Metro proposal would drop portion of Burbank road to 1 car lane: Residents debate

BURBANK, Calif. - Dozens of Burbank residents rallied ahead of Tuesday's City Council meeting to speak out about a proposed Metro project that could establish dedicated bus lanes along a stretch of downtown.

The North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project would connect Metro's North Hollywood Red Line station with its Gold Line in Pasadena. But sparking controversy is the project's two-mile stretch through Burbank, specifically whether one lane in each direction of Olive Avenue should be turned into a bus corridor.

"We are against any kind of dedicated bus lane," said local business owner Karen Ross. "We want to have our lanes remain and have it be mixed-flow, where the buses ride along with the cars and any other vehicles on Olive Avenue."

The North Hollywood to Pasadena Transit Corridor. (Credit LA Metro)

The project has been approved since 2022. The issue for many during Tuesday's meeting surrounded the language of the agreement between Metro and the city of Burbank as the design process continues. 

Eddy Polon of the Burbank Transportation Commission called the bus lane proposal "a compromise. [It's] a compromise that gets us a little closer to a goal of an ethical street situation where everybody, including bicyclists, pedestrians, seniors [and] disabled folks have just as much use of the street."

Fired-up advocates for and against the project spoke for hours during the public comment portion of Tuesday's City Council meeting. 

"If you run this as mixed-flow, you're selling the future short," said one person. "Mixed-flow sends the message that you're not serious about transit: that you care more about moving cars through than moving people through."

Others worried that removing lanes for cars would worsen the already bad traffic through the area.

"It can take 15-20 minutes to go three blocks," one person said. "I'm worried that if you go to one lane for cars, we're going to bleed into the neighborhood to try to find quicker, faster ways to go."

According to Metro, the project is "in the preliminary design stage before it enters the start of final design and construction." The project isn't slated to be finished until at least 2027. 

The meeting ended around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, with the City Council reaching a "cooperative agreement" with Metro regarding the project. 

No concrete language was established Tuesday night on what will happen as part of the project, but the City Council "designated a Council subcommittee to work directly with the Metro Board of Directors and other elected officials to reach a consensus on the final configuration of the project and secure support for improvements to the Olive Avenue bridge."