Southern California Planning Congress
Event Summary – October 2013
Remaking the Figueroa Corridor
Downtown’s First Complete Street
The Southern California Planning Congress and guests heard a presentation on the Figueroa Corridor from Melani Smith, AICP (President, Director of Planning and Urban Design, Melendrez), and Tim Fremaux, P.E. (Project Manager, Bikeways Section, LA Department of Transportation).
Following a mixer, our guests were formally introduced by Julianna Delgado, AICP, the SCPC President, and the presentation by Melani and Tim began.
The goals of the project, as explained during the presentation, are to promote economic development, improve the pedestrian, bike, and transit experience, and beautify some of Los Angeles’ most diverse communities within the corridor.
Melani Smith, AICP introduced the project as a Complete Streets project that, once built, will transform Figueroa Street into a safe and beautiful street for all, where people want to shop, live, work and play. It will tie together the Financial District of Downtown, a redesigned 11th Street corridor, close-in neighborhoods to the south of the Downtown area, and Exposition Park and the USC campus.
Funding will be provided by Proposition 1C, and many improvements should be implemented within the year 2014. The improved infrastructure will support a substantial growth of market-rate and affordable mixed-use housing units and other land uses within the corridor.
Some segments of the corridor will have a revolutionary transportation element, the cycle track (a fully separated bike facility, which is basically a cross between a bike lane and a bike path), which will potentially include dedicated traffic signal bicycle phasing and special striped bicycle box areas at intersection approaches, to assist with driver visual awareness of bicyclists. Bicyclists would travel in a separated lane next to the sidewalk, protected from vehicle traffic by transit platforms and physical barriers outside of those areas. Where pedestrian traffic is high, such as in the vicinity of LA Live, painted but buffered bike lanes would be provided to minimize barriers to pedestrian travel.
Tim Fremaux, P.E. then discussed the details of the transportation elements of the project and how City review, outreach, and the road to approval had progressed. The benefits of the project in terms of new multimodal travel options were discussed, with new real estate within the public right-of-way for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users. Also discussed, however, were the compromises made along the way, including allowing for more vehicle travel lanes than initially envisioned, provide for some improvements to other modes while still providing capacity for this major Downtown artery.
All told, the transformation of Figueroa Boulevard as a historic vehicle corridor with little room for other modes into a more comfortable roadway for all modes will be amazing and will be first of its kind within the Downtown area. It will be the first Complete Streets-type project to be implemented there.
We learned so much about this upcoming corridor project that will literally connect disparate areas of the City. It is yet another piece of good news for the future of Downtown Los Angeles and nearby neighborhoods.
We look forward to its implementation, and wish Melani and Tim well as they work to implement the Plan!