CHAPTER II.   BACKGROUND

City Planning Area Description Demographics Existing Transportation Facilities and Programs Transportation System Analysis Federal and State Mandates

Introduction

Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States and the largest city in California. The City includes Downtown Los Angeles, the primary employment center of the entire region; as well as some of the largest residential, commercial and industrial clusters; entertainment and visitor centers; a major international airport; a major harbor; and other major land uses. All these diverse land uses have a vital dependency on efficient transportation and they heavily influence travel patterns throughout the region. The nation's most traveled and congested freeways, as well as some of the most congested surface streets in Los Angeles County, are located within the City of Los Angeles 1.

The existing City of Los Angeles Highways and Freeways Element was first adopted in 1959. Circulation Element policy statements are contained in each of the 35 Community Plans. The focus of the Highways and Freeways Element was the expansion of the City's transportation network through large infrastructure investments. Since 1959, a number of factors have emerged which would indicate that significant construction of new highway infrastructure is impractical. Due to the air quality problems of the South Coast Air Basin, the Federal government has imposed severe air quality guidelines, taking into account that almost 50% of the pollutants come from mobile sources. There is increasing community opposition to freeway construction projects in urbanized areas. In addition, with more competing demands on the State's and City's financial resources and the escalating construction cost of new streets and freeways, less public investment can be committed to infrastructure development. For environmental and fiscal reasons, it is clear that the primary emphasis on building our way out of the congestion problem is no longer viable.

With the advent of the Congestion Management Program and the completion of the Citywide General Plan Framework Element, the City has shifted its approach to solving transportation and air quality problems by linking population and employment concentrations with transit systems. The ongoing development of an extensive regional transit system presents opportunities for moving towards the goal of less dependence on the automobile. The Framework's more pedestrian friendly vision and the correlation between proposed land use intensity and the transit system will reduce the City's dependence on the automobile and improve the City's quality of life. The effect of a more responsive transit system is in line with the pursuit of a more liveable city and responds effectively to Federal air quality mandates. This Transportation Element supports the strong link between land use and transportation and advocates an integrated and balanced solution of demand management and capacity enhancements. It also strongly supports the enhancement of the transit system to compete effectively as an alternative to the automobile.

CITY PLANNING AREA DESCRIPTION top

The City of Los Angeles encompasses an area of about 465 square miles. The City is bordered by the San Gabriel Mountains on the north, developed communities on the east, the Santa Monica Mountains on the northwest, and Santa Monica Bay and the Pacific Ocean on the south and west. The City is geographically divided into 35 community planning areas and 15 Council Districts. (Figure 1).

DEMOGRAPHICS top

1998 demographic information is available from the demographics page.

Population

The City of Los Angeles, with a 1990 population of 3,485,398 persons, is the second largest city in the nation and the most populous city in the State. Between 1980 and 1990 the City's population increased by 17.5%, from 2,966,850. The City's population is projected to reach 4,306,564 by 2010, a 23.6% increase over the 1990 population. The most populous Community Plan Areas are Wilshire, South Central, Southeast, Northeast, and Hollywood. In 1990, these communities accounted for over 1.2 million residents or 35% of the City's population. By 2010 these five plan areas are expected to accommodate almost 1.5 million of the City's 4.3 million residents (Table 1*). For Los Angeles County the largest growth will be experienced in the North County area (Figure 2).

Housing

In 1990 the total number of dwelling units in the City was 1,299,963, of which 519,692 or approximately 40% were single family. From 1980 to 1990, the total dwelling units citywide increased by 9.29% but single family units decreased by 7,100. The total dwelling unit count in the City is expected to reach 1,566,108 by year 2010. By 2010, multifamily dwelling units are projected to account for 65.2% or 1,021,187 of the citywide total. The communities of Wilshire, Hollywood, South Central, Northeast Los Angeles, West Adams - Baldwin Hills - Leimert, and Southeast Los Angeles are projected to account for the highest number of dwelling units, as they did in 1990 (Table 2*).

