Not sold on one-way

It looks like the concerns about the one-way Pico/Olympic plan extend beyond Pico-Union and Beverly Hills. The Times' Jean Guccione reports city officials got a earful from merchants in Koreatown:

On Wednesday, about 40 business owners and residents of Koreatown urged council members to reject Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's one-way street proposal. "People are afraid and concerned about quality of life," said Grace Yoo, executive director of the Korean American Coalition. She predicted that motorists would speed through the corridor, endangering children and elderly pedestrians. "It has never worked," said resident Julia Son, referring to previous attempts to change the direction of major thoroughfares in the city. She demanded that officials try other measures for reducing traffic congestion. (LAT photo)

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Comments

[calwatch]

The main benefit with one way streets is that you can time the flow easily. If you time the lights at 35 mph, pretty soon people are going to understand that you are not going anywhere faster by speeding. Thus, it actually REDUCES speeders because they are ultimately punished by hitting red lights.

[Freshy]

Traffic is what seriously denigrates quality of life in Los Angeles. Maybe if we could get to Koreatown from the Westside she'd actually see some new customers.

[Kyle J]

"She predicted that motorists would speed through the corridor"

Isn't that the whole point of the project?? The city is desperately in need of more efficient streets, this is a cheap solution. The residents should be pushing for better pedestrian measures, crosswalks, footbridges as part of the project because this is something that benefits literally everyone.

[Kyle J]

"She predicted that motorists would speed through the corridor"

Isn't that the whole point of making these streets one-way? The city should include some more pedestrian friendly crossings along with this work (maybe pedestrian bridges), and while the concerns of a few neighbors should clearly be addressed, L.A. is really hurting and this is a cheap and efficient way to improve traffic flow, which benefits literally everyone in the city.

[Sheila Goldberg]

Instead of spending money on more studies why not spend the money to speed the finishing of existing projects? Such as construction of the 405 and many street projects. ( some of these projects take years to complete. Remember how fast the 10 Freeway was repaired after the Earthquake?)More left turn signals? All we hear about is how much they cost but everyone knows they are needed. I doubt that business people will object to this. Many cars are not even ticketed when parked in the NO Parking area during peak hours.
Increase money for tow trucks duirng peak hours-especially for the freeways where accidents some times take an hour or more to clear.
Should UPS and FEDEX be allowed to double park on streets during peak hours? Do the police really need to block an entire traffic lane when they stop cars?