Constellation and another $4,280,252,000 on the other.  Hint: it has nothing to do with the funds Metro would have to spend to buy property from JMB Realty. Read more…

The subway extension route approved today covers this route. The rest of the subway will have to wait for the May, June or even July meeting. Click on the image for a larger view.

The first of several major issue scheduled to be addressed by the Metro Board of Directors was the approval of the environmental documents for the Westside Subway.  After the Beverly Hills City Council formerly requested a hearing earlier this week, Metro staff recommended that the Board split approval for the Subway into two parts so that part could be approved today and part could be approved after another hearing was held.  The first part would cover the extension from the current Wilshire/Western stop to Wilshire/La Cienega.  The route approved would be 3.9 miles of the 8.6 mile route that was proposed by Metro staff.

Despite news that Metro wouldn’t vote on the subway route under Beverly Hills or the location of a Century City station, dozens of speakers from Beverly Hills shared comments that tunneling under the high school would be unsafe and a smaller but still significant number of speakers testified that such a route is perfectly safe and that opposition from Beverly Hills is a waste of time and resources.  The majority of the comments addressed the routing through Beverly Hills.  Because Metro made clear before testimony that they would not vote on the issues regarding Beverly Hills, we’re not going to cover that part of the conversation.

Support for the Subway was overwhelming among the speakers.  Only two speakers spoke out against the proposal to extend the Subway from the Wilshire/Western Intersection all the way to La Cienega Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard.   Of the three speakers who spoke against the Subway in general terms, only the Bus Riders Union’s Sunyoung Yang made the case that the Subway was a waste of funds.  ”There is nothing sustainable or economically justifiable about this project when you are blowing $6 billion on a nine mile project,” concluded Yang.  Oddly, Yang’s comments were greeted by applause by many people who previously testified that they supported the subway and transit before hitting on some concerns unrelated to today’s vote. Read more…

In an announcement that caught even some CicLAvia organizers by surprise, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced this morning at the “CicLAvia opening” that CicLAvia partners Bike Nation will establish a permanent footprint in Los Angeles this December.  The cost to the city will be minimal, as Bike Nation promises to pay for all of the 4,000 bikes and 400 kiosks coming to Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Venice Beach and Westwood.  Bike Nation estimates it could take a full year to complete the installation.

“In tough economic times like these, we knew it wasn’t feasible to start a public bike share program,” explains Villaraigosa of the $16 million investment by Bike Nation.  ”But we know it’s what LA needs. As we’ve seen with CicLAvia and ‘Carmaheaven,’ Angelenos are aching for a day without a car.”

Photo used with permission from Bike Nation

Bringing bike share to Los Angeles has been a hot and cold topic going back to the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver.  At the Convention, Bikes Belong set up a temporary bike share for delegates to move around the city.  This captured the imagination of then City Council Transportation Committee Chair Wendy Greuel, who rode the bikes and wanted a permanent system in Los Angeles.  At the time, LADOT and many members of the bike community warned that the city wasn’t ready for a stream of inexperienced bicyclists to hit the Downtown all at once.

Is the city ready today?  It’s been less than four years since there was consensus that it was not.

Villaraigosa thinks so.

“We’re building the infrastructure; we’re making it safe and practicable,” explains the Mayor.  ”With Bike Nation’s new venture, we’re making it that much easier for Angelenos to get around this town while promoting business and job growth in the City.”

Alexis Lantz, the planning director for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, also believes the city has made great strides in four years.  However, Lantz has one suggestion that will make bike sharing that much more accessible to Angelenos. Read more…

The goal of the Road Diet, a street that works for all users. Off to a good start. All Pics by Joe Linton

The first time I biked down Main Street in Santa Monica and then into the Venice Neighborhood of Los Angeles was the summer of 2008.  I was following Santa Monica Critical Mass and part of the comically over-aggressive antics of the SMPD included herding cyclists into the lane by buzzing groups of cyclists on motorcycles and cruisers until we passed into Los Angeles.  When we crossed the border two things vanished, the police presence and the bike lane.

