Introduction
Dotted with bookstores, family-owned restaurants, a library and a movie theater, the Old Town section of Monrovia, California is bustling and bus-less. Located on Myrtle Avenue, the business district shines with it's timeless Americana layout, and unsurprisingly attracts people from neighboring cities. Despite Old Town's popularity, regional transit agencies have avoided it like a plaque, and there are no bus routes that pass through. This has left the city inaccessible for car-free Angelenos, many of whom are working class, elderly or disabled. Bikers too are left in the dust, as they must share the two-lane road with trucks and cars. Providing mobility options outside of driving and walking would be an incredible step forward in serving underprivileged communities. Monrovia should take a cue from San Francisco efforts for urban redesign, namely their Better Market Street (BMS) initiative. The large undertaking will transform the historic street into a car-free zone, barring intersections where right turns will be prohibited. Other key components include line extensions for light rail and cable cars and the creation of bicycle intersections. City buses will finally have their own lane. While the BMS project leaves city-goers car-less, it would be careless to neglect the improvements in the alternatives: public transit, biking, walking, and accommodations for disabled people. One specific policy of BMS that would greatly benefit Old Town Monrovia can be traced to Phase 1: “Create shared curb lanes for bicycles, taxis, paratransit and commercial vehicles. Additional treatments, such as speed tables and a raised curb will be added to enhance bike safety” (Better Market Street Factsheet, 2020, p. 2). A shared road with no personal vehicles would increase mobility for bikers and priority populations who do not have adequate public transportation options. Public transportation has been neglected for over a decade in Old Town due to inadequate space for bus stops. With a public infrastructure plan like BMS, Monrovia could become one of the most efficient and accommodating cities in southern California.
Background
Similar to Myrtle Avenue, Market Street has been plagued with mobility issues due to its urban design. Drawing from a 2010 StreetBlogSF article, the movement of bicyclists and pedestrians often came in conflict with vehicles (Goebel). Although almost every mode of transportation has existed in Market Street, commenters recalled the chaos that would ensue when bikers and drivers crossed paths in intersections. For transit riders, the long wait-times made Market Street unbearable. Several commenters felt as though public transit, biking, and walking could not adequately co-exist with the unrestricted and increasing number of automobiles that rolled through Market Street. It was clear to many that change was necessary.
The origins of BMS dates back to April 29, 2011, when San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced a series of workshops to discuss potential improvements to Market Street. The project would be a collaboration between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), SF Public Works, SF Planning, SF Public Utilities Commission, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the SF County Transportation Authority, and Vision Zero SF. By mid-July, three urban design models had been considered for the environmental review process. Nearly seven years later, in March 2018, the ER analyses began. The goal of redesigning lanes to increase bike volume had been established (San Francisco Public Works, p. 1). Between 2011 and 2016, interactive workshops between the public and the SFMTA took place; visualization modeling developed as the project's goals became clearer. The plans had evolved to include a bike lane and a lane for certain vehicles. On October 15, 2019, Mayor London N. Breed and the board of SFMTA gave the final approval for the BMS program implementation (City and County of San Francisco, Office of the Mayor). Physical construction for priority projects began in January 2020.
Analysis
BMS prioritizes four mobility modes: public transit, biking, wheelchair rolling, and walking. A shared sentiment was that Market Street's usability had been degraded due to personal vehicles. The intersection problem will be solved with the integration of a shared road for certain vehicles. The original layout of Market Street intersections were four-directional. Cars were able to turn right onto the street and cause traffic delays for non-drivers. Personal vehicles are now prohibited from turning right into Market Street; they can only pass through the West-East and East-West directions. During the traffic slowdown in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, two miles of Market Street became no-driving zones for personal vehicles. The current BMS zone would take 4,000 steps to walk from one end to the other. It could take a biker anywhere between eight to twenty minutes to travel those lengths. An efficient option to travel this distance in the shared road is public transit, which BMS prioritizes as well.
