All photos taken from the Draft Mobility Element PDF (below)
Tonight, City of Long Beach Planning Bureau staff will share a bold vision for how people, resources and commerce move throughout the city in the future. They will be presenting the latest draft of the Mobility Element update of the city General Plan, which provides a 20-year vision and plan for how we will move throughout Long Beach over the next couple decades. The planning document layouts overarching themes as well as identifies strategies for implementation, ranging from broad topics like “Integrates land use planning with a multimodal mobility network” to specifics like “De-emphasis the Terminal Island Freeway as a truck route and increase neighborhood connectivity.”
When imagining the scope of the Mobility Element, consider that over a quarter of the land area of Long Beach consists of public right-of-way, which are the streets, sidewalks, medians and parkways crisscrossing the city.
Include the airport, port complex and utility infrastructure [flood control and electricity transmission] and over a third of Long Beach’s 50 square miles is dictated by the policies and projects within the Mobility Element. And unlike land-use planning, much of this land area is public and thus directly controlled by government.
Their design and condition–from the size and type of street trees to street width to potholes–affect the efficiency of movement and most often, residents’ quality of life.
While there are certainly elements that can be adjusted; an additional crosswalk and traffic signal here and a new bike boulevard there, the vision provided in the Mobility Element is comprehensive and largely inclusive of all interests. While there is a section on “Mobility for Goods,” there is also significant ink dedicated to moving people, specifically outside of private automobiles. There is even a section within the goods movement chapter entitled Routing Trucks Away from Neighborhoods, which largely identifies policies for reducing freight truck impacts on residents.
According to the city, updating the Mobility Element has been a culmination of over five years of community engagement, but it actually began through an earlier iteration of the General Plan update which was called “Long Beach 2030.”
While at times painfully long in its formulation, the delay of updating the Mobility Element has allowed for the bike movement and interest in pedestrian connectivity to take place in Long Beach, providing greater prominence in the plan. Public transit was at a very different place in 2000s when there was still majority resistant to new fixed-rail transit like the Gold Line extension into Pasadena, the Expo Line into West LA and the Subway to the Sea which are all now active projects. The Los Angeles region, including Long Beach, has grown more accepting of these active modes of transportation.
The Mobility Element initially lays out an overall vision for transportation for Long Beach based on the history of the city’s development and the current context, with an eye toward future trends and technology. It includes a mobility plan that identifies policies for improving transportation along with implementation strategies. The Mobility Element also begins to identify the administrative work and potential funding mechanisms for implementation. While not as inspiring as the blue-sky thinking of the visioning section, that material is needed for the Mobility Element to not be just a document that collects dust on a bookshelf.
Overall, the Mobility Element recognizes that Long Beach is largely a built-out city with few opportunities for new streets or roadway expansion so we need to be smarter about moving people and goods. This includes everything from greater emphasis on transit and active mobility like bike and walking, to Intelligent Transportation Systems which use a variety of detectors, sensors and cameras to allow smart traffic signal networks to adapt to changing traffic conditions.
The section on parking calls out the need to manage existing parking stock better versus trying to build significantly more. For every resident that has to circle the block for available on-street parking there are four or five empty stalls in an office building parking garage or in front of a Target department store.
The Mobility Element is extensive in its reach, including regional infrastructure like the port and airport as well as utilities like flood control facilities and electricity transmission corridors. It also includes the evolution of the marinas, opportunities for streetcars in the city and the potential extension of the Metro Green Line from Redondo Beach to Long Beach. All while still maintaining focus on the most obvious transportation conditions around traffic congestion relief: bike and pedestrian facilities and goods movement.
Perhaps some of the most encouraging themes throughout the Mobility Element are the components not about movement but the challenges and opportunities from transportation impacts. With significant regional and national infrastructure throughout Long Beach like the Port, airport and various freeways there is a need to address their negative impacts on Long Beach residents.
One component–“Context-Sensitive Design”–shifts from the typical street classification of thoroughfares and collectors to neighborhood streets, avenues and boulevards. The fluffier adjectives reflect the intention of balancing mobility needs for all modes of transportation, as well as local considerations along those roadways.
Dated interpretations of Level of Service (LOS) are to be reconsidered as part of the Mobility Element where car movement would no longer be the only consideration. Instead, other forms of transportation including biking, walking and transit would be contemplated when determining the LOS.
While current standard LOS would apply to state and federal requirements (hopefully those levels of government catch up), this more balanced consideration would be important for improving conditions in commercial districts and residential neighborhoods where cars have reined supreme, often at the expense of businesses and residents.
Between these two components, the section on removing trucks from neighborhoods as well as other strategies and policies related to reducing pollution, the people of Long Beach are receiving greater consideration through the Mobility Element update. While efficient movement of people, goods and resources is essential to a vibrant economy, it should not come at the cost of the people living and working within the city.
The other question that remains; is that while this vision reflects well on paper, how will they hold up during implementation? Will a few very vocal residents be able to derail improvements that benefit the community and city at large? Will the opinion of a single stakeholder be able to obstruct this grand, inclusive vision? Though a difficult effort to even get to this point, will there be a political champion to implement this bright vision?
The current draft of the Mobility Element update is going in the right direction, but it still can use input from residents and local stakeholders. The community meeting today as well as the public comment period (email your thoughts here) are some of the best opportunities to provide feedback and ask questions. Please take advantage.
Draft Mobility Community Meeting will be held Wednesday, May 22 at 6PM at the Miller Family Health Education Center, 3820 Cherry Avenue.
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