Employment

In 1990 there were 1,902,057 jobs located in the City. The communities of West Los Angeles (85,931), Southeast Los Angeles (95,404), Hollywood (96,152), Canoga Park - Winnetka - Woodland Hills (103,084), Wilshire (158,360), and Central City (240,176) accounted for almost 780,000 jobs. By 2010 it is estimated that the City's employment share will increase by 389,424 to 2,291,481. The same six communities will account for almost 42% of the total employment in the City (Table 3*). Note, however, that a significant percentage of these jobs are filled by people commuting from areas outside of the City.

Number of Motor Vehicles

Based on the 1990 Census and Department of Motor Vehicles reports, there were 1,840,982 registered motor vehicles in the City of Los Angeles. The communities of Wilshire (125,203), Canoga Park - Winnetka - Woodland Hills (111,541), Hollywood (108,808), and Northeast Los Angeles (108,388) had the highest number of motor vehicles. In the same year, the communities of Central City (70%), Westlake (46%), Central City North (38%), Southeast Los Angeles (32%) and Boyle Heights (28%) had the highest proportion of households with no registered motor vehicle (Table 4*).

Daily and Peak Hour Vehicle Trips

Peak periods generally extend from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. The remaining hours of the day are considered "off-peak" periods. The single hour of most intense traffic circulation occurs between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. The City's surface street network accommodates almost 42 million vehicle miles daily 2.

Based on the Framework Travel Demand Forecasting model 3, which was constructed to represent traffic conditions for the year 1990 on freeways, Major Highways, and Secondary Highways, it is estimated that commuters traveled 5.3 million vehicle miles in approximately 193,000 vehicle hours in the evening peak hours. Average freeway speeds were 35 miles per hour (m.p.h.) and average arterial speeds were 23 m.p.h. in the evening peak hours. Approximately 40% of peak hour travel occurs in congested conditions (level of service E or F).

There are over 24 million trip ends generated in the City daily. This accounts for over 40% of the County's daily trip ends and over 25% of the regional total (Table 5*). Almost 1.6 million vehicle trip ends occur during the PM peak hours. Of the PM peak hour trip ends, about 27.5 % or 425,000 trips have the opposite end of the trip outside the City. About one-fourth of the PM Peak hour trips stay within the Community Plan Area from which it originates. Over 47% of the PM peak hour trips end in other communities within the City (Table 6*).

In 1990, home-to-work trips comprised a relatively small percentage of the total trip purposes conducted in Los Angeles throughout the day, representing less than 20 percent of all daily person trips. During the PM peak period, however, the work trip proportion increased and comprised roughly one-third. Home-to-work trips during the AM peak period in 1990 constituted approximately one-half of all person trips. All trip types in Los Angeles were conducted primarily by automobile in 1990, including 87 percent of all home-to-work trips and 97 percent of all other trips.

According to the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, 52 percent of the trips conducted during the combined AM and PM peak periods in Southern California in 1990 were generally for four non-work trip purposes: family and personal business; school and church; shopping; and social/recreational purposes. These same categories of trips made up 71 percent of the off-peak trip purposes and 68 percent of all daily travel. Additionally, these trip purposes primarily were conducted by automobile. For example, 93 percent of family and personal business trips; 89 percent of all shopping trips; 82 percent of social and recreational trips; and 66 percent of school and church trips were conducted by automobile. The automobile was used predominantly for all trips regardless of the trip length and purpose.

EXISTING TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS top

Highways and Freeways

The City has five general categories of roadway classifications: major highway-Class I (126 ft. right-of-way), major highway-Class II (104 ft. right-of-way), secondary highway (90 ft. right-of-way), collector (64 ft. right-of-way) and local street (60 ft. right-of-way). Collector and local streets in designated Hillside Areas have modified standards as to width. Major highways generally provide four to eight lanes of travel and have access to intersecting freeways. Secondary highways typically have four travel lanes, and collector streets provide two travel lanes, as do local streets. A significant proportion of the streets in the City are not fully dedicated and/or improved to the designated standard.

The City of Los Angeles had a total of 6,493.2 street miles in 1994. The majority of the City's street system or 4,288.3 street miles (66%) are local streets. Almost 16% or 1,029.2 street miles are major highways and 5.98% or 388.5 street miles are secondary highways. Less than 1% of the City's street network is unpaved ( Table 7*). In 1994, the City had a total of 181.425 miles or 1,454.777 lane miles of freeways within its boundaries. This accounts for over 33% of the total freeway miles in Los Angeles County (Table 8*).

