{"id":51832,"date":"2025-11-13T21:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/51832\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T21:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:19:11","slug":"why-the-65m-studebaker-road-transformation-project-is-important-for-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/51832\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the $65M Studebaker Road Transformation Project Is important for Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared in LongBeachize<\/a>. It is reprinted with permission.<\/p>\n

Stretching over five miles from\u00a02nd Street to Carson Street,\u00a0the\u00a0$65M Studebaker Road Transformation Project<\/a>\u00a0has officially broken ground. And with that, it is set to become one of Long Beach\u2019s most ambitious and meaningful infrastructure upgrades in decades. More than a facelift, it\u2019s a rethinking of what a major corridor can be. Safer for people. Greener for the planet. And smarter for the city\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

For generations, Studebaker has acted as a barrier more than a bridge: Wide lanes. Speeding traffic. Uneven sidewalks\u2026 It all makes it a street people drove through, not one they drove along. This project flips that logic.<\/p>\n

\"\"An aerial shot of Studebaker Road where it meets Los Coyotes Diagonal. Courtesy of the City of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Guided by the City\u2019s\u00a0Safe Streets\u00a0and\u00a0Complete Streets\u00a0initiatives, the redesign will narrow conflicts between cars, bikes, and pedestrians. It will (hopefully) lower speeds. And it will all be woven in greenery and gathering spaces. That means\u00a0protected bike lanes. ADA-compliant sidewalks and ramps. Safer school crossings\u00a0with flashing beacons and bulb-outs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of street design that quite literally saves lives, particularly for the students and families who travel the corridor daily to places like\u00a0McBride High School,\u00a0Tincher Prep, and\u00a0Cal State Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\"\"Reconfigured Studebaker Road and Los Coyotes Diagonal intersection concept. Courtesy of the City of Long Beach.Studebaker: A street soon to be for people\u2014not just cars<\/p>\n

This is Long Beach\u2019s\u00a0longest corridor transformation ever, and more than a dozen funding sources are powering it. From the\u00a0Federal Highway Administration\u00a0to local\u00a0Measure M\u00a0and\u00a0Measure A\u00a0dollars, it totals nearly\u00a0$65M. The project will resurface the roadway, add fiber-optic infrastructure for faster digital connectivity, and plant over\u00a0100 new trees\u00a0and\u00a02,000 shrubs\u00a0to cool the corridor and filter stormwater.<\/p>\n

\"\"Studebaker Road and Spring Street intersection concept art. Courtesy of the City of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the street-level vision that makes it transformative. Along\u00a0Loynes Drive, the existing bike lanes will evolve into\u00a0Class IV protected bikeways, buffered by physical barriers rather than paint. North of 2nd Street, a new\u00a0bi-directional Class I shared path\u00a0will let cyclists and pedestrians move comfortably away from traffic. Bollard lighting will illuminate the route while minimizing light pollution near protected wetlands\u2014proof that safety and sustainability can coexist.<\/p>\n

This is what an urban future looks like when it prioritizes movement for all\u2014students walking to school, seniors rolling to the library, cyclists commuting to work, families heading to\u00a0El Dorado Park\u00a0or\u00a02nd & PCH.<\/p>\n

\"\"Concept art shows how Studebaker will look at its 2nd Street intersection. Courtesy of the City of Long Beach.Creating a corridor that connects rather than divide.<\/p>\n

When construction wraps in late 2026, the Studebaker corridor will no longer be a line of separation but a\u00a0living connector. With\u00a0safer intersections,\u00a0smart traffic signals,\u00a0expanded bus shelters, and\u00a0tree-lined medians, it will be a place where you can walk, ride, roll, or drive without fear of the 45-mph chaos that has long defined the route.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a model for what\u2019s coming. As part of\u00a0the City\u2019s\u00a0Elevate \u201928 Infrastructure Plan<\/a>, the project pairs beauty with practicality\u2014reducing emissions, improving access, and physically linking key destinations like\u00a0Long Beach City College,\u00a0Cal State Long Beach, and\u00a0Alamitos Bay.<\/p>\n

Urbanist by design and humanist in execution, the Studebaker Road Transformation proves that the future of Long Beach mobility isn\u2019t about moving faster\u2014it\u2019s about moving better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article first appeared in LongBeachize. It is reprinted with permission. Stretching over five miles from\u00a02nd Street to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-51832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}