WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT OVERLAND?
Do you think climate change is a hoax? This blog isn’t for you.
Do you feel entitled to enjoy the lifestyle that you have worked so hard to achieve, regardless of the impact on others? This blog isn’t for you.
Do you feel no obligation to make the world a better place for everyone’s children? This blog isn’t for you.
Why we care
The Culver City General Plan 2045 is the community’s vision for the future of our city. This plan is required by state law, and it’s intended “to help the community navigate its evolution” as it faces the housing and economic challenges that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and the risks from climate change. One of the General Plan’s Guiding Principles is to “Build more active and shared modes of getting to, from, and through Culver City by providing more reliable, safe, affordable, clean, and connected carbon-free transportation and mobility options for people of all ages and abilities.”
Building a sustainable and better future for the next generation is what motivates Our Culver to advocate for making our streets safer and improving mobility options.
In Los Angeles County, more people died in traffic crashes in 2024 than were killed in homicides: 778 traffic deaths (1) compared with 665 homicides (2) – and 44% of those deaths were pedestrians and cyclists. Traffic safety is literally a public-safety issue on the scale of homicide, but reallocating a relatively small amount of roadway to protect cyclists and pedestrians gets treated as though convenience and parking are the most important concerns. Between 2014 and 2018, “unsafe speed” was the most common factor for vehicle-involved collisions in Culver City, accounting for nearly a third of them. All collisions involving unsafe speed occurred on roadways with speed limits ranging from 30 to 40 miles per hour.”(3) The public roadways belong to the public - not just those who drive cars, and not just people who cycle.
Our Culver doesn’t expect everyone will ride a bike, walk or take transit; we don’t even expect the majority of people will do so. We simply want a slightly larger share of the public roadway to be safe for people who want or need to travel without a car, without putting their lives at risk. The Federal Highway Administration notes that a small reduction in car drivers during peak travel times can lead to a significant decrease in congestion. Culver City residents, visitors and employees deserve the freedom to make their own transportation choices; continuing to follow the General Plan 2045 makes that possible.
It's worth taking a moment to dispel the myth that Culver City’s mobility planning has lacked community input. The General Plan 2045 grew out of a process that began in 2017. Years of input was incorporated from more than 50 public meetings of the General Plan Advisory Committee, the Transportation and Mobility Technical Advisory Committee, the Disability Advisory Committee, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and the Planning Commission, as well as direct community input from surveys and workshops specifically on the land-use and mobility alternatives and pop-up workshops/community events intended to reach people who didn’t attend formal public meetings. City Council members from across our political spectrum approved the General Plan 2045 in August 2024: Dan O’Brien, Göran Eriksson, Albert Vera, and Freddy Puza. Claims that the community didn’t have input or that outside entities controlled the process is just not supported by the public record. It’s especially disappointing to hear some City Council candidates falsely claim mobility projects were decided without conversation while simultaneously maintaining they are long time residents and advocates who somehow missed all the opportunities for community input over the past 9 years. These opportunities continue today through public meetings, including the Standing Mobility Subcommittee and the Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
One of the reasons Our Culver endorsed Freddy Puza and Thomas A Small is they possess both the experience and commitment to implement the long-term vision set forth in the General Plan. They’re focused on delivering this 20-year plan for a safer, more sustainable future for all, not on fear and misinformation campaigns that serve a few people who resist changes that serve the wider community.
Sources:
General Plan, Element 8, Mobility. https://www.culvercity.gov/City-Hall/City-Departments/Planning-Development-Department/Advance-Planning-Division/General-Plan-2#docaccess-458e015337e7e11321c82c858fd92f48
What’s happening in Culver City’s Mobility Future?
While bike lanes tend to garner the most press, focusing on just one mode won’t get Culver City to the mobility goals in its General Plan. Several major projects are underway, but they’re at very different stages—from studying possible solutions to bidding out construction:
Sepulveda Connects is Culver City’s segment of a broader regional effort to improve north-south transit along Sepulveda Boulevard between UCLA and the LAX. It is coordinated through the Westside Cities Council of Governments (WSCCOG). These quick-build improvements are intended to provide long-term benefits for transit riders while preparing the Westside for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympic Games. The WSCCOG awarded Culver City $960,654 for the design work. Design options have been presented to the public, but Council has not yet chosen a direction.
Better Overland is partially funded. When the segment between Culver Boulevard and the Ballona Creek bridge is completed, it will include new crosswalks, safer intersections for pedestrians and cyclists, protected bike lanes, and a signal at the Julian Dixon Library, all while maintaining the four existing vehicle travel lanes. The overall Better Overland and Safer Fox Hills concept was approved unanimously by Council on May 28, 2024. After the project was broken into segments due to funding constraints, the community was presented with two design options for the segment between Culver and Ballona Creek. The majority of community participants preferred keeping the center turn lane rather than removing parking on the east side of the street. This option was approved unanimously by the City Council on January 26, 2026.
The ultimate goal of this project is to connect Fox Hills with the rest of Culver City on this north-south corridor. The future segment south of Ballona Creek will seek even more community input to guide design decisions on parking, turn lanes and other considerations when this connection is planned and built.
Safer Fox Hills - This project will make the Fox Hills neighborhood safer for everyone walking, biking or driving, and better connect Fox Hills bike lanes with neighborhoods to the north. City Council approved the final plans for Phase 1 in July 2026, and construction bids closed in October. This phase will add protected bike lanes, safer crossings and other pedestrian and traffic-calming improvements on Green Valley Circle, Bristol Parkway and Buckingham Parkway. The three streets will also be repaved. Phase 1 is funded from multiple sources. Additional community outreach will be done to plan Phase 2, which will upgrade the existing bike lanes on Huannum between Bristol and Buckingham Parkways and install new protected bike lanes on Hannum between Slauson Ave and Bristol Parkway.
Tri-School study - Local residents requested and Council allocated funding in 2024 to study safety improvements around Farragut Elementary, CCMS and CCHS. Multiple ideas have been explored to make travel safer for children walking, biking and being dropped off, and to reduce overall vehicle speeds. The study found drivers speeding up to 40 mph on the residential streets. This project is in the 'ideas' phase and is awaiting further direction from Council and input from the public.
The Middle and High Schools serve the entire community, and efforts to add traffic-safety measures in this area go back multiple years. The student Green New Deal proposal presented in 2023 called for stop signs at Elenda and Franklin, Garfield, and Lindblade, as well as a bike lane on Elenda from Farragut north to Culver (where the La Ballona Elementary protected bike lane starts), among other improvements. Each time, safety improvements have been stymied by a small, vocal group of residents opposed to stop signs because they slow car traffic, protesting bike lanes because they want to preserve street parking, and falsely claiming the city is planning to remove the mature ficus trees.
There's a lot in the works! Most of these projects require grants or partnerships with outside agencies like Metro to complete. Staff does not propose them and City Council does not consider allocating any General Fund monies unless significant outside funding is anticipated. While we'd all like to see immediate improvements in safety and mobility, grant cycles, staff bandwidth and community input all affect the timeline – which is why the General Plan 2045 has a 20 year horizon for making these goals a reality.