'MOVE Culver City' Street Improvements Show Impactful Success

CULVER CITY, CA — The city-led effort to prioritize safety and make streets function better as public spaces with the "MOVE Culver City" project has seen huge successes, according to a mid-pilot report released Thursday.

Many locations along the 1.3-mile-long corridor on Culver and Washington Boulevards have seen increases in cycling and pedestrian activity as well as increased bus ridership. Namely, the intersection at Culver Boulevard and Main Street has seen an impressive 98 percent increase in cycling activity.

"Bold changes like these take time to get used to, and, to ensure this program is achieving the goal of efficient, safe, equitable alternatives while minimizing the impact on cars, the City commissioned a mid-pilot report to gather valuable information on how to best move forward," the project's website said.

Launched almost a year ago on Nov. 20, 2021, MOVE Culver City aims to make improvements to bus riders, cyclists and pedestrians to promote more environmentally friendly means of travel in the city. In the area between Duquesne Avenue and La Cienega Avenue bus and bike platforms, bus and bike lanes, traffic signals for buses and bikes only and additions of e-scooters were added.

The city also launched the country's first electric low-floor minibus that offers free rides for passengers until the end of January in 2023.

The report shows that the improvements have been doing just that, with data collected by GRIDSMART detection cameras showing:

• A 52 percent increase in bus ridership compared to data collected in the first half of 2021
• A 32 percent increase in cycling activity compared to data collected in November 2019
• An 18 percent increase in pedestrian activity compared to data collected in October 2021
• A 95 percent increase in micro-mobility trips, on Bird and Wheels scooters, compared to data collected in the early months of the pilot

Despite improvements changing the physicality of Culver City's streets, vehicle travel time saw minimal changes according to the report. At morning peak hours there was a one-minute decrease in travel times and at evening peak hours there was a two-minute increase in travel times.

People who travel along the corridor said that the changes have improved their experiences and made them feel safer according to surveys collected by the city. The improvements have increased the amount of time people spent in the Arts District and Downtown Culver City and how many businesses they visited along the corridor.

"The movement toward a more sustainable transportation future is underway," the city said. "Together we're learning, and together, we'll improve how we move."