Which Way, LA?
No this doesn't refer to the fabulous Warren Olney radio program of the same name but the latest silliness around traffic issues in Los Angeles.Zev wants to make Pico and Olympic one way streets so folks on the Westside can get to the Hollywood Bowl in time.
But neighbors and Zuma Dogg's favorite Clowncilman, Tom LeBong are opposed to it.
LeBong does support however the notion of a dedicated rapid bus lane on Wilshire Boulevard. Zuma Dogg's other favorite Councilman Bill Rosendahl however is opposed to the bus lane, but only in his district.
Labels: bill rosendahl, olympic blvd, pico blvd, tom labonge, traffic, transportation, zev yarovslasky
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 5/02/2007 12:30:00 AM
12 Comments:
We should definitely adopt the dedicated bus lane ASAP.
As for the one-way streets, let's TRY IT. Worst-case scenario: it doesn't work, and we go back to two-way streets. We need more action, less "analysis paralysis."
Moore's right on this one; time to stop talking about it and JUST DO IT.
It is an idea whose time has come.
Wow! Actual debate by Tom LeBong in City Council! And here I thought his office was completely ceremonial!
I agree that one way streets on Pico and Wilshire would improve the quality and productivity of the City by improving the system.
Of course one way streets are more efficient. Less left turns against traffic is one benefit.
I was opposed to this primarily cause Zev brought it up, but seriously cause of my concern of the impact on the local community, especially businesses.
But if that can be mitigated and I'd to hear more from Solomon, its worth a try.
In the Valley you could do this with Victory and Vanowen I think. They're both wide streets, they both traverse the length of the Valley and they're close enough together.
We also have to look at some east-west throughfare between Ventura and Victory as an alternate to the 101. None of the major east west streets south of Victory in the east valley run through to the west other than a portion of Burbank Blvd. Perhaps the Woodland Hills portion of Burbank Blvd. could be connected to the Tarana portion by means of a tunnel like in Boston.
Its good to see that people are getting involved.....a letter to your counciman/woman would make a big difference....
I know there is money to be made by constructing the subway to the sea and LaBong's proposed "light rail" project (a different plan than the proposed SCAG high speed project). So that's three projects that may, or may not happen. And if any of them do, how many years till they are completed and running? Ten years from today? Twenty? None of these rail projects and other "proposed" lines are anything more than "George Jetson, pie-in-the-sky."
So HELL YEAH...make the "poor man's subway to the sea" with this one way street proposal. Because although Councilmember Labong may have some concerns representing his side of the issue -- the need to address the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM (according to a recent survey printed in all the papers) -- TRAFFIC -- and the fact that we need to move the lower income, and hopefully middle income people, to and from their jobs -- and helping to ease traffic nightmares for the other folks, outweighs the other concerns (that may or may not even be vaild.)
BUILD THE "POORMAN'S SUBWAY TO THE SEA, Y'ALL...AND EVERYONE ELSE CAN WAIT FOR THE REAL ONE.
Another thing we need to use is reversible lanes. We had that in D.C. a million years ago when I was in law school.
Some streets get more traffic in one direction during the morning rush hour and, correspondingly, more in the opposite direction in the evening. With reversible lanes, one or two lanes "switch" direction depending on the time of day.
We just need to make sure drivers understand how it works before they slam into one another!
And when you start driving in DC you learn that at 4:00PM EVERYTHING GOES THE OTHER WAY.The first time you turn left into 8 lanes of traffic,,,you learn to read the signs...quick...
Never mind the Subway to the sea, Zuma... there is already an existing right of way (above-ground) on Exposition which, if memory serves me correctly, used to terminate in Venice by way of the City of Santa Monica. It was an old Pacific Electric right of way named the Santa Monica Air Line.
I would suggest that instead of a subway, the above-ground light rail be put back into service using the existing right of way.
As for one-way streets, Main Street has been one-way for quite a few years, and drivers still make mistakes by driving south on the north-flowing Main Street. You'd be surprised at the number of drivers who do that! The City could take in a lot of money issuing citations to wrong-way drivers just on Main Street alone!
stephen,
shhhhhh!!!! there's no money to be made using an existing rail system...the money is in building a new one.
and by the way...who's frontier building supply? i hear it's a great place to get you high density condo construction supplies. i'm thinking of building a condo, but don't want to use home depot. i wanna use a local family owned buisness. does anyone know who owns them. it's in the valley.
Yeah, but the rail system doesn't exist anymore. Check out the grade crossing near Exposition and Vermont just west of the 110 freeway.
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