LANI Helps Bring Over $38.5 million in State Funding to Skid Row and the City of Los Angeles
Bike lanes, new shade trees, pedestrian lighting, and more safety infrastructure are coming to San Pedro Street in DTLA as part of the $47.5 million Skid Row Connectivity & Safety project that recently secured state funding.
By partnering with Albert A. Webb Associates (Webb) and the Office of City Council District 14 on behalf of the Bureau of Street Services (BSS), LANI helped secure grant funding from the California Transportation Commission’s Active Transportation Program (ATP) to move forward on a new streetscape and safety project which will remake a key north-south thoroughfare through Downtown Los Angeles.
The Skid Row Connectivity and Safety Project transforms a section of Downtown Los Angeles that has suffered from blight and lack of investment over decades, enabling pedestrians, cyclists, residents, and businesses to co-exist and travel in the neighborhood safely and equitably. LANI’s role was to oversee comprehensive community engagement to ascertain local ATP needs as perceived by housed and unhoused stakeholders, as well as to write and organize significant parts of the complex grant proposal with BSS staff and designers at Webb.
Spanning Skid Row and the Flower and Fashion Districts, the project’s spine is the 1.8 mile San Pedro Street corridor between Temple St and 16th St, a key bicycle corridor in the City’s Mobility Plan 2035. Branching out from San Pedro St, improvements will occur on 8th St between San Pedro St and Kohler St, 9th St between San Pedro St and Central, 11th St between San Pedro St and Wall St, and 16th St between San Pedro St and Central Ave. San Pedro, 8th and 9th Streets are all in the City’s High Injury Network (HIN) and identified as Vision Zero Priority Corridors for safety improvements based on the high number of pedestrian and bike-related collisions.
The project calls for a wide array of bicycle and pedestrian improvements that are designed to close gaps in the existing bicycle and pedestrian network while also connecting local schools, health facilities, and job centers.
The project will repurpose a slip lane at 8th St and San Pedro St into a pedestrian-activated multi-modal bike plaza, including a bike share station, bike lockers, benches, landscaping and trees, creating a hub for active transportation, and much-needed open space. Over 500 pedestrian lights and 500 shade trees are also planned to be installed in the community.
This project provides a safer environment for pedestrians and bicyclists, builds on existing and forthcoming funded active transportation infrastructure projects, connects to public transit and key land uses, enhances public safety, and spurs economic growth. The disadvantaged communities of Skid Row and the businesses that operate daily in the same area will greatly benefit from the project. Grant funding, coupled with roughly $8.9 million in local match funds, will pay for the implementation of the Skid Row Connectivity & Safety Project.