High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes

High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes encourage carpooling by enabling carpoolers to travel in separate lanes, usually at higher speeds than mixed-flow traffic. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is responsible for development of HOV facilities on freeways. Cities are responsible for local HOV lanes. The City is currently investigating the feasibility of establishing HOV lanes in selected locations. Caltrans has constructed a transitway along the Harbor Freeway (I-110) as well as HOV lanes on several other freeways, in addition to maintaining HOV facilities within or near the City of Los Angeles.

Park-N-Ride Lots

Park-N-Ride lots offer a convenient way for commuters to congregate in a common area in order to carpool/vanpool or to use transit, typically helping commuters with longer distance journeys to and from work. As of 1995, nearly 150 Park-N-Ride lots were operating within Los Angeles County (30 within City boundaries). Most of these were managed and/or owned by Caltrans, LACMTA or Metrolink. LADOT participated in the operation of seven lots, offering commuter bus service from these lots to Downtown Los Angeles.

Bikeways

The City first adopted a Bicycle Plan in 1977. As of 1995 nearly 90 miles of Class II (bike lane) facilities have been striped on City streets, and there are approximately 45 miles of Class I (bike path) facilities constructed - primarily along the beach, flood channels and in City parks. There are also approximately 160 miles of Class III (shared lane) facilities indicated on City streets. Despite this significant mileage, a viable network of interconnected bikeways does not yet exist in the City, with the exception of certain areas of the San Fernando Valley.

Transportation System Management (TSM)

Section 164.1 of the California Streets and Highways Code defines Transportation System Management (TSM) projects as "those projects designed to increase the number of person-trips which can be carried on the roadway system in a peak period without significantly increasing the designed capacity of the highway system when measured by the number of vehicle trips and without increasing the number of through traffic lanes." TSM is an engineering tool which utilizes a combination of traffic engineering measures and traffic operation control procedures to provide quick relief from traffic congestion. The TSM strategy can also be described as the efficient application of construction, operational, and institutional actions which produce the most productive and cost-effective use of existing transportation facilities and services. The basic components of TSM strategies can be categorized as supply-side actions which focus on better use of the existing infrastructure.

The City's Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) system and Smart corridors are examples of its TSM efforts. In 1984 ATSAC was installed in a four square mile area around the Los Angeles Coliseum and tested during the Summer Olympics. The initial installation consisted of 118 signalized intersections and 396 detectors. Currently, the system is now operational in the Westside, Central City and portions of the San Fernando Valley. Approximately 2,000 out of the 4,000 scheduled intersections have ATSAC installations. Similarly, the City's Smart Corridor project operates within the boundaries of Western Avenue, Soto Street, Adams Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard, including the Santa Monica Freeway (Fwy 10).

Transportation Demand Management (TDM)

Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies are intended to reduce the demand for highway facilities by changing individual travel behavior. TDM provides alternatives to single occupant vehicles (SOVs) and peak hour travel, with the goal of increasing average vehicle occupancy / ridership vehicle substitution and/or trip elimination.

In 1988, the Southern California Air Quality Management District (AQMD) instituted Regulation XV that required enterprises with 100 or more employees to adopt trip reduction programs. The regulation required each employer to institute a trip reduction program that would achieve an Average Vehicle Ridership (AVR) of 1.75 in Downtown Los Angeles, 1.5 in the remainder of urbanized areas, and 1.3 in rural parts of the AQMD. AVR measures the extent to which commuters use public transit, car pooling, and other multiple-occupant-vehicle modes of transportation. The 1990 AVR for the City of Los Angeles was 1.314. Regulation XV was repealed in December, 1995. AQMD Rule 2202 which replaced Regulation XV provides options for employers to either continue trip reduction programs or reduce mobile source emissions through other strategies. As of January 1, 1997 Rule 2202 applies only to enterprises with 250 or more employees.

Since 1985, the City has adopted several Transportation Specific Plans, including the Coastal Transportation Corridor, Central City West, Ventura / Cahuenga Corridor , and Westwood / West Los Angeles specific plans. These plans emphasize the role of TDM for reducing traffic. In addition to trip reduction programs, these plans include such provisions as a phased reduction of parking requirements, provisions for remote parking and Park-N-Ride lots, and trip fee credits for measurable implementation of TDM actions.

