We may never know what a Westwood Boulevard bike lane would look like if we give in to speculation prematurely.
Safety has been the number one issue in the prolonged Westwood bike lane debate. Cyclists often use the street because it is the most direct route to UCLA and think a bike lane would make their commutes safer, but residents believe this lane will increase hazard by delaying emergency vehicles and further congesting the street.
Despite limited study as to who is right, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-1 to side with some residents and move the lane from Westwood Boulevard to Gayley and Midvale avenues.
The change was proposed by LA City Councilmember Paul Koretz, who represents Westwood and surrounding neighborhoods and has long opposed a Westwood Boulevard bike lane. As it stands, he has enough votes from fellow council members to override vetoes from both Mayor Eric Garcetti and the LA City Planning Commission. Before they vote to finalize the change, however, council members should recognize the current route’s value – not just to UCLA and Westwood but the city’s entire bike network – and reconsider their votes.
The lane is one segment of a citywide bike lane network in the Mobility Plan 2035, which will add bus, bike lane and sidewalk improvements across LA over the next 20 years. It connects to an existing lane on Westwood Boulevard, south of Wellworth Avenue that continues until Santa Monica Boulevard. Few other bike lanes in Westwood exist and none with this kind of connectivity.
What’s more compelling, however, is that a bike lane on Westwood Boulevard is not guaranteed even if it remains in the plan. The planning commission has reiterated at every turn that more community engagement, engineering studies and designs will precede any actual implementation of the bike lane. Because the plan aims to change the city’s landscape, the conditions that might hinder a bike lane on Westwood Boulevard today might no longer exist when the time comes to build it.
Residents have pointed out cyclists are few in Westwood – and it’s true that only 3,100 cyclists commute to UCLA, compared to the 100,000 vehicle trips made to campus, numbers which don’t include the drivers who vastly outnumber cyclists in the greater Westwood area. Because the cycling community is comparatively so small, residents have argued the city should prioritize drivers’ needs – including vehicle lanes and parking, which a bike lane could potentially replace. However, such thinking oversimplifies the mobility plan’s mission.
The plan encompasses 20 years of transportation directives, but Koretz told The Bruin he thinks it’s urgent to change it now so Westwood Boulevard has no chance of consideration in the future, when his tenure as a council member may be over.
This is an irresponsible position, satisfied with the status quo instead of adopting the mobility plan’s vision for changing Los Angeles in the long term. Even if it falls short of its goals, Westwood Boulevard will certainly change over the next 20 years – stations on the Metro Expo and Purple lines will connect the area to the rest of the city. Dismissing the street’s potential to host a bike lane ignores Westwood’s potential to be a usable and safe multimodal destination for everyone.