The LA City Destroying Its Own Bike/Bus Lanes

On April 24th, Culver City's Council has an opportunity to vote on removing it's best infrastructure project in LA history (Move Culver City), built only in 2021.

[alexhedbany]

For Culver City residents, or those interested in supporting the lanes staying in place, the motion is being voted at the culver city council meeting on 4/24!!

[nvrndingsmmr]

As someone who works and lives in the area and walks to and from work every day, I can confirm the area has been completely transformed in a beautiful and positive way thanks to all of these changes. The local businesses are thriving and the spot is constantly full of people. That's people, not cars. Those streets that close down on specific days and get reclaimed by pedestrians help the place feel like a proper community and also help the local businesses a ton too. Pretty shocked and disappointed that what might be the nicest part of Los Angeles wants to erase and undo the progress its made becoming the nicest part of Los Angeles. Makes zero sense. The area will become way less nice to spend time in.

[aidannascimento]

One thing I'd like to clarify is that the council who implemented move CC, two of the progressive members were replaced by one progressive, and one conservative. The new conservative majority has been doing a ton of terrible things.
1. On their first meeting, they repealed a higher minimum wage for medical workers that had been implemented the SAME MEETING by the previous council
2. Implemented one of the harshest anti camping ordinances that I've seen in LA
3. There was a street that closes on the weekends to cars, they axed that.
4. There was a street that was turned into a mini parklet during covid, they just voted to turn it back to a small side street.
5. They're going to try to remove incremental infill, which is Culver City's version of abolishing single family zoning, (basically bringing back single family zoning in most of the city)
6. And this.
4, 5 and 6 were all done in the same meeting, the last meeting. It was depressing to watch.

[dav]

You MUST protect this at all costs. You have no idea what a gem this design is. Even in Europe, yes, we have good public transport- but in most of EU, where we use buses in the city, bus only lanes aren't a thing. It's still a relatively new idea, but the buses have been there for a loong time, getting stuck in traffic. And this is in Los Angeles, of all places!

[squirlez]

I live not too far from Culver City, and I've loved using the bike lanes to help me get to Cliffs of Id on my climbing days & to check out local businesses. Every time I use them, I just think about how nice it would be if more streets in LA were as bike friendly. That's not to say that they are perfect, but compared to biking in traffic I'd take these any day. Hopefully they end up voting to keep them, removing such useful infrastructure without a replacement would be a huge shame (and, selfishly, would be very inconvenient for me).

[alanthefisher]

Great overview and such a shame that the mayor/council voted to remove it. I have a feeling that this won't be the end

[tjjones]

As someone who has to commute through Culver City I hated the bus lanes but truthfully it didn't increase my already 1 hour commute that much and it made me want to move to culver city because it's becoming the 1st livable neighborhood in LA

[sie]

The problem with things like this is often they don't go far enough (literally) and end up being a disappointment. If they extended the protected bike lanes then they'd have even more people using them, unless you live near the end of the bike lanes you probably wouldn't use them

Also, empty bike lanes aren't a sign they're being wasted, you just need a lot of bikes for a traffic jam

[christopotamus]

I'm not in Culver City but am a frequent pedestrian / bike rider in the downtown area. If they remove the bike lanes I will find somewhere else to spend my time and money. With the new bike/bus lanes coming to Venice Blvd, it may be time for me to give more of my money to LA and explore Mar Vista and other nearby neighborhoods who are a bit more progressive and can see the writing on the wall.

It'd be absolutely stupid if they vote to remove the bike or bus lanes just as LA puts theirs in on Venice. LA's pedestrianization is slowly kicking into gear, and tons of new bike/bus commuters will completely avoid a newly out of touch downtown Culver City instead of potentially stopping on their way through if it feels like a place for cars instead of a place for people. Long term, with the new people mover unlocking the ability for people to fly into LA without needing to rent a car, tourists may not consider Culver City a place to go if you need a car to get anywhere from there. That they're even considering this demonstrates they are not forward thinking and show poor leadership. We can't physically build more roads, so we have to move people with other, more space efficient modes of transportation. Those modes need to be faster than traveling by car, in order to encourage more use, and in exchange that will make traffic slightly better.

If they do go through with it, I hope there are a lot of studies that show the traffic getting worse, more pass-through traffic in downtown, and that the roads and pedestrian crossings became less safe with the handing over of bus lanes for cars. Then we can point to them when they inevitably complain about traffic again, and hopefully convince some of the car brains will buy a bike so we can start the cycle anew.

[richardthomas]

Madness! Keep the bus/bike lanes and screw the cars!

[whatwebuilt]

Great video. LA needs this kind of treatment in every neighborhood. It just makes sense.

[lucasprestenbach]

their freedom to own a car once again in conflict with my freedom to not own a car

[CopperScott]

It's wild, the lengths people will go instead of getting on the bus that whizzes by them.

[whyyoucaredude]

I will be at that City Council Meeting. Thank you for letting us know. That will be a wasteful, expensive project that will congest the area further even just in the span of construction, then the complaints will keep flooding in. I will be giving comment. I hope to see you there.

[kadafilyf]

This is very common in my city of Melbourne Australia. Most major roads and even a busy freeway have a dedicated bus lane. The inner city usually gets very busy during peak hour but it's not an issue for people who take the bus or bike. We also have an average train system which although gets crowded, it's nicer standing on a busy train which flies to the suburbs vs having the space of your car but being stuck in traffic. After factoring the price of petrol, parking and tolls, it's a lot cheaper to take public transport or ride the bike.

[nujabes]

LA has incredible potential for urban design upgrades. Hope you continue your content creator journey. You are entering the urbanist sphere at a great time. Best of luck dude, ! will wait patiently for more videos.

[AutobahnSean]

The comments and committee are literally doing the “just one more lane bro I swear” argument

[christianhumer]

Use their own Arguments against them: This street was too full, so the capacity had to be increased. Also, People needed a way to get in the downtown reliably, and cant just hope that they arrive in time or leave home 3h early. People need to get to work, not to sit in that stinky traffic. Emergency Services also need to get everywhere in times, what isnt prossible on the road. Imagine your daughter or wife dies because they are stuck in traffic.

[KendrixTermina]

Tearing this out would be a travesty. Consider how much more space the ppl in the bikes & busses would take up if they were in cars. If ppl only did the fucking math.

[takeshikovach]

They went back to cars. Absolutely no improvements.