The city of Los Angeles controls the streets and the intersections crossed by the Expo Line as its connects Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monic and the beach. The city has made its first progress toward prioritizing trains. at those intersections
Steven Sharp reports on changes proposed to service on the Metro Expo Line, one of the Los Angeles region's few transit ridership success stories of recent years.
An ordinance proposed by City Councilmember Mike Bonin "would instruct the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to maximize signal priority for the Expo Line at street crossings and report back to the City Council within 60 days on strategies to speed end-to-end travel times and improve on-time reliability by 90 percent," reports Sharp.
Currently, "the light rail line, which runs predominantly at-grade between Downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica, is frequently forced to stop for cross traffic at 22 ungated intersections along its route," according to Sharp.
The trains are under the control of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but those intersections are the responsibility of the city of Los Angeles. The lack of signal priority for Expo Line trains has been a popular talking point for transit advocates in the city pushing the city to live up to its promises about transitioning to a less car-centric transportation system. A bus route near Downtown Los Angeles, recently liberated from cars in a temporary bus-only lane, provided visual evidence of the benefits of prioritizing high-capacity modes of transportation.
The Expo Line recently gained attention when Metro cut service on the line and many other routes in the system, including bus routes. The public outcry was enough to convince metro to restore previous headways during peak travel times.
FULL STORY: L.A. City Councilman Wants to Speed Up the Expo Line
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Orlando Pledges to Improve Walkability
A city report highlights successes and failures in building safer transportation infrastructure and reducing VMT in 2023.
New York Transit Agency Launches Performance Dashboard
The tool increases transparency about the agency’s performance on a variety of metrics.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.