An arcane term used by transportation planners, Level Of Service (abbreviated LOS) is used to determine the impacts of road projects. Traditionally, LOS pretty much just applies to car and truck traffic. LOS “A” means that traffic is flying along unimpeded. LOS “F” is the freeway-length parking lot for which Southern California is so famous, or notorious. Projects are judged to be good and worthwhile if they improve LOS for motor vehicles, while if they are going to reduce auto and truck LOS, they have to mitigate those impacts by, say, widening a street or intersection.
Trouble is, cars and trucks are not the only entities using our streets. Transit vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians all use the streets, too, and traditional measures do not evaluate the level of service they receive.
Slowly, this is beginning to change. San Francisco County is developing alternative LOS measures that will make it easier to approve projects that have benefits for pedestrians and cyclists. In Florida, the state Department of Transportation’s handbook on quality and level of service actually enumerates LOS standards for transit, bicycle, and pedestrian routes. The bicycle and pedestrian measures take into account such factors as the width of sidewalks and bike lanes, their separation from auto traffic, and the speed and volume of neighboring traffic.
In fact, since 1973, San Francisco has had a Transit First policy that suggests an intriguing model for Long Beach to investigate. Notwithstanding its name, the policy is intended to place priority on all non-auto modes of travel: bicycle and walking, as well as transit. To be sure, it has not always been fully adhered to – a few years back, the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the fact that only two of the County’s eleven supervisors regularly rode transit to work. But the policy is credited with preserving San Francisco’s essential walkability and level of transit service over the many years since its adoption.
Of course, Long Beach is not San Francisco. But the current update of our General Plan offers a golden opportunity to recognize the role that non-auto travel should play in our growing city’s future. If we all insist on driving everywhere we go, we will only increase the number of heavily-traveled intersections and freeways, and our wait time to navigate them. I hope to work with our city planners to find policies, measures of service, and planning tools that will support mobility for all modes and all residents of Long Beach out to 2030 and beyond.