The City Department of Transportation (LADOT) "Traffic Study Policies and Procedures" manual, adopted in 1993, contains a substantial section on TDM. This section is designed to encourage developers to create TDM programs that help reduce the number of trips generated by new development.

In 1993, as part of the City's conformance with the Los Angeles County Congestion Management Program (CMP), the City adopted a TDM ordinance. In addition to discouraging single occupancy vehicle trips, the TDM ordinance requires developers to make buildings more conducive to use by pedestrians and transit riders as well as by carpoolers/vanpoolers. It requires strategies such as information kiosks, minimum garage vertical clearances for vanpools, bicycle parking, transit accessible building entrances and safe sidewalks. Specific requirements depend on the size of each development.

TRANSIT

Bus Transit and Paratransit

The transit system is used more often in the City of Los Angeles than in the rest of the region. While the City generates about 25% of regional trips, it accounts for 60% of the region's transit trips. On a daily basis, about 4.6% of all person trips in the City are taken on transit while the rest of the region's transit usage is just over 1%. For home to work trips, 13% of the City's person trips are by transit while only 3% of the person trips outside the City are by transit. During the PM peak hour, 9.4% of person trips in the City are by transit while only 3.4% are by transit in the rest of Los Angeles County. Compared to the region, the rate of transit usage in the City is over two times higher than the region as a whole and almost three times higher than the rest of Los Angeles County (Table 9*).

Demographic Measures of Transit Need

Los Angeles is a demographically diverse city. Its residents have a broad spectrum of travel needs. Some communities in the City have higher propensities to use transit and a greater need for transit services than others. A number of measures of transit need have been used in the past, based primarily on demographic data from the 1990 U. S. Census. The following seven demographic indicators were used to measure transit need in this citywide analysis: Income Stratification: Percent of households below the poverty income level Automobile Availability: A combined measure of motor vehicles per household and percentage of households with no motor vehicles Disabled Persons: Percent of households with members reporting a disability Senior Population: Percent of households with members over the age of 65 Youth: Percent of households with members under the age of 16 (minimum driving age) Workers Using Transit: Percent of workers reporting use of public transit Unemployment: Percent of unemployed workers in the labor force in 1990.

Table 10* shows how the 35 Community Plan Areas (CPAs) compare relative to these transit need measures. Not all of the mentioned demographic measures are displayed. The ranking presented in the table, however, is based on the complete analysis of all the identified demographic measures. Based on an unweighted average of these measures, the following CPAs have the greatest levels of transit dependency in the City: Central City Southeast Los Angeles South Central Los Angeles West Adams - Baldwin Hills Westlake

The five CPAs with the most need are located in the central and southern portions of the City. The next five CPAs in rank order of transit dependency are also clustered around Downtown Los Angeles. The planning areas with the lowest composite ranking for transit dependency are Brentwood - Pacific Palisades, Chatsworth - Porter Ranch and Bel Air - Beverly Crest.

Transit Services

There were 119 express or regional bus routes, and two bus pools, in existence in 1992. The MTA is the major transit operator, with approximately 200 bus routes of all types in the study area 5. Approximately 50 routes in the MTA system are express or hybrid local-express routes connecting regional travel markets. In addition, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) operates eight commuter express lines. Foothill Transit also provides regional express services from northeastern Los Angeles County into the Downtown Los Angeles area. Other operators providing transit services include the Orange County Transportation Authority, Riverside Transit Agency, Omnitrans, Santa Clarita Transit, Gardena Transit, Torrance Transit and Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines. Other municipal operators such as Culver City operate local community routes in the study area, but have no routes of regional significance to the 18 regional travel corridors.

