Watch this short new Streets for All explainer video on how the city of L.A. is locking in outdated street reconfigurations under COVID-19.
Under COVID-19, car traffic is down. The city of L.A. is smartly scrambling to take advantage of the lull, and accelerate construction that involves street closures. L.A. is repaving plenty of major arterial streets under a program called ADAPT. Instead of updating these streets to new multi-modal configurations, as were approved in 2015 in the city's Mobility Plan, L.A. is re-installing the current outdated striping. Given the looming recession and resultant threadbare city budgets, these old car-centric configurations are likely to linger for years - perhaps decades - into the future.
The Mobility Plan designates many ADAPT corridors to receive new bus-only lanes, new bike lanes, and upgrades to existing bike lanes. Doing these now would foster multi-modal streets, save the city money, and advance many city goals: equity, health, Vision Zero, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and more.
The organization Streets for All is campaigning for the city to implement the Mobility Plan as streets are repaved under ADAPT. To learn more and to get involved, see Streets for All's ADAPT campaign web page.
