Downtown LA
Streetsblog LA
Broadway Dress Rehearsal Project Gets New, More Durable Surface
Downtown L.A.'s "Broadway Dress Rehearsal" project entered a new phase last month. SBLA readers will recall that the Broadway project was a relatively quick and low-cost creation of bulb-outs designed to calm traffic. The project removed space from cars, giving it to people dining and traveling on foot on one of L.A.'s highest pedestrian-volume streets. Broadway's Dress Rehearsal opened August 2014 and every day plenty of people use it, especially the tables and chairs there. Last fall, the city Transportation Department (LADOT) published a study showing baseline conditions on Broadway; this fall LADOT will be following up with comparison data on what has changed.
July 9, 2015
Eyes on the Street: Downtown L.A. Has Three Great Bike Corrals
A couple weeks ago, I reported that the great new bike corral on Main Street at 5th was the first in downtown Los Angeles. Commenter Steven White correctly pointed out that there are indeed two other on-street bike corrals in the Downtown Arts District. So although it is the first in the historic core, the Main Street corral wasn't the first downtown L.A. bike corral, nor was that my first or or likely to my last error to appear in writing.
June 30, 2015
A Look at Downtown L.A. Parking Enforcement Riding with LADOT
Earlier this week, I accepted an invitation to do a downtown Los Angeles bike-along with City of L.A. Transportation Department (LADOT) parking enforcement officers. LADOT also uses bicycle officers to do parking enforcement in the Valley, West L.A., and Hollywood. The parking enforcement staff downtown is 30 strong, all on bicycle.
June 19, 2015
Metro Planning Committee Approves Bike-Share Contract
As expected, at yesterday's meeting the Metro Planning and Programming Committee approved the contract for the first phase of Metro bike-share. The final approval is now expected at next Thursday's meeting of the full Metro board of directors.
June 18, 2015
Interview with Luke Klipp of Jaydancing
For as long as I can remember, Streetsblog Los Angeles has been lamenting the L.A. Police Department's targeted ticketing of pedestrians. LAPD "jaywalking" enforcement occurs mostly in downtown Los Angeles, but also outside various central Los Angeles Metro rail stations. I am excited that Los Angeles City Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Jose Huizar recently introduced a motion to begin to examine these stings, but it looks like the archaic walking law will probably need to changed at the state level.
June 16, 2015
Metro Tunnel Under DTLA 7th Street Expected Complete Late 2015
Step aside, North Hollywood. Keep chugging along, Purple and Crenshaw lines, and Regional Connector. Wait a while, preferably a long, long while, South Pasadena.
June 11, 2015
Metro To Vote On Bike-Share Contract With Vendor Bicycle Transit Systems
At its June 25 monthly meeting, the Metro Board will be voting on the contract for the initial phase of what is now optimistically called "Metro Countywide Bikeshare."
June 2, 2015
Applause for Bonin-Huizar L.A. Council Motion to Rein in LAPD Ped Stings
Last Friday, May 1, Los Angeles City Council livability leaders introduced a motion [PDF] to get the city family to examine the effectiveness of LAPD's ongoing pedestrian sting operations. We would like to think that SBLA's recent article critiquing these stings paid off, but probably the excellent recent Los Angeles Times articles by Steve Lopez and Catherine Saillant got just a tad more exposure.
May 4, 2015
Cyclists Wanted for Pedal L.A. Installation for L.A. State Historic Park
I recently got a preview of Pedal L.A. - a fascinating new bicycle-themed interactive art installation for the Los Angeles State Historic Park. What I saw was the work-in-progress prototype. The installation's creator, David Gauch, is looking to Southern California's diverse cycling community to get involved in using his project to tell our stories.
April 27, 2015
What Should Downtown L.A. Do to Get Ready for Bike Share?
Metro regional bike share is coming soon. If all goes as planned, a year from now, downtown Los Angeles will have system on the ground. It will include about 1,000 bikes at 65 docking stations. The system will extend from Union Station to USC. For more detail, see SBLA's earlier preview.
February 26, 2015