Mayor Eric Garcetti is joined by Councilmember Paul Koretz to Launch Westwood Expansion of LA Express Park
Los Angeles, California – The City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) today launched an expansion into Westwood of its successful LA Express Park program that was originally demonstrated in Downtown Los Angeles in 2012. LA Express Park is an intelligent parking management system that employs demand-based pricing as well as other cutting edge technologies to alleviate behaviors that contribute to traffic congestion. In addition to launching LA Express Park, the Mayor also recognized two other active transportation elements that are being installed as part of his Great Streets initiative, a bicycle corral on Broxton and 150 parking meter bicycle racks and lauded the Westwood Village Improvement Association for their new wayfinding sign system.
“Westwood Village is a vibrant, exciting community that our citizens want to visit, but that also brings traffic. Today with LA Express Park, we have new cutting-edge technologies to help combat that traffic and leave behind the frustrations of both finding and paying for a place to park when coming to Westwood,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “But we haven’t stopped there—as part of our Great Streets initiative, for those who want to travel by bicycle, we are also making it much easier for you to find a place to park as well. We have the new bicycle corral on Broxton and are installing 150 new parking meter bicycle racks throughout the Village. “
Councilmember Paul Koretz, who has long championed expanding LA Express Park into Westwood in his 5th District, said, “I am truly excited to see all the improvements introduced here in the Village. Our Westwood Village Improvement Association has installed attractive new wayfinding signs to guide visitors around – and thanks to LADOT, we now have smart meters that let us pay with cash or credit cards, we can help control parking availability by pricing it according to demand, we have signs and even websites that will let people know where parking is available here in Westwood, and we have increased our bicycle parking substantially. Westwood has a tremendous history as a vibrant go-to place for everyone in Los Angeles, and now that special experience is going to be so much easier, accessible and fun. We are thrilled that the Mayor and his team chose Westwood Blvd. as a Great Street.”
The LA Express Park was funded with a grant from the Federal Highway Administration and City funds. The Federal grant was administered by Caltrans. LADOT partnered with several major parking management solution companies to bring the latest advancements in the industry to the project. Xerox manages the project for LADOT, IPS developed the in-ground sensors and the smart meters that will communicate with the overall parking management system, ParkMe keeps the public informed of the parking availabilities through an app and website and ParkMobile allows the meters to accept payments through smart phones.
LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds said, “LADOT has been a leader in testing new innovative technologies and the LA Express Park project is a prime example. The concept of demand-based pricing is just one part of the project; we also use cutting edge technology to help manage parking; using sensors, we are able to inform people of where parking is available and for how much as well as control people who illegally try to keep a parking space longer than the designated time period. All this adds up to having more parking available for everyone and we are proud to bring this technology to Westwood today. I would like to thank all our vendors-Xerox, IPS, ParkMe and ParkMobile–for their participation in making today happen.”
“Today is a great day for Westwood Village for so many reasons. The Westwood Village Improvement Association has completed one of the largest capital projects in the Village with the installation of the new wayfinding signs. These new signs brand our area to make it more inviting as well as easier to navigate around the Village. We are also very excited to become part of LA Express Park. We have worked hand in hand with LADOT to make LA Express Park and the significant bicycle parking additions happen and we know this project will make a big difference in getting around our great community,” said Andrew Thomas, Westwood Village Improvement Association Executive Director.