The transit person-carrying capacity along major regional travel corridors in 1992, for AM Peak-Period, is presented in Table 11*. The sum of seated and standee capacities of every bus and rail route serving a specific corridor is the transit capacity of a corridor. For every route, the capacity is the product of number of trips in the AM peak hours, number of seats in the bus or train and the load-ratio. The Wilshire Corridor has maximum existing transit capacity with over 7,000 passengers per hour carrying capacity provided by eleven major MTA operated bus routes. The Inner City Crenshaw Corridor between South Los Angeles and Mid-Wilshire / Hollywood has an existing transit capacity of over 3,000 passengers during the peak-hour provided by seven bus routes operated by MTA. The corridor between Southeast Los Angeles and Downtown has an existing peak hour capacity of over 2,700 passengers. Several other corridors have existing capacities of over 2,000 persons per hour. The Santa Monica Freeway Corridor has an existing transit capacity of approximately 2,600 passengers during the peak hours along 12 bus routes. Service on the Santa Monica Freeway is provided by MTA, LADOT and Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines. Existing transit service on the San Bernardino Freeway is provided predominantly by Foothill Transit as well as by MTA and RTA/Omnitrans. A capacity of approximately 2,200 passengers is available in the San Bernardino Freeway Corridor. The Santa Clarita / Downtown Los Angeles / I-5 Freeway Corridor is also a major transit corridor in the study area. A capacity of approximately 2,100 passengers is available on this corridor on 11 routes, with a majority of routes being operated by MTA.

Although most of the transit system is operated by MTA, the City of Los Angeles has become a major transit operator, serving over 3 million boardings annually in 1995. Originally intended to accommodate the needs of the elderly and handicapped, these City-provided services are being utilized by an increasing number of residents. The LADOT Bureau of Transit Programs operates a Downtown shuttle program known as the Downtown Area Short Hop (DASH) system. DASH-type service is also provided within several other communities, including Watts, Wilmington, Sherman Oaks, Fairfax, Hollywood, Leimert/Slauson, Pueblo del Rio, Park La Brea, Warner Center and Van Nuys/Studio City on more than a dozen routes. LADOT utilizes a substantial number of alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) in its fleet - including compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, and electric / cogenerator system.

LADOT has been a pioneer in alternative transportation technologies for transit, developing prototype products in conjunction with the private sector for various services such as smart shuttles. Several other forms of transit that are supported by LADOT are a rubber-tired trolley system, Cityride (a dial-a-ride service), taxicab support programs, the Commuter Express service, and a parking shuttle service in the beach community of Venice during summer weekends. The Cityride program provides transportation for seniors and individuals with disabilities throughout the City of Los Angeles. It is supplemented by a multipurpose center-based paratransit program managed by the City's Department of Aging which also offers door-to-door service for the frail and elderly. The City also sponsors many contract services through a series of grants that amount to approximately $11 million annually.

Rail Transit

The public transit system also includes a system of rail lines. LACMTA is responsible for the planning, design and implementation of the Metro Rail system. Metro Rail lines include the Red Line, a subway running between the Union Station complex and the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. Another Red Line route runs through Hollywood along Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard into the Cahuenga Pass extending into the San Fernando Valley to the intersection of Lankershim Boulevard and Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood. This segment is programmed to be fully operational in the year 2000. Phase I of the Metro Red Line reported 1.96 million annual boardings for Fiscal Year 1992-1993 and has increased to 5.05 million and 5.57 million boardings in Fiscal Years 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 respectively.

The Metro Rail Blue Line, a light rail line, has been in operation since 1990. It connects Downtown Los Angeles with Downtown Long Beach. There is a pedestrian connection between this line and the Metro Red Line at the Seventh Street station. The Pasadena extension of the Blue Line is anticipated for completion during the year 2003. The Long Beach Blue Line reported 12.5 million annual boardings for Fiscal Year 1993-1994 and this rose to 13.8 million boardings in Fiscal Year 1995-1996.

The 20-mile Metro Rail Green Line is a light rail system operating in the median of the Glenn Anderson Freeway (I-105) with a connection to the Long Beach Blue Line. It began operation in 1995 and had a total of 3.75 million annual boardings for Fiscal Year 1995-1996.

By March 1997, it was estimated by LACMTA that the total ridership on the combined Red, Blue and Green lines had exceeded 102,000 daily boardings.

Metrolink opened in October 1992. It is a commuter rail service geared towards home-to-work trips into Downtown Los Angeles from outlying communities such as Pomona, Moorpark, Santa Clarita, Riverside, Orange County and Oceanside. In Fiscal Year 1992- 1993, Metrolink trains served a total of almost 950,000 passengers. The total annual boardings on all Metrolink lines increased to 5.4 million in Fiscal Year 1995-1996. Of this number, an estimated 3.7 million passengers traveled to Downtown Los Angeles. The list of planned, funded and approved transit projects are shown in Table 12*.

