LOS ANGELES — Metro approved Open Streets funding grants Thursday with a reduction of up to 20% for some long-standing Open Streets events.

Metro’s Open Streets initiatives, which started in 2013, temporarily close streets to automobile traffic and open them to cyclists, pedestrians and other modes of non-motorized transportation in an effort to find “innovative ways to encourage mode shift to sustainable modes of transportation, reduce traffic congestion, achieve economic and public health improvement.”

“The approved increased in annual funding, together with staff’s recommendation to partially fund (at 80%) the longstanding events that had received Open Streets funding for five or more events prior to this Cycle, allowed Metro to fund 16 Open Streets activities vs. 13 previously,” Metro said in a statement.