One of the Westside's most congested corridors could soon be the site of Los Angeles' latest bus-only lane.

Los Angeles transportation officials, in coordination with Caltrans, are planning a series of safety and transit improvements to Lincoln Boulevard in the Venice community.  The upgrades, which have been packaged into a project called Lincoln Fast Forward, would span a roughly one-mile stretch between Venice Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue -  just south of the border between Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica.

The centerpiece of the project is a plan to convert Lincoln's southbound parking lane to a bus-only lane during the evening rush hour (4 pm to 7 pm).  The number of general purpose travel lanes would remain unchanged.

LADOT's plans for Lincoln Boulevard come nearly three years after the City of Santa Monica implemented its own peak hour bus-only lane along the stretch of Lincoln between Ozone Street and the I-10 Freeway.  Since that time, buses traveling along the dedicated lane run at an average speed of 16.5 miles per hour - substantially higher than the average 6.8 miles per hour speed for buses in Venice, where there no lane exists today.

Combined, the two corridors will result in approximately 2.4 miles of rush hour bus-only lanes for Lincoln Boulevard.

A separate Metro project, funded by the half-cent sales tax approved via Measure M, calls for building a dedicated bus rapid transit line along Lincoln between the Expo Line's Downtown Santa Monica Station and LAX.

Besides a new bus lane, the project may include additional improvements intended to address safety issues which affect motorists, pedestrians, and other transportation modes along the corridor.  According to LADOT, 16 people were either killed or severely injured in collisions along this stretch of Lincoln between 2013 and 2017.

A virtual meeting for community stakeholders is scheduled for Thursday, October 8th between 5:30 and 6:30 pm.  Click here to register.

To provide feedback on the Lincoln Fast Forward project, access a survey here.