If this policy were to be implemented in Old Town, it would certainly improve mobility for non-drivers; it would allow public transit options to exist without the spatial constrictions of other vehicles. Much like other small towns across the United States, Monrovia had a streetcar line. It ran through the town from 1902 to 1951 (re: Image 2). Monrovia also operated a free trolley-bus service with stops in Old Town; the program shut down in 2011 (Luna, 2011, p. 1). At the time, policymakers stated that a new service would be added once the construction of the Metro Gold Line was complete. Ten years later, this has not been materialized. Shortly after the trolley-bus became defunct, new street parking spaces was added in its place. LA Metro and Foothill Transit, which operates buses in Monrovia and other nearby cities, do not to pass through Old Town. With parking spaces lining the sides of Myrtle Avenue, bus stops are simply not feasible. Most vehicles that pass through Old Town are personal automobiles; many use it as a means of convenience because it shares an on- and off-ramp with the 210 Freeway and an intersection with Foothill Boulevard. There are no bike lanes in Old Town either. Using the distance tool on CONNECTExplorer, I found that the distance between Old Town’s southern limits and Monrovia’s Gold Line station is roughly 4,200 feet, or 0.8 miles. The Old Town section of Myrtle Avenue is measured at 2,760 feet, or about 0.522 miles. That is roughly 1,000 steps each way. Walking from the Gold Line station to the top of Myrtle Avenue would take about 1,200 steps, or 1.32 miles.
Recommendation
While the BMS shared-lane design will be more accommodating to bikers than the current street layout, it is yet to be seen whether biker-destination efficiency will increase or whether vehicular accidents will decrease. There will continue to be motor-vehicles on the road, albeit to a lesser degree. For years, BMS advertised their proposal to create a bike-only lane into the Market Street redesign. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp turn for BMS funding, and ultimately the proposal was thrown out (BMS Letter, 2020, p. 1). Nevertheless, before the project advances any further, a bike-only lane should be reintroduced; implementing this in the future would be much more costly.
Conclusion
BMS’s road share program for select vehicles and bikers will lead to an increase in mobility and transportation options among local residents and city-goers. The urban redesign was efficiently planned to prioritize walking, public transit, bicycling, and wheelchairs. Old Town Monrovia, which lacks public transit options, should adopt BMS priority projects. Just as well, future planning of Myrtle Avenue must be led alongside the community. While road-share is a step forward in decreasing traffic, removing the bike-lane proposal is nonsensical.
References
Better Market Street Factsheet. (2020, Fall). Retrieved from http://bettermarketstreetsf.org/docs/BMS-Factsheet-ENGLISH.pdf
BMS Letter [Letter written October 28, 2020 to J. Tumlin and A. Degrafinried]. (2020, October 28). Retrieved from https://sfbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-10-28-BMS-Letter-from-SFBC-SFTR-WSF.pdf
City and County of San Francisco, Office of the Mayor. (2019, October 15). Mayor London Breed Announces Approval of Market Street Improvements [Press release]. Retrieved from https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-announces-approval-market-street-improvements
Goebel, B. (2010, December 9). How Would You Redesign Market Street at Van Ness? Retrieved from https://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/12/09/how-would-you-redesign-market-street-at-van-ness/
Luna, R. (2011, April 29). Monrovia prepares for Gold Line by eliminating Old Town trolley. Pasadena Star-News. Retrieved from www.pasadenastarnews.com/2011/04/29/monrovia-prepares-for-gold-line-by-eliminating-old-town-trolley
San Francisco Public Works. (2018, March 6). FIND OUT THE LATEST ON THE BETTER MARKET STREET PROJECT: INFORMATIONAL PUBLIC MEETINGS SET FOR MARCH 10 AND MARCH 14 [Press release]. Retrieved from
http://bettermarketstreetsf.org/docs/03-06-18_Better-Market-Street-media-advisory.pdf