In December 2022, work was poised to begin for more than five miles of peak-hour bus-only lanes along La Brea Avenue between Hollywood and Baldwin Hills. However, Streetsblog reported two months later not only that work on the project had stalled, but that plans for the bus lanes had been dealt a blow by 10th District Councilmember Heather Hutt, who had delayed implementation to the south of Olympic Boulevard, citing a lack of support from community groups in South Los Angeles. Now, Metro and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation will move forward with installation without serving communities in Mid-City and South LA.
Metro announced earlier this week that construction was set to begin on July 5 for the initial phase of the La Brea Av Bus Priority Lanes Project, which will now stretch just over 2.8 miles between Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to Olympic in the Mid-Wilshire area. The new lanes will operate on weekdays from 7 am to 9 am in the morning, and then again from 4 pm to 7 pm in the evening.
Plans for the southern leg of La Brea, which would run an additional 2.8 miles to Coliseum Street in Baldwin Hills, remain in flux. A post in The Source states that Metro is working with community members to develop a design for the stretch located south of Olympic
Route of the La Brea Avenue Bus Priority LanesMetro
Construction work is only scheduled to occur on weekdays from 9 am to 3:30 pm. Completion is expected in four-to-six weeks.
The scope of work will include the restriping of curbside lanes, replacing roadside signage, and the installation of pavement markings between Sunset and Olympic. That will require temporary lane closures will occur on portions of La Brea between Sunset and Orange Drive, which comes with parking prohibitions during work hours.
The La Brea bus priority lanes are a signature project borne out of Metro's NextGen bus plan, which calls for new supportive infrastructure to speed up travel for the region's notoriously sluggish bus system. Bus priority lanes have been added to a handful of corridors in Downtown, and are also in the works for Florence Avenue in South Los Angeles. Meanwhile, full-time bus lanes were recently added to a stretch of Venice Boulevard on the Westside, and could be coming to a segment of Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.
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- Bus priority lanes coming to La Brea Avenue (Urbanize LA)
