Eyes on the Street: New La Brea Bus Lanes are Open

They're not quite complete, but L.A. bus riders can celebrate that the new La Brea peak-hour bus lanes are open! The La Brea bus lanes are a joint project of Metro and the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood.

L.A. City's portion of the new bus lanes was approved back in 2015 as part of the city's Mobility Plan. The project was picked up by the Metro/LADOT (L.A. City Transportation Department) Bus Speed Improvements work group. In 2021, Metro announced that about 5.9 miles of La Brea bus lanes (from Sunset Boulevard to Coliseum Street) were anticipated to open in 2022. After a couple of false starts, construction got underway last month, and now appears complete.

The new bus lanes are in operation on weekdays from 7-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m.

The initially announced ~5.9 miles of bus lane were whittled down quite a bit, with only ~2.5 miles installed so far. L.A. City Councilmember Heather Hutt is blocking about three miles of the project - from Olympic Boulevard to Coliseum - where it would connect to the Metro E Line. The current installation omitted a block north and south of Wilshire Boulevard, perhaps due to current Metro D Line subway construction at two corners of Wilshire/La Brea.