Venice Boulevard For All

Public Transit

City of Los Angeles

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Venice Boulevard is 13 miles long and is the only street fully within the city of Los Angeles that goes from the ocean to DTLA. From 2012 to 2022, 1,205 collisions occurred on the street and 58 people were killed or seriously injured. The street is more than 2x as wide as other major arterials; it has the capacity to accommodate multiple modes of transportation. The Line 33 bus, which runs along the boulevard, sees 19,500 weekday rides; 93% of riders are people of color and 84% live in households making under $50k/year. A dedicated bus lane can move 5x as many people as a standard traffic lane, improving transit and giving emergency vehicles a path through LA traffic. Recently, a portion of Venice Blvd. was relinquished to the city by Caltrans, along with $14M to bring the street up to a good state of repair. Streets For All successfully got the city to implement 4.4 miles of dedicated bus and protected bike lanes on Venice Blvd. and now we will work to complete the remaining 9 miles.

Streets For All has organized communities, neighborhood councils, and elected officials in an effort to get the city to enact its own mobility plan along Venice Blvd. The mobility plan calls for dedicated bus lanes, pedestrian infrastructure, and protected bike lanes along the corridor. We have created street renderings, a dedicated campaign website, e-mails, and other calls to action to encourage community members to engage. We got neighborhood councils to write letters of support, and organized meetings to advocate for these changes. Our efforts were successful and the city is currently implementing many of our suggestions on 4.4 miles of Venice Boulevard, even using the renderings we provided! With nearly a third of the project implemented, now is the time to extend the dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes west to the Pacific Ocean, and east to DTLA. In this second phase, we will host community meetings, pop-up events, present to neighborhood councils, produce new street renderings, and create a video and media campaign to excite people about the proposed improvements. When we first began this campaign, we urged our audience, supporters, and communities across the city - both online and in person - to make public comments through official city channels. We will continue this work with a two-pronged approach: 1) working directly with constituents to build overwhelming and widespread community support, and 2) effectively advocating to key decision-makers.

A dedicated bus-only lane on Venice Blvd. would make bus trips more efficient and accessible - benefitting more than 20,000 daily riders. Protected bike lanes would help people get to/from the bus and Expo Line safely, providing a great first/last mile solution. Both lanes would improve safety for all that use the street - including those that drive. Additional benefits include increased foot traffic for local businesses, expanded awareness about street safety, and a substantial reduction in the largest source of carbon emissions in California - car trips. If Venice Blvd. were a complete street, it would pave the way (literally and figuratively!) for other streets across the city. The change-making process we're proposing, which includes research, renderings, community engagement, and advocacy, would be replicable for other bus routes and problem areas. Over time, we intend to apply this process to other parts of the city, widely improving public and active transportation.

Los Angeles continues to have some of the worst air quality, highest rates of childhood asthma, and most severe traffic violence in the country. Streets For All found it unacceptable and built a grassroots team of organizers and advocates from across Los Angeles to help demand the change we so desperately need. We have successfully gotten the city to implement 4.4 miles of Venice Blvd For All, which is set to open this summer. The positive impact of these improvements will be measured by the number of bus boardings each day, reduced bus headways, a reduction in fatalities and injuries of pedestrians and cyclists, and an increase in foot traffic to businesses along the corridor. Streets For All is simply holding the city accountable to its own commitments: Mobility Plan 2035, Vision Zero Action Plan, and the Green New Deal Sustainable City pLAn, all while engaging communities across the city about transportation safety, sustainability, and advocacy.