Measure M will Invest in Local Street, Crosswalk, and Sidewalk Repairs

Note: To access this policy brief, please find here.

Measure M, known as the “Los Angeles County Traffic Improvement Plan,” is a comprehensive plan that will allocate over $850 million per year to improve transportation and mobility options for all in Los Angeles County. If passed, about $22.5 billion in the next 40 years will be allocated for local street, crosswalk, and sidewalk repairs through a mechanism called “local return.”

Each of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County will receive a portion of the funding based on population size. For example, through local return, the City of Long Beach with a population of 469,428 will receive $6.7 million every year while the City of Maywood with a population of 27,748 will receive $398,000 every year.

Who thinks LA County should spend much more on fixing sidewalks and making crosswalks safer? Communities of color pic.twitter.com/RL3P4vbYHR

— Investing in Place (@InvestinPlace) June 7, 2016

Measure M brings resources to the table to help local conversations about planning our streets holistically. Local return can provide more resources to address bus stops, placemaking, stormwater, complete streets, urban greening, sidewalk repair, crosswalk upgrades, bicycle lanes, and more. The public right­-of­-way — our sidewalks, our streets, our crosswalks — is a significant asset that can be managed to help people of all ages and abilities move freely and safely, and help meet sustainability goals.

LA County voters overwhelmingly support using #Metroplan revenue to fix sidewalks #LASidewalks #MetroFundWalkBike pic.twitter.com/1127aIYmec

— Investing in Place (@InvestinPlace) June 8, 2016

An important issue for community members across Los Angeles County, as we found in our polling done earlier this year, is the maintenance and repair of sidewalks. Our sidewalks across Los Angeles County are in a terrible state. For example, the City of Los Angeles has 10,000 miles of sidewalks and about 4,500 miles are in need of repair (nearly half!), according to city officials. Compounding this problem, the LA Times found that about 40 percent of sidewalk repair requests were not fulfilled.  If you’re a City Manager, public works or streets services official, elected official, or a transportation advocate in any of LA County’s cities, you have a timely opportunity to advocate for where local return funding should go if Measure M passes.

“I’ve had to pay for sidewalks with my own discretionary funds” @CD6Nury are we missing opportunity to improve sidewalks with local return?

— Investing in Place (@InvestinPlace) May 25, 2016

But, local return is an opportunity, not a guarantee, and community members need to engage collaboratively with local elected officials to set priorities for this funding (and Investing in Place will help!). Investing in Place’s priorities with local return in the City of Los Angeles are:

• To prioritize projects based on need,
• To integrate complete streets and green streets into street repair, and
• To set aside 20 percent of funding for sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, bus stops, safe routes to school, and other related projects that address safety and access for people traveling on foot or bicycle, as recommended in the City’s Mobility Plan 2035.

To follow our updates on local return, fixing sidewalks, and Measure M, please sign up for our mailing list, follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), and follow the hashtags #MeasureM and #LASidewalks.