On a Monday afternoon at the early onset of rush hour traffic, a lone cyclist stopped in the middle of the intersection of La Brea and Rosewood avenues. The man had his head on a swivel as cars zoomed past him, waiting for an opening.

This potentially dangerous scenario is why members of the Mid-City West Community Council (MCWCC) are seeking to ease the burden on cyclists in the area and move them to calmer roads that will still get them from point A to point B.

“The idea is that these routes would serve all types of riders,” MCWCC chair Scott Epstein said. “If it is done right, this is something you could ride with your kids, or with senior citizens, or someone who is not a super confident rider. It is a shared space with automobiles, but we’d do a lot of things to slow down the speed of traffic — calm it down — and sometimes even divert traffic away.”

The MCWCC submitted its plan — the Mid-City Low Stress Bicycle Enhancement Corridors — to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) earlier this year so that it could be considered during the 2015 Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Call for Projects.

“There are a number of different categories — bicycle, pedestrian and multi-modal,” Epstein said. “The city applies for the project as part of their package to Metro.”

The Mid-City Low Stress Bicycle Enhancement Corridors plan is a culmination of MCWCC outreach and research on how best to move cyclists and pedestrians within its footprint.

The proposal is for a “compilation” of bicycle wayfinding and traffic calming measures. The roads affected would total three miles. Rosewood Avenue between La Cienega Boulevard and La Brea Avenue would serve as an east/west corridor. Alta Vista Boulevard and Formosa Avenue would serve as north/south corridors between 3rd Street and Willoughby Avenue — a way to avoid busier thoroughfares like La Brea Avenue.

“We think it is a really, really important piece of an overall strategy to get people out of their cars and into other transportation,” Epstein said. “They serve all types of users and allow community members to get around the area for short trips without having to get in their cars.”

Plans for those streets would include four bicycle accessible traffic diverters (essentially roundabouts), nine curb build-outs, 40 speed humps, continental crosswalks at 11 intersections, 10 new stop signs and new landscaping.

For bicycle traffic specifically, there would be new wayfinding signage, shared lane markings (sharrows), six bicycle signals, 16 bicycle boxes (street paint indicators) and three new traffic signals where local streets cross major thoroughfares.

The entire project’s cost is an estimated $2.1 million. The Metro funding request is for 80 percent, or approximately $1.7 million. The city would pay the remainder with Proposition C transportation-use money.

“Part of the reason they brought this project to us is that the arterials in that corridor are very difficult to ride and probably won’t be developed for on-street bike lanes for some time,” said Michelle Mowery, LADOT senior bicycle coordinator. “We’re looking to build off of the bicycle network and are looking for things that connect to what is already there.”

The city submitted six bicycle projects to Metro. It is competing with 88 cities in the county for a limited amount of money, so not everything will receive funding, Mowery said.

The Mid-City West project received a 76 out of 100 points in an internal rating system developed by the LADOT, but that is not necessarily indicative of how Metro will rate the project, she added.

“It depends on what Metro is looking for, what they are looking to fund, and how much money they have and how many have applied for it,” Mowery said. “I think it is a good project and it’s really great that it came from the community. If it is not funded in this go around, we will look for additional funding possibilities.”

Metro staff recommendations will be released in June, and will give an early indication of the projects that could win Metro board approval.

MCWCC members have been taking officials, including Mowery and City Councilman Paul Koretz, 5th District, on tours of the future bicycle corridors to win support.

“This is an opportunity to create a safer pathway for bicyclists without having significant negative impacts upon motor vehicular traffic,” said Koretz, who is a proponent of the project. “I am appreciative how neighborhood council members and other community members have come forth with such productive efforts based on what they say in the city’s bicycle plan.”