Nithya Raman reveals strategy to tackle LA’s $3B bike lane and street repair plan on day 1 as mayor

Costly bike lane mandates have stalled street repairs across Los Angeles, leaving Mayor-elect Nithya Raman grappling with how to fix the city’s crumbling roads on her very first day in office while complying with a voter-approved law she championed.

At her first City Hall press conference since winning the election Tuesday, Raman acknowledged to the California Post that soaring costs tied to Measure HLA have forced the city to scale back road repairs.

The law requires Los Angeles to add planned bike lanes, bus lanes and pedestrian safety upgrades during major roadwork, driving up the cost of once-routine repaving projects.

“The city has not been doing some of the street repair that it has been doing in the past, because of HLA and some of the cost increases that come from adding bike lanes and other kinds of safety investments,” Raman told The Post.

“We are at a tough moment,” the incoming mayor said.

When voters approved Measure HLA in 2024, they provided no new funding to pay for the upgrades, leaving City Hall struggling to cover the costs while keeping up with basic road maintenance.

That dilemma now falls squarely on Raman, who supported the measure and must find a way to deliver the safer streets voters demanded without allowing the city’s battered roads to deteriorate further.

Still, Raman made clear she has no intention of backing away from the mandate.

“The voters passed HLA. They are asking for safer streets. They are asking for protected bike lanes. They’re asking for us to implement our mobility plan,” Raman told The Post.

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“I take that responsibility and mandate from the voters very seriously. But I also know our fiscal constraints.”

Raman pledged to begin examining what the city can realistically afford on her first day in office and make those findings public.

City officials have estimated that implementing the required street improvements could cost a staggering $3.1 billion.

Los Angeles’ Mobility Plan calls for roughly 300 miles of protected bike lanes, which separate cyclists from traffic with physical barriers, along with hundreds of miles of less expensive painted bicycle lanes.

Leo Daube, communications director for Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, explained that protected lanes require additional materials and construction, while conventional bike lanes can often be installed with little more than new pavement markings.

Michael Schneider, founder of Streets for All, the advocacy group behind Measure HLA, said that city officials have inflated the estimate by including expenses not directly required by the law.

His organization previously estimated the improvements would cost approximately $28.6 million annually over a decade, a fraction of the city’s projection.

Schneider, whose organization backed Raman’s mayoral campaign, has also accused outgoing Mayor Karen Bass’ administration of dragging its feet on implementing the law and wasting taxpayer money fighting it in court.

“We want to see Measure HLA implemented; under Bass, city departments have obstructed it and [have wasted] millions in legal fees fighting it. We believe, under Mayor Raman, they will embrace it,” Schneider previously told The Post.

But even with a new mayor promising to enforce the law, one major question remains unanswered: Who will pay for it?

“We have to put the bike lane there because that is what the voters told us that we have to do,” Daube told The Post.

Yaroslavsky, who chairs the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, is pushing for a clearer picture of what Los Angeles can actually afford as officials grapple with the mounting costs of repairing streets, sidewalks and other aging infrastructure.

Last week, Yaroslavsky and Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez introduced a motion calling on the city’s top budget official to calculate how much Los Angeles will need to spend over the next 20 to 30 years to maintain its infrastructure, including street repairs, sidewalks, wheelchair-accessible curb ramps and improvements required under HLA.

The proposal also seeks a financial forecast through 2030 to identify looming budget shortfalls and determine how much money the city will need to maintain essential services.

The push comes as Los Angeles prepares to implement Measure LA, a newly approved charter amendment requiring the city to adopt a two-year budget cycle and develop a long-term plan for major infrastructure investments.

Daube told The Post the two voter-approved measures could work together, with Measure LA giving City Hall a better way to plan and pay for the street improvements required under HLA.