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Bikers rejoice: Metro considering 17 'open street' days
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Cyclists make their way through an intersection past City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. Six miles of streets in and around downtown Los Angeles were closed to motor vehicles as the city's fifth anniversary celebration of the CicLAvia festival. LA's transit agency is considering funding 17 more such events through 2018.
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering a plan to spend $4 million to fund 17 open streets events into 2018, expanding the popular bike and walk festivals into areas like Vernon, Baldwin Park and San Pedro.
The popularity of these events has been growing, with thousands of people regularly showing up to walk, bike and skate on streets closed to car traffic since CicLAvia started in 2010.
This is the second time Los Angeles County's transit agency has decided to fund the events. The agency wants to make sure they spread to new locations, including lower-income communities.
This week Metro's Planning and Programming committee approved a list of projects in various cities and jurisdictions, including 11 that have never held an event before and 12 disadvantaged communities. The Metro Board will vote on the proposal at its meeting next Thursday.
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Metro has mapped the proposed routes for 17 new events:
The proposed sites are:
- West Hollywood
- Burbank
- Culver City
- DTLA/Westlake (2017 and 2018)
- Baldwin Park
- Vernon
- LA - Historic Wilshire
- Glendale
- Santa Monica
- Downey
- San Fernando
- Long Beach
- Whittier
- Montebello
- San Dimas
- LA - San Pedro - Wilmington
Metro staffers also want to pay to reschedule the 626 Golden Streets events in the San Gabriel Valley which was postponed due to fire this year.
Metro said transit ridership jumps 10 percent around events when they're going on and TAP card sales increase by 17 percent those days.
Research from UCLA suggests neighborhoods and businesses do well, too. One study showed particulate matter in the air was reduced by nearly 50 percent along routes and up to 12 percent on neighboring streets.
Another study, led by researcher Madeline Brozen, found restaurants along the route see an average 23 percent increase in sales and can create new customers.
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