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

The initially announced ~5.9 miles of bus lane were whittled down to just ~2.5 miles installed in the current project. City Councilmember Heather Hutt continues to block implementation below Olympic Boulevard.

By Joe Linton

4:32 PM PDT on August 14, 2023

North end of new La Brea bus lanes at Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Photos by Joe Linton/Streetsblog

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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.

Signage notes operating hours on new La Brea bus lanes (SBLA photos were taken today, during the middle of the day when the bus lanes were not in effect.)

Most of the La Brea bus lane project is in the city of Los Angeles (in the neighborhoods of Fairfax, Hancock Park, Hollywood, and Mid-Wilshire) but three blocks (from Fountain Avenue to Romaine Street) are in the city of West Hollywood.

Though they're not a particularly welcoming place to bicycle, signage and on-street markings note the La Brea lanes are for both bus and bicycle. (This should help discourage law enforcement from ticketing cyclists in the bus lane.)

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.