The Los Angeles City Council voted to study a shorter bus lane that would exclude bus lanes west of Westwood Blvd.
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl asked that points west of Westwood Blvd. be excluded because of concerns from Brentwood residents that taking up two lanes of traffic (one each way) during rush hour could cause even more traffic delays on Wilshire and surrounding streets.
Proponents of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus lanes say this option will make bus travel more attractive and cause car drivers to consider riding the bus instead.
The original goal was to have the bus lanes in operation from Downtown LA to Santa Monica, but the cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica have chosen not to opt in at this time.
Critics fear that traffic might actually get worse as buses move in and out of the bus lanes.
The issue of fragmentation was compounded when the “condo canyon†area (between Westwood Blvd. and Comstock, between Westwood and Beverly Hills) was excluded, when condo owners in the area complained to County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
As the fragmentation issue grew, so did concerns among civic leaders West of the 405. An earlier “bus only†lane experiment was deemed a failure a few years ago. If Wilshire becomes too clogged, reasoning goes, drivers will head up streets like Bundy and Barrington to get to Sunset – and then to the 405.
Proponents of the bus only lane say that by letting communities opt out, it harms the integrity of the system. It’s by forcing the issue of bus lanes that they will be given a fair shake, they say.
The city council has asked for a study of how the bus lane proposal will be impacted if the stretch between Westwood Blvd. and Centinela is excluded. A final vote is expected soon after the studies are completed in April.