GOODS MOVEMENT

The Alameda Corridor

The Alameda Corridor project will dramatically improve railroad and highway service to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest port complex in the United States. The project is designed to facilitate port access while mitigating potentially adverse impacts of port growth, such as traffic congestion, delays at rail/highway grade crossings, train noise in residential areas, and air pollution. The Corridor is approximately 20 miles long running between railyards southeast of between Downtown Los Angeles and the ports, and is designed to facilitate port access, consolidate 90 miles of rail lines, and eliminate 200 at grade crossings while mitigating potentially adverse impacts of port growth. It will also provide a critical link in the proposed Southwest Passage "land bridge" between the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports and ports along the Gulf of Mexico.

North of State Route 91, the railroad corridor will be below grade i.e., in a trench about 33 feet deep and 47 feet wide. East-west streets will bridge across this trench. South of Route 91 the tracks will be at-grade and east-west streets will be elevated above both the tracks and Alameda Street. The project will be designed to accommodate future electrification of the rail line.

The highway component involves widening Alameda Street south of Route 91 from four to six lanes. New pavement, signals and left-turn pockets will be installed along the segment of Alameda Street between Route 91 and I-10.

The Alameda Corridor is scheduled to be operational in the year 2002.

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM ANALYSIS top

Travel Demand Model

The travel demand forecast model utilized by LADOT and the City Planning Department simulates Citywide PM peak hour traffic volumes to help evaluate transportation conditions, impacts and policies. The model, constructed on EMME/2, is based on the SCAG 1990 regional transportation model. Technical and policy details were coordinated with SCAG to insure consistency between the models and forecasts. The population, employment, housing (single and multi family dwelling units) and number of cars data presented in the preceding pages are the inputs to the transportation model.

As presented in this section of the Transportation Element, the data is a comparison by Community Plan Area (CPA) between what existed in 1990 and the Citywide General Plan Framework socio-economic forecast. The CPA aggregation represents the best comparative summary of the effects of the CGPF and illustrates the source of these impacts. The CPA level was also chosen because it provides a locational characteristic with which residents of the City can identify. The tables presented in this chapter indicate the impacts of projected growth, within and outside a Community Plan Area in summary fashion.

Impacts of Growth

Between 1990 and 2010, the population in Los Angeles is projected to grow by 23.56 percent, housing by 20.47 percent, and employment by 20.47 percent. The projected employment growth is double the anticipated growth under normal market conditions, and represents an aggressive employment development effort on the part of the City. This growth, combined with regional growth outside Los Angeles, would result in a 37.82 percent increase in vehicle travel (Table 13*).

Impacts on congestion levels were analyzed for each Community Plan Area. Table 14* shows the 35 Community Plan Areas in Los Angeles. Average freeway speeds would be reduced by as much as one-half. Speeds on arterial streets will also be affected to a lesser extent. Although traffic congestion is expected to increase throughout the City, the level of congestion will not be evenly distributed. Due to substantial projected population growth in the North County, the area of the City with the greatest freeway congestion anticipated in 2010 is in the Community Plan Area of Sylmar. Roughly one-third of all congested vehicle hours Citywide would occur in this one area in 2010. The Granada Hills area, just west of Sylmar, would experience the greatest arterial congestion due to commuters looking for alternative routes on surface streets as freeway speeds decrease. As a consequence, neighborhood and commercial streets will be impacted by the anticipated freeway congestion. The average speeds depicted in Table 14 reflect projections based on the Framework travel demand model and do not take into account implementation of the General Plan Framework Transportation Improvement and Mitigation Program (TIMP).

Most of the increase in travel times would occur whether or not the City continues to grow. Regional growth outside the City, especially in the North County area, will contribute significantly to the City's traffic problems. The 1994 SCAG Regional Comprehensive Plan and Guide indicates that North Los Angeles County will grow by nearly 680,000 people and 170,000 jobs between 1990 and 2010. This growth will result in a substantial amount of economic interaction between North County and the City of Los Angeles. The demand for travel between the two areas will be much greater, resulting in congestion of the freeway corridors and adjacent City streets.

