Bus-only lanes on Wilshire move toward approval
Proposed bus-only lanes along Wilshire Boulevard will move forward, but with some chunks of it removed, if a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee approves a staff recommendation next week.
Under the plan, parking spaces would be converted to bus-only lanes during rush hours along 9.9 miles of Wilshire Boulevard. But key sections of the cross-town artery, including Beverly Hills, the "condo canyon" area in Westwood, and Santa Monica, would be omitted under the current plan.
Metro staff say the express and local routes along Wilshire are the heaviest-used buses in Los Angeles County, with 80,000 boardings per weekday.
Metro plans to eliminate curbside parking during rush hours, repave and widen curb lanes to better handle heavy buses, and modify traffic signals to favor buses. About $31.5 million has been set aside for the "bus rapid transit" project.
Metro staff has recommended that the MTA board reject a request from the Los Angeles city council to limit the bus-only lanes to the 5.4 miles of Wilshire east of Beverly Hills. Metro staff said the benefits to Brentwood
residents would be outweighed by delays imposed on bus patrons, and snarled Wilshire Boulevard traffic.
The proposed project will go before an MTA board committee next Wednesday. If built, the bus lanes would parallel the Wilshire Boulevard subway, which will not open until at least 2022 under current construction
plans.
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