(A greener future for North Figueroa St.? A planted median down the center, marked crosswalks with center refuge area, bike lanes and curbside parking on both sides of the street.)

Over two years ago, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) first shared conceptual plans for bike lanes on North Figueroa Street between Colorado Boulevard and York Boulevard. The plans proved disappointing as they did nothing to address the excessive speeding the street experiences and hardly did anything to improve conditions for people bicycling. Bike advocate Joe Linton (author of Down By the Los Angeles River) suggested the LADOT consider a reconfiguration commonly known as a “road diet.” This would make the street look more like York Boulevard does between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Avenue 54.

One of the major benefits of adjusting North Figueroa to have the “road diet” configuration is that it would in all likelihood improve traffic safety. On York Boulevard, collisions have dropped by about 23% and traffic collision-related injuries dropped 27% since it was reconfigured in 2006. Everyone in the neighborhood benefits from a safer street and North Figueroa could certainly use the help– too many people have died on this stretch of the street from traffic collisions.

A secondary benefit of a road diet configuration is that it offers an opportunity to provide a planted median. Planted medians can be installed where there are center turn lanes and while there is a center turn lane on Figueroa today, it’s location and presence is inconsistent as the presence of curbside parking presently is as well. With the road diet configuration, the location of the center turn lane would be consistent throughout, making a planted media possible. Dozens of trees could be planted along the median and who doesn’t like trees?

Let’s take a look at the possibility:

North Figueroa of Today

Wide lanes, limited curbside parking, and no bicycle infrastructure.

Image via: Streetmix

North Figueroa of Tomorrow

Bike lanes and curbside parking on both sides of the street, planted median.

Image via: Streetmix

From a traffic safety perspective, the status quo on North Figueroa Street is far from ideal. A road diet may not be perfect, but it is a pretty sure bet that implementing the road diet will improve safety for everyone while offering a opportunity to add a bit of greenery (and curbside parking) to the community.

What do you think?