Ten Years (G)on(e)

“Then as it was, then again it will be” — Led Zeppelin

The new peak period bus lanes are open and operating on Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. These new lanes are a testament to more than 10 years of effort on the part of many dedicated people. A few years back, I was very lucky to be a part of the City’s project team to evaluate and quantify the potential benefits of these peak period bus lanes. This recent role complimented my earlier role, this time on the side of the City, as the City Traffic Engineer addressing concerns from residents and businesses regarding the bus lanes. Further, I was privy to the internal debate going on between the City Attorney’s office and planning end engineering staff in City Hall. WIth the bus lanes now working on a daily basis, now is a good time to revisit some of the history. The following sections are pulled from a memorandum titled “Lincoln Boulevard Peak Period Bus-Only Lane Feasibility Analysis” and dated August 19, 2015.

History

In 2005 the City Council of Santa Monica approved an ordinance to restrict parking on Lincoln Boulevard for the creation of peak period, peak directional transit-only lanes. The ordinance created parking and traffic restrictions allowing for peak-period bus-only lanes along Lincoln Boulevard from 7:00–10:00 a.m. and 4:00–7:00 p.m. on weekdays, with the goal of enhancing one-way peak directional travel for buses from the Santa Monica Freeway to the southern city limit.

In approximately 2010 the City initiated efforts with Caltrans to relinquish Lincoln Boulevard within the City limits. The relinquishment was officially completed on June 4, 2012, with Lincoln Boulevard becoming a City roadway. City staff immediately began a project to repave and restripe Lincoln Boulevard. As part of the restriping, City staff developed new roadway signage and marking plans containing peak period parking restrictions and associated bus-only lanes. The new design plans were completed in the fall of 2012, and further implementation of the Council-approved bus-only lanes were put on-hold, as documented in an Information Item prepared by Big Blue Bus staff in 2013.

Following relinquishment of Lincoln Boulevard from Caltrans to the City of Santa Monica, some community members expressed concerns related to the walkability and overall character of Lincoln Boulevard. This was consistent with the feedback received during the extensive outreach for the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE). When Lincoln Boulevard was repaved and restriped in 2013, a number of residents and community groups approached City staff to inquire about additional enhancements — such as curb extensions, landscaping, medians, additional pedestrian crossings — that could be implemented now that the City was in control of Lincoln Boulevard. In 2014 the City initiated the Lincoln Boulevard Neighborhood Corridor Plan (LiNC) in an effort to investigate and develop additional enhancements for Lincoln Boulevard. As a part of the LiNC effort, the project team again considered the provision of peak period parking restrictions with directional bus-only lanes, or other concepts with a goal of providing dedicated transit lanes, as well as improvements to walkability and the overall character of Lincoln Boulevard.

Operations

Before the bus lanes began operations, when the curb space was used for parking, evening peak period vehicle speeds averaged 20 miles per hour or less. At the freeway ramps in both directions the speeds were in the 11 to 15 mph average range. From Pico Boulevard to Ocean Park, the speeds were 16 to 20 mph, and 11 to 15 mph from Ocean Park to the southern city boundary. Furthermore, the city boundary and the traffic flow conditions and traffic signal timing patterns in Los Angeles created a bottleneck southbound during the p.m. peak hour for motorists that are exiting Santa Monica.

This means that during the p.m. peak period, it could take approximately 13–15 minutes to drive from the I-10 freeway to the southern City limit (1.2 miles) and vice versa. The potential effects of bus only lanes were then estimated and compared to existing operations without bus lanes, as summarized below:

• PM Peak period southbound — 15 minutes average travel time without exclusive bus lanes
• Compared to (without taking into account congestion, bus boarding/alighting, and traffic signal delays):
• Approximately 2 minutes at the posted speed limit of 35 mph, or a savings of approximately 13 minutes, with exclusive bus lanes.
• Approximately 5 minutes at the measured average speed of 14.4 mph, or a savings of approximately 10 minutes, with exclusive bus lanes.

The Important Stuff — Person Throughput

Assuming the increase in average bus speeds that could result from bus-only lanes, the project team prepared a rough calculation of potential increases in person throughput along Lincoln Boulevard. To factor in vehicle occupancy, the following analysis was done for the peak direction during the peak period:

PM Peak Period — 5:00PM-7:00PM Southbound

• Peak period direction of travel vehicles — 3,280 vehicles in two lanes during the p.m. peak period
• Assuming an average of 1.2 persons per vehicle, autos carry 3,940 persons during the p.m. peak period, in the peak direction
• Buses currently carry 1,020 persons during the p.m. peak period
• Current delay to bus passengers during the p.m. peak period is approximately 10 minutes
• Person Travel Time saved with a dedicated bus lane in the peak direction — 170 person hours of cumulative daily savings for the p.m. peak period, at 10 minutes per person per trip times 1,020 passengers

Let’s take this a step further — if instead of a bus lane, what would be the savings of person hours resulting from one additional vehicle travel lane? First, we must recognize that the additional lane most likely wouldn’t carry the same level of vehicle traffic as the other two, given capacity constraints like driveways and… bus stops; therefore, we can estimate that the additional lane would mean maybe 60% of what the other lanes carry, or 900 additional vehicles. At 1.2 people per vehicle, that would mean 1,080 people. With a similar delay if 10 minutes per person, that would mean a reduction of 180 person hours of delay. Not surprisingly, this is almost equal to the person throughout capacity and delay reductions realized by the peak period bus lanes. And in all honesty, converting the parking lane to a general purpose lane for all vehicles would probably only carry around 600 vehicles per hour, as I wrote about in a prior post.

The analysis above is shown in the figure below, and it illustrates the AM and PM peak period people throughput at the two major intersections in the study corridor.

So What Now?

Now that the bus lanes are in operation, I’m excited to see if our estimates of person throughout turn out to be correct. It is very likely that the vehicle capacity of the travel lanes on Lincoln will continue to degrade, which means the bus will become an even better option for moving people. Key to the success of these bus lanes will be enforcement, and I’ve written other thoughts about that. Overall, this is a great step forward for bus transit on the west side of LA, and should be viewed favorably by everyone in the greater Los Angeles region as part of the solution to address our mobility needs without creating more vehicle congestion.