CALIFORNIA—On Thursday, January 23, the Metro Board of Directors voted to move the NextGen Bus Plan for a public review in Los Angeles. This plan would mark Metro’s first major revamp of its current bus system in more than 25 years. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, made the following statement when announcing his vote:
“This plan will drastically improve our system, delivering faster, more reliable, and more frequent service.”
The new bus plan is expected to ease traffic, reduce emissions, and possibly have more Los Angeles residents out of their cars. By reducing emissions, Metro hopes to help fight the climate crisis. The public review vote for the new bus plan comes after a two-and-a-half-year effort by Metro to research a better understanding that current public transportation users experience in the form of travel demand, public transportation conditions in order to maintain existing customers as well as attract new riders.
According to the Mayor’s website, the NextGen Bus plan will realign current bus service by consolidating routes, improve bus speeds, issue dedicated bus lanes, traffic signal priority, and provide new locations for bus layovers. The hope with the new plan is to provide 83 percent of riders access to buses arriving every 5 to 10 minutes, compared to the current 48 percent today.
The next step is to hear from the public in order to gather additional input. Metro will hold a series of community workshop meetings throughout the spring before final Board approval and implementation occur later this year. For more details about the NextGen Bus plan or for upcoming public meetings, go to Metro.net/Projects/NextGen.
