Link: http://la.streetsblog.org/2010/06/16/wilshire-bus-only-lanes-move-the-environmental-review-stage/
Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Move the Environmental Review Stage
It won't be separated as this BRT in the PRC, but it will be nice. Photo:我爱铰接巴士/FlickrSometimes I enjoy having dinner at the Wilshire/Western Denny's for the opportunity it affords to watch the amazing dynamic transit action occurring at that intersection. This includes frequent and very busy bus lines (local and Rapid) along both streets plus hoards of people entering and exiting the rail station. It reminds me how tremendously heavy transit use in the Wilshire corridor is. And partially explains why a Wilshire Bus Rapid Transit Project has been in gestation and has now reached the draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment stage.
Next week Metro is holding four public hearings on the proposed Wilshire BRT project. Details on time and place are below. But
please indulge me as I lay out some of the history behind it all. I hope you are comfortable because it takes a fair amount of exposition to sketch out, stretches back decades and includes a mind-boggling number of zigs and zags to where things stand now. But trust me, I have a purpose in laying out the highlights of how we came to this point and the significance of the project. And yes despite the several lengthy paragraphs of history that follow this is just the cliff notes version of what has happened. Which is sort of a scary thought in itself.
Improving transit service in the Wilshire corridor has been a regional goal since at least the 1970s. Originally the hope was for it to have mass transit. In fact the original subway alignment was to run along Wilshire as far west as Fairfax. Then in 1985 a methane explosion occurred in the basement of the Ross Dress for Less near the Farmer's Market. This provided the pretext for subway opponents in the Miracle Mile and Hancock Park areas to champion a ban of federal funds being used in what was dubbed the "methane zone" along Wilshire essentially between Crenshaw and Fairfax. The subway instead was re-routed along Vermont and Hollywood Blvd. with a stub west on Wilshire ending at Western.
But plans started to move forward for a western extension of the Red Line that skirted the methane zone by being diverted south of Wilshire to Pico/San Vicente. Ironically this effort was stymied by the discovery that it entailed tunneling through an area saturated with hydrogen sulfate, a very lethal gas. By the late 90s the infamous Hollywood Blvd. sinkhole and other controversies led to a cancellation of plans for subway extensions east and west. Eventually the federal Full Funding Grant Agreement for the eastern extension was converted to the funding of a light rail project, the Gold Line eastern extension that opened last year.
In 2000 a pilot Metro Rapid route (line 720) began operating along Wilshire with hopes to eventually upgrade it to BRT as a substitute for the now cancelled subway extension. In the same period planning began of the Exposition light rail project. By 2004 with funds tight the Metro Board siphoned money from the Wilshire project to keep Exposition on track. But Wilshire BRT stayed alive as that same year a demonstration project was commenced of peak hour bus lanes along a one mile stretch of the Boulevard between Centinella and Federal. Metro staff concluded the "demonstration project resulted in a 14 percent bus speed improvement and up to a 32 percent improvement in bus schedule reliability." By late 2006 studies were underway for bus lanes along the entire length of Wilshire. Bowing to NIMBY pressure the L.A. City Council in August 2007 "temporarily" suspended the demonstration until the one-mile segment could be integrated into a larger bus lane project.
Meanwhile the feds responding to the success of Metro Rapid and similar projects created a new category of funding to encourage BRT type projects. In September 2007 Metro and the City of Los Angeles submitted a “very small starts” application for Wilshire BRT which was approved. After a slow process the project has now reached the stage of draft environmental documents being ready for public comment.
A statement I helped draft that Southern California Transit Advocates presented at the May 8, 2010 Special Metro Board meeting included among its bullet points:
We hope L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa will monitor the progress of the implementation of the Wilshire bus lanes to ensure it is done expeditious and does not get bogged down in LADOT’s lamentable foot dragging that had un-necessarily delayed this project for nearly half a decade.
The Mayor's Office has been very supportive of the project and I am hopeful they will assist in not allowing LADOT 1950s traffic engineering myopia continue to stall it.
And I will note one key group of stakeholders who have helped keep the project alive has been the Bus Riders Union, which has long championed Wilshire BRT via letters of support and appearances at key meetings.
The hearings will be held:
Monday, June 21, 6pm-8pm
Westwood Presbyterian Church
10822 Wilshire Bl
Tuesday, June 22, 6pm-8pm
Good Samaritan Hospital -- Moseley Salvatori Conference Center
637 Lucas Ave.
Tuesday, June 29, 2pm-4pm
Wilshire United Methodist Church
4350 Wilshire Bl
Wednesday, June 30, 6pm-8pm
Felicia Mahood Center
11338 Santa Monica Bl
The key electeds whose support is crucial to the project going forward are L.A. city council members Paul Koretz, Bill Rosendahl, Herb Wesson, Tom Labonge and Ed Reyes. Contact information for them is on the city website.
If any of them are your councilmember and you support the project, let them know where you stand. While a handful of vocal NIMBYs have been opposed to the project most comments Metro has received to date have been positive so the prospects are good if the electeds and LADOT are made aware of the overall positive response that they will get onboard to allow it to go forward.
The project matters for practical and symbolic reasons. Having dedicated bus lanes will allow service to be faster and more reliable. And by dedicating lanes during peak hours exclusively to buses along such a prominent street our region will send the message that transit as a priority is no longer getting only lip service.
Metro's 1995 Long Range Transportation Plan included 101 miles of arterial dedicated bus lanes among its strategies to improve mobility in the region. No map of this network was ever released but you have to imagine it would have included Wilshire. Of course it never happened. Here we are 15 years later finally on the cusp of the beginnings of such a network.
Yes, it is disappointing the initial implementation will not include the portions of Wilshire that run through Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. But I believe the success of the lanes will help get those two cities eventually on board. We have to start somewhere and the current project is closer to actually happening than any of the previous efforts. And I say it is the right idea on the right street and needs to go forward without delay. With a good positive turnout at the hearings that will happen. The history I've laid out makes clear approval isn't a slamdunk. But I think it is a very hopeful situation as long as voices of reason dominate the discussion. Let your voice be heard.
