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(1) Receive a Presentation and Discuss the Downtown Tactical Mobility Lane Project, Including a Review of the Community Outreach Program and its Interface with the Expo Stop Reimagined Work and New Circulator Service; and (2) Provide Direction to Staff.
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Meeting Date: October 27, 2020
Contact Person/Dept: Diana Chang, Mobility Planning Manager / Transportation
Rolando Cruz, Chief Transportation Officer /Transportation
Phone Number: (310) 253-6500
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: []
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Mobility, Traffic, and Parking Subcommittee, Bicycle and Pedestrian, and Culver CityBus e-mail distribution lists via GovDelivery (10/21/2020);
Department Approval: Rolando Cruz, Chief Transportation Officer (10/20/20)
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
During the FY2021 budget process, the City Council directed Transportation Department staff to begin planning the implementation of a tactical transit lane in three corridors within Culver City using a quick-build process. Through repurposing travel lanes for multi-modal transportation, the City aims to facilitate the efficient movement of people, raise public awareness and acceptance of dedicated transit lanes, improve transit travel time and reliability, and improve access for cyclists and scooter riders, as applicable. These pilot projects will also serve as an opportunity for the City to learn and assess how permanent infrastructure improvements would work and demonstrate the benefits of such infrastructure in maximizing the public use of the roadway.
In July of this year, City Council approved a plan to progress with the full implementation of the first corridor along Culver Blvd. from Duquesne Avenue in Downtown Culver City extending eastward along Washington Boulevard to La Cienega Avenue. The approval also includes the study and recommendation for two additional corridors along Sepulveda Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard to commence after the implementation of the downtown corridor.
The first phase of the project, the downtown corridor implementation, is in line with the 2017 comprehensive Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Visioning Study, which focused on defining and designing mobility improvements near the Culver City Expo Station and surrounding neighborhoods. The vision also called for re-imagining the Expo Station and to explore a Circulator service in the downtown area to help the movement of people from the Expo Station to downtown and the surrounding areas.
The project has progressed with the hiring of a consulting partnership with Sam Schwartz and Street Plans. A project plan and timeline have been developed, which includes an outline of the design process, implementation strategy, and post-analysis requirements. This plan also includes an aggressive public outreach strategy to involve businesses, residents, and other community stakeholders in a short time frame to solicit input and feedback for the design process. Staff would like to publicly discuss the outreach plan and seek input from this Subcommittee on ways to improve and enhance our stakeholder engagement strategy and promotion of the project.
Staff are also integrating two other projects that closely correlate with the goal of enhancing the overall benefit to the Culver City community: Expo Stop Reimagined and the Circulator service. The quality of the environment of the Culver City Line E (Expo) Station (Culver City Station) area and its surroundings is a key part of the transit experience in our city. The bus stop at the Culver City Station is considered a “Gateway” mobility stop and should include the addition of other smaller mobility hub features, such as bikeshare, scooter share and micro-transit services. As a part of the Expo Reimagined work, Staff has approved a change order to the consultant’s scope of work to help establish citywide guidelines on three types of mobility stops: Gateway, CityBus, and MicroTransit stops to update our traditional bus stop guidelines and to create a new set of guidelines termed “Mobility Stop Guidelines”. In addition, the consultants will provide concept designs for the existing bus stop at Expo station as a Gateway mobility stop, and for the layovers of our Circulator Service on Culver Boulevard at City Hall and the turnaround on Washington Boulevard and La Cienega Avenue. Finally, our consultants will work with staff and LA Metro to explore enhancements at the Culver City Station, the scope of which will include wayfinding, artwork and information sharing.
Transportation staff has also proposed a downtown Circulator service to align with the opening of the tactical mobility lane. City Council has requested an analysis of costs to extend the original proposed turnaround on Washington at Helms to extend further into the Arts District at La Cienega Avenue. The extension would impact the implementation costs of the lane, as well as the operating costs for the Circulator service. Staff continues to collect data and is expecting to have a recommendation by mid-November. A decision by the Subcommittee will need to be made in November in order to adhere to the progressive timeline, thus staff would like to bring back this item for discussion and seek direction from the Mobility Subcommittee in November. As a result, staff is requesting consideration of adding a mobility subcommittee meeting on November 19th.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
There are no cost impacts at this time. City Council approved a sufficient contingency for staff to execute a change order to Sam Schwartz contract for the additional work. Any additional costs for the implementation of any bus stop improvements at the three identified gateway stops will be folded into the federally funded Bus Stop Improvement Project and will be brought to the City Council for approval. Cost increases for the extension of the tactical mobility lane and Circulator service will be brought to the City Council at a later date.
ATTACHMENTS
None
RECOMMENDED MOTION
That the Mobility, Traffic and Parking Subcommittee:
1. Receive a Presentation and Discuss the Downtown Tactical Mobility Lane project, including a review of the community outreach program and its interface with the Expo Stop Reimagined work and new Circulator Service; and
2. Direct City staff to:
a. Schedule a Special Mobility Subcommittee meeting on 11/19/2020 to review and discuss preliminary concepts and costs for the project; and/or
b. Provide staff other direction.