The Los Angeles City Council aims to improve road safety and calm traffic by encouraging residents to give up their motor vehicles or reduce usage through its controversial Mobility Plan 2035.
The plan calls for hundreds of miles of new bus-only lanes, bicycle lanes, and traffic calming measures over the next 20 years. It would use existing roads for 300 miles of bike lanes and 117 miles of bus-only lanes. Major corridors such as Van Nuys Boulevard, Sherman Way, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard would be redesigned. But critics doubt the plan will have the intended effect.
"Taking away lanes, which creates congestion, to try and force people to choose a different method of transportation other than the car, is a horrible way to solve a congestion problem," said Richard Katz, a planning commissioner. "People don't respond well to being forced to do things.”
Supporters say the mobility plan is an acknowledgment that the city can't build its way out of congestion problems. Widening streets is no longer feasible, and new freeways not viable because of the cost and difficulty in acquiring rights of way, they say.
Related Stories
Codes and Standards | Dec 5, 2019
Dubai, London and New York are 2019’s ‘Construction Mega Cities’
From 2007 to 2025, GlobalData expects the cities’ combined gross domestic product (GDP) to increase by more than US$8 trillion to US$20.4 trillion.
Codes and Standards | Dec 2, 2019
New GBCI certification recognizes expertise in sustainability
Provides third-party verification of competency to ‘making the world more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.’
Codes and Standards | Dec 2, 2019
New tool allows users to learn how to reduce embodied carbon
Calculator delivers first digitized EPDs.
Codes and Standards | Dec 2, 2019
Trade group challenges St. Petersburg, Fla., ordinance on construction contract mandates
Legality of requirement to hire apprentices, disadvantaged workers at issue.
Building Owners | Dec 2, 2019
What building owners and AEC teams need to know about New York’s Climate Mobilization Act
On April 18, 2019, the New York City Council passed the Climate Mobilization Act, a suite of laws aimed to meet the city’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Codes and Standards | Nov 26, 2019
Updated ASHRAE standards focused on ventilation design, air quality in residential applications
Standard 62.1 and 62.2 updates provide new tables of ventilation rates per unit area.
Codes and Standards | Nov 25, 2019
Real estate professionals say coworking is not a flash in the pan
More than 60% say coworking space is in their portfolios.
Codes and Standards | Nov 22, 2019
Utility’s proposal threatens California’s rooftop solar mandate
Would allow customers to use solar farms instead of installing their own PVs.
Codes and Standards | Nov 21, 2019
Number of LEED commercial building projects surpasses 100,000
More than 2.6 million sf of space being certified each day.
Codes and Standards | Nov 19, 2019
Most U.S. voters support licensing standards for architects
NCARB survey shows strong support for architecture as a licensed profession.