Fast-forward three and a half years and the situation has changed.  While Santa Monica has sporadic Critical Mass rides, they don’t draw near the number of riders or police presence their predecessors dud.  And as of Friday night, the transition from Santa Monica to Los Angeles on Main Street is seamless for bicyclists.

At long last, the Main Street Road Diet is in place.  The former five lane configuration has been re-striped to have three through travel lanes, including a turn lane, two bicycle lanes and two lanes of car parking.  The road diet connects Windward Circle at the south end to the Santa Monica border, just North of Rose Avenue.  The diet is .8 miles long.

There are many reasons to consider “putting a road on a diet” by reducing the capacity for cars and increasing capacity for everyone else.  Usually, diets are completed on streets with lower traffic volumes and higher than average bicycle and pedestrian use.  By giving more space to bicyclists, diets don’t just benefit cyclists but also pedestrians who benefit from a better walking environment and car drivers who get to drive in a safer environment.

After other road diets drew opposition from neighborhood groups and ABC 7, LADOT met twice with the Venice Neighborhood Council.   The feedback they received was requests that the Diet either give more space to cyclists or abandon the diet for a series of traffic calming and Sharrows.  In response, LADOT increased the width of the bike lanes by six inches so that the bike lane and adjacent parking weren’t both the minimum widths.  The “compromise” plan didn’t leave critics happy, but at least made the project better than “minimum width for bikes, maximum space for cars.”

Joe Linton reviewed the lanes over the weekend for the Eco-Village Blog.  Some more of his pictures are available after the jump. Read more…

(Note: If you’re not familiar with the history of the Westchester Station, check out this City Watch article by Westchester Neighborhood Council Member Denny Schneider)

Click on the image to go to a pdf map of the Crenshaw Line. The half white arrow on the bottom left points to the optional station in Westchester

Let’s start with the basics.

The budget for construction of the Crenshaw Light Rail Line is $1.7 billion which will connect the Expo Line to the Green Line and eventually LAX.  The budget includes at least six stations.  Thanks to a new resolution passed by the Metro Board of Directors,the total number of “approved” stations has ballooned to eight, but the total funding still only guarantees six.

A coalition of community activists, Westside City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and County Supervisor Don Knabe scored a victory yesterday, when the Metro Board of Directors unanimously passed a motion “approving” a station in Westschester for the Crenshaw Light Rail line.  The Westchester station would be the farthest west station in the Crenshaw Corridor.

“I am thrilled to see that a Manchester/Aviation station will be included in the construction bids,” commented Rosendahl, who hosted an online petition to the Metro Board asking for the Westchester Station’s inclusion.  ”Hats off to Supervisor Knabe for his leadership and the Westchester community for their support.”

But for station supporters, the victory could ultimately be a hollow one.  Westchester residents were stunned to learn earlier this year that funding for the station was not included in Metro’s final project alternative and scrambeled to get the station included again.  Yesterday’s vote makes it possible for the station to be built, but doesn’t guarantee it.  While the resolution authorizes the station, it doesn’t require it.  Contractors bidding on construction can include the station in their bids, it wouldn certainly make for a stronger bid, but adding the Westchester Station isn’t a requirement to submit a bid. Read more…

Photo of the new Washington Place Bike Lanes via Sherri Akers/Facebook

Finally, L.A.’s new commitment to bike planning brings some paint to the Westside.  Last Friday Joe Linton noted at the Eco-Village blog that the city had placed down markers for 0.77 miles of new bike lanes from Grand View Blvd to Albright Avenue, in my own neighborhood of Mar Vista.

By Sunday morning, the new lanes were already in place and captured on film by local green living advocate Sherri Akers.  If you see new bike lanes somewhere in Los Angeles, drop us a line at damien at streetsblog dot org.

The lanes meet up with newly implemented lanes on Washington Place and Bentley Avenue in Culver City.  This sort of inter-city coordination is going to be necesary for real bike mobility to come to L.A. County, especially the Westside which has Culver City and Beverly Hills surrounded by City land and Santa Monica between much of the Westside and the ocean.

Linton has more to say about the lanes, and bike planning on the Westside in general.  For more on these lanes, check out the Eco-Village blog.