Well, that's a year if a lawsuit isn't filed, and practically no big transportation project in LA happens without one. To back up a bit: yesterday the City Council voted for 7.7 miles of rush hour bus-only lanes on Wilshire--basically from MacArthur Park to the Santa Monica border, with Beverly Hills and Condo Canyon excluded. The Council did add language to their measure "asking the Metro Board of Directors to restore a one-mile segment of bus lanes through the Condo Canyon part of Westwood to help workers reach their jobs faster," reports The Source. This likely won't resuscitate the Condo Canyon portion--local homeowners have fought vehemently against being included in the $31.5 million bus rapid transit project (the feds are paying $23 million) and studies have shown that adding the lanes here wouldn't really save bus commuters, who outnumber drivers during rush hour, that much time. Meanwhile, those who remain unhappy with the current plan are a group of anti-bus lane Brentwood homeowners who made a "veiled threat to sue over the lack of studies of the impact of shortening sidewalk lengths to make room for a travel lane in Brentwood." The Board of Supervisors still need to approve the lanes (the bureaucracy knows no bounds), but that's more of a formality as the Supes already voted on the project as members of the Metro Board. As far as when these things will get going, Metro tells Curbed that construction--repaving, sidewalk adjustments, etc.--starts in summer 2012 and the lanes should open for business in mid-2013.
· Council OK's 7.7 Miles of Bus-Only Lanes [Curbed LA]
· Council Approves 7.7 Mile Option for Bus Lanes [Streetsblog]
· So Where Are We on the Wilshire Bus Lanes? [Curbed LA]
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