L.A. Metro Board Approves Changes to Highway Program

The L.A. County Metro board of supervisors voted on June 24 to approve updates to the county's Highway Program that will allow "for flexibility on future highway-funded projects, many of which are on city streets." Joe Linton reports on the story for Streetsblog Los Angeles, writing, "[t]he Metro Highway Program had blocked complete streets features from being included in projects funded by some Metro sales tax revenue. Now, where appropriate, these projects can include features that support transit, bicycling, and walking."

Despite a voter-approved sales tax measure that "defined 'Highway Construction' as projects on 'public highway and street rights-of-way… includ[ing] Complete Streets, Green Streets, and active transportation improvements such as bikeways and pedestrian improvements,'" the Metro Highway Program's guidelines "did not acknowledge this voter-approved, multimodal direction." 

Linton writes that "[t]he short-term effects of the new policy will not be dramatic, but two Long Beach projects that were essentially put on hold by the Gateway Cities Council of Governments can now move forward with Metro funding. Hopefully, in the longer term, Highway Program projects will include more multimodal components, providing the broad range of transportation options that voters approved in Measure M."