When Los Angeles residents voted last year to implement the city’s nearly decade-old mobility plan, transportation safety advocates called it a win for Los Angeles’s pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. Sidewalks would improve, traffic congestion would slow and bike lanes and bus lanes would be upgraded and built.
But the scope of Measure HLA — the citywide initiative to follow through on what L.A. City Council had adopted in 2015 — has been at the center of a recent debate between advocates and Metro after the transit agency moved forward on a project for the county’s busiest bus route without anticipated plans for new bike lanes.
Transit advocates argue that the exclusion from the Vermont Avenue project ignores voters’ mandate to follow the mobility plan, which calls for improved bike lanes on that street; Metro and city officials have countered that the measure applied only to the city of Los Angeles — not to the countywide transit agency.
“We don’t think it’s legal,” said Michael Schneider, who heads Streets for All, the advocacy group behind the ballot measure. “HLA is a city measure, and Metro is a county agency, but Vermont is owned by the City of Los Angeles, and the city is working with Metro. They’re permitting it, they’re providing technical expertise, they’re spending staff time and money. This falls under Measure HLA, which requires a bike lane on Vermont.”
Last week, the agency’s board of directors voted to approve plans for the Vermont Transit Corridor — a project that will add dedicated bus lanes and 26 stations at 13 locations along a 12.4-mile stretch on Vermont Avenue between 120th Street and Sunset Boulevard. The route sees 38,000 daily bus boardings, according to Metro, and that is expected to increase to 66,000 by 2045.
The project is expected to especially improve transit access for disadvantaged communities and a high number of residents who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color, according to Metro. The corridor includes a majority of low-income households, including residents without access to a car.
The project is included in the Measure M expenditure plan, which allocated $425 million for construction.
“Metro is supportive of the goals and objectives of HLA, specifically we have worked — and will continue to work — with all local jurisdictions to provide better quality transit and safer streets for all of Los Angeles County,” the agency said in a statement. “However, HLA does not apply to Metro projects.”
The board vote did not include discussion and ignored pleas from public commenters who asked Metro to reconsider its plans to include upgraded bike lanes.
The project has been under study for nearly a decade. According to Metro, the addition of new bike lanes would delay the project by up to five years, increase the cost and force Metro to acquire properties.
In a letter to Metro Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins last month, Schneider disputed Metro’s assertions and said the addition of bike lanes would not cause delays or affect properties if parking was not prioritized over the upgrades. He warned that the plan without bike lanes would further compromise safety on the route for bicyclists and pedestrians. Vermont Avenue sees one of the city’s highest pedestrian death and injury counts, according to Metro and Streets for All.
Metro has maintained its stance. In a letter sent to L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson last month, an attorney for Metro said that the agency would take legal action if the city forced it to comply with Measure HLA. The attorney cited a letter that the city attorney sent Streets for All in November that said the agency does not need to comply with the measure, a point that was reiterated at an L.A. City Transportation Committee meeting in February.
The attorney also pointed to an agreement between the city and Metro, which acknowledges the agency’s “self-governance authority.”
“The [agreement] simply does not transform Metro projects into City projects,” the letter states.
Schneider and others have said that the agency’s plan dismisses residents’ needs.
“We have an epidemic of traffic fatalities and injuries,” said Eli Lipmen, the executive director of transit advocacy group Move L.A. “Some of it has to do with how people drive and reckless driving, but a lot of it has to do with lack of good infrastructure.”
Lipmen said that more people will be hurt if Metro does not allow for new protected bike lanes in its plans and hopes there is still time for conversation.
“Vermont needs to happen and needs to happen as soon as possible. We cannot delay this project another second,” Lipmen said.
The project is expected to be completed by the 2028 Olympics.
