Last Updated on September 25, 2020 by CCAR Staff
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors approved a $400 billion, 30-year transportation plan that seeks to address needs across the county.
Approved on Thursday, Sept. 24, the 2020 Long Range Transportation Plan lays out a vision for bringing more mobile and sustainable transportation options to the Metro service area.
“Los Angeles is entering a transportation renaissance, a chance to redefine our city’s relationship with public transit and reimagine the ways it can be a force for good in people’s lives,” Mayor and Metro Board Chair Eric Garcetti said. “The Long Range Transportation Plan paves a clear path to a more sustainable, fair and equitable transportation future.”
The LRTP was finalized after a 45-day public review period, and Metro said that over the past two years, it has hosted 77 community events, 38 public meetings and gathered 20,000 survey responses from the public regarding the plan.
The 2020 LRTP outlines how Metro funds, plans, builds, manages and maintains its transportation system and how its partners will deliver projects and programs. Through four voter-approved sales tax measures since 1980, Metro said it has constructed roughly 130 miles of rail and bus rapid transit.”
The plan includes adding 100 miles of rail over the next 30 years and investment in arterial and freeway projects to reduce congestion, such as the I-5 north enhancements project and adding more Metro ExpressLanes.
Metro also plans to add more bicycle and pedestrian projects, such as the Los Angeles River Path Project to close the eight-mile gap in the path between Elysian Valley and Maywood and to provide better bicycle access to downtown Los Angeles.
The plan calls for improving the transit rider experience by prioritizing bus travel on the county’s busiest streets, including Wilshire Boulevard and Flower Street, and implementing the recommendations of the NextGen Bus Plan to make bus service more frequent and faster.
The LRTP includes more than $200 billion for operations and repairs, as well as $38 billion in funding that returns to local transit agencies to maintain the local transportation system.
“For this plan to succeed, we must and will continue to build strong partnerships with local, state and federal agencies as well as our many local stakeholders,” Metro CEO Phillip Washington said. “These partnerships are crucial for funding and delivering projects and for coordinated planning on issues of regional significance.”
The full 2020 LRTP is available at www.metro.net.
