INTRODUCTION OF PROJECT
The Boulevard is an effort by three UCLA urban planning master’s students to engage the public
in the process of revitalizing Culver City’s Washington Boulevard. Our project is an extension of
the West Washington Area Improvement Program (WWAIP) started by Culver City in 2007
(link to program website). The WWAIP has thus far accomplished landscaped medians to
beautify the commercial corridor, a commercial facade program to upgrade building facades, and
an identity banner program to symbolize the area’s renewal and regeneration. The program is
divided into six phases, of which the first three (Beethoven St. to Centinela Ave.) have been
completed with the aforementioned improvements. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the urban planning master's degree, 15 students are partnering with Culver City to study possible
improvements for the last three phases.
The purpose of The Boulevard is to create an online platform to showcase the work of these
students, and, through blog entries and updates to the website, keep the public up-to-date with
the improvements being proposed. The students have been studying the area for four months
through market and demographic analyses, and field observations, and have begun to produce
their final recommendations. The Boulevard will show students’ findings and recommendations
and allow the public to navigate to their topics of interest by clicking on our tabs (General Land
Use, Retail Classification, Pedestrian Collisions, and Bicycle Collisions). We envision this
online platform as a place for people to hone in on their areas of interest, instead of having to leaf
through a hard-copy plan. Through our maps, graphs, and images we can tell a story from
existing conditions, to analysis, to recommendations, making it a revealing and entertaining
experience for the public.
GENERAL LAND USE
The West Washington Area Improvement Program study area is Washington Blvd., between Walnut
Ave. and Atlantic Ave. The area encompasses the street, and one block north and south of Washington
Blvd. In this area there are a total of 284 businesses/residences. More than half of these (154) are retail
land uses. The second largest land use in the area is office, comprising 21% of all the land uses.
Residential land uses comprise 10% of the land use classifications. Nine percent of the businesses are
vacant and the remaining 6 percent are either institutional, hotel, or raw land.
RETAIL CLASSIFICATION
More than half of the land uses (154 of 284) in the West Washington Area Improvement Program are
retail. We have classified retail land uses into 12 different categories: Apparel, Automotive, Bank,
Beauty, Electronics, Grocery, Health & Fitness, Home Décor, Liquor & Tobacco, Neighborhood Retail,
Regional Retail, and Restaurant. Neighborhood retail and restaurants make up a large portion of the
retail land uses, 22% and 21% respectively. Neighborhood retail includes businesses such as laundry and
dry cleaners, print shops, tailors, spas, etc. Automotive and beauty businesses follow, each making up
14% of the retail classification. Health & fitness businesses also make up a substantial amount of the
retail classification (nine percent). Costco is the only business classified as regional retail.
BIKE COLLISIONS
Looking at bike-motorist collisions on Washington Blvd., most collisions concentrate on the western
portion of Washington Blvd., from Walnut Ave. to Atlantic Ave. Between 2003 and 2007, there were 79
reported bike collisions in Culver City. Some notable clusters emerge along Washington Blvd., leading
toward the Costco area. Between 2008 and 2012, there were a total of 164 reported bike collisions in
Culver City. Bike collisions have overall increased in the past 10 years, which could be due to the
increasing Culver City biking population. Recurring bike collisions from 2003-2007 and 2008-2012 are in
the intersections of Washington Blvd. at Glencoe Ave. We are in the process of looking closer at these
intersections and recommending improvements.
PEDESTRIAN COLLISIONS
Looking at historical data regarding the areas of high pedestrian-motorist collisions, it is clear that the
most problematic area is near the Costco. This area sees high levels of vehicular traffic for most of the
day, on both weekdays and weekends. Between 2003 and 2007 there were 115 pedestrian collisions in
Culver City, while between 2008 and 2012, there were 108. Pedestrian collisions have somewhat
remained constant over the past 10 years. This means that pedestrian collisions per capita have gone
down. We are in the process of looking closer at intersections of recurring collisions and recommending
improvements.