Congested Corridors

Based on CGPF analysis of year 2010 population and employment projections, ten corridors were identified as becoming the most heavily congested areas in the City of Los Angeles. The Congested Corridor Progress Report (CCPR) completed by the LACMTA in January, 1994 identified eleven highly congested corridors in the County of Los Angeles, most of which were cited in the CGPF analysis. While the CCPR analyzes corridors throughout several jurisdictions within the County, major portions of seven of these overlapping corridors fall within City of Los Angeles boundaries.

The following regional corridors have been identified by LADOT as being among the most heavily congested areas in Los Angeles; they are listed along with three additional corridors identified in the CCPR: Corridor 1: Freeway 5 / North County Gateway Corridor 2: Freeway 101 / Cahuenga Pass Corridor 3: Freeway 405 / Sepulveda Pass Corridor 4: Pacific Coast Highway / Pacific Palisades Corridor 5: Freeway 210 / Newhall Pass Corridor 6: Laurel Canyon Blvd. (Sunset Blvd. to Ventura Blvd.) Corridor 7: Glendale Boulevard (Freeway 101 to Freeway 2) Corridor 8: Beverly Glen Boulevard (Wilshire Blvd. to Ventura Blvd.) Corridor 9: Alameda Corridor Corridor 10: Wilshire Boulevard (Freeway 110 to Centinela Ave.) Corridor 11: Freeways 134/101 (San Fernando Valley, east-west) Corridor 12: Freeway 110 (Freeway 101 to Freeway 405) Corridor 13: Santa Monica Freeway (Freeway 110 to Freeway 405)

FEDERAL AND STATE MANDATES top

Based on the region's non-compliance with air quality regulations, the Federal and State governments have issued certain mandates to be achieved. These mandates require the region and the air basin to reach: A 25 percent increase in the Average Vehicle Ridership (AVR) for work commute trips for employers of 100 or more (Source: Section 182 (d)(1)(B) of Title I of Federal Clean Air Act); An average commute ridership of 1.5 persons per vehicle by 1999 (Sources: California Clean Air Act; California Health and Safety Code [40920(a) (2), 40920 (c), 40920.5 (a)]; and No net growth in vehicle source emissions after 1997 (Sources: California Clean Air Act; California Health and Safety Code [40920(a) (2), 40920 (c)

These mandates created by state and federal air quality legislation are subject to periodic review and revision, and are intended to help to reduce air pollution. In order for the region/air basin to meet these mandated thresholds, the City would need to achieve much higher transit ridership. For example, the City would likely need to achieve a peak-hour transit mode split (including rail, bus, shuttles, and other services) of 15.9 percent in order for the region to meet these mandates. The City would also likely need to reduce peak hour vehicle trips by 13 percent beyond what is expected from current trends and policies.

* Reading these texts requires Adobe Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy...

Footnotes Citywide General Plan Framework, "Transportation Issues and Opportunities" Technical Memorandum, July 22, 1993. California Department of Transportation, Transportation System Information Program, Office of Travel Forecasting &Analysis, Highway Inventory & Performance Branch-Report CON001-6D -1994. A more informative discussion of the Citywide General Plan Framework model follows later in this chapter. Technical details of the model are described in Citywide General Plan Framework Modeling and Data Consistency Analysis- Report III.21, April 14, 1994. AVR is calculated by dividing the number of employees who arrive at a site between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. by the number of vehicles arriving and parking at the same site within the same time period. A number greater than 1.00 indicates that people are arriving at the worksite by alternative modes (e.g., transit, car pooling, vanpooling, bicycling, walking). The Study Area is described in Technical Memorandum II.52-Existing Transit Services and Patronage, a background report prepared for the Citywide General Plan Framework. The study area covers the whole SCAG region and focused on 18 identified key regional travel corridors. In order to analyze the transit usage between various areas in the City of Los Angeles and its vicinity, the study area is subdivided into 45 Transit Analysis Areas (TAAs). The TAAs have been designed to generally follow the Community Planning Area (CPA) boundaries in the City of Los Angeles and RSA boundaries in other areas of Los Angeles County. Orange County is divided into two corridor oriented zones whereas Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino were aggregated to County level. The Existing Transit Services and Patronage report analyzes existing transit facilities and capacity in the region as it relates to the said regional travel corridors.

Site Map

top