New effort at unjamming roads

The Times' Greg Griggs reports that two Ventura County cities are considering a new -- and radical -- attempt to reduce gridlock. The rules would limit new commercial and residential development near busy intersections until existing traffic problems could be resolved:

Concerned that their suburban lifestyle is being threatened, residents in Ventura County's two largest cities are hoping to put the brakes on traffic generated by future development with two separate ballot initiatives. Oxnard activists turned in petitions last week for a proposed measure that would limit new commercial and residential development near busy intersections until existing traffic problems could be resolved. "Our roadways simply can't handle the number of people on them," said Councilman Tim Flynn, one of the architects of the Oxnard Traffic Initiative. "The public is totally frustrated." In Thousand Oaks, professional petition gatherers are collecting signatures for an initiative that would subject a second Home Depot store and any new retail project of 75,000 square feet or more to a public vote if the project would increase traffic -- despite road improvements. The campaign is largely driven by a competitor of the retail giant but is garnering support from some residents and city officials.

Comments

[Cathy]

Dan,

You may be attacking the wrong people. The politicians have diverted funding from transit projects and delayed projects for years and yet they are in bed with the developers. Luxury condos and apartments (with plenty of parking places) are going up with no delay. Some people can see this and simply want to see development cut back until we actually get some transit
projects in place.

Look at a map of bike paths in LA, and look at Hollywood. There are a few painted bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd in WeHo and down Sunset in Silverlake, nothing contiguous throughout Hollywood. The closest thing to me is a "bike route" down Fountain. Fountain is a death trap.

Extensions to the Red Line will take years. I want a station at Fairfax and Santa Monica, but I know you think the Wilshire corridor should come first. Every transfer costs time and money.

The MTA has been poorly managed for years. Buses are the transportation of last resort, for the poor and anyone who can't drive. The buses break down, sometimes they don't even run, and if they do, they get stuck in the unmanageable traffic.

I live in Hollywood and have no plans to move to the suburbs. I walk as much as I can. I desperately want to get out of my car permanently -now. Please tell me where I can find reliable, safe transportation to work and back now, in my lifetime.

All I am saying is lets get some reliable public transportation in place before the situation gets any worse. I support higher density housing and know it is inevitable. But this is being used an excuse right now for the developers to swoop in and make giant profits at our expense.

[traffique]

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[TrafficBulldog]

This is interesting.

They are going to short circuit growth of their tax base instead of carpool.

Hmm.

Oh I get it. The cities are within the county. And the county is responsible for carpool matching services.... and they are raiding the Riverside budget for carpooling.

OK, I approve of this plan. Hold the County Tax receipts hostage until the Ventura County MTA starts actually supporting peoples ability to form carpools. Cause it is their baby.

http://trafficbulldog.org is a commuter advocacy group committed to helping people form carpools. Please join the conversation.

[Cathy]

Congrats to the leaders in TO and Oxnard for having more brains than the local pols. I was just reading about the latest project in WeHo over the Palms restaurant, luxury condos with "valet parking" . Obviously the new owners won't be taking the bus! More development, more density, but no improvement in roads, no more buses, no trains on the horizon. Why not make the developers build public parking structures at least and then prohibit street parking?
Maybe Hollywood should militarize its borders with WeHo and just keep the traffic out.

[Dan W.]

If things are getting that bad in Ventura County, it is incredibly frustrating to listen to people still living in 1977, still pining for how great their neighborhoods "used to be" several decades ago, or who suffer from the delusion that their low-density, car-based lifestyle is sustainable in every neighborhood in Los Angeles at the same quality.

Los Angeles is NOT a suburb, especially if you live between Downtown, the Hollywood Hills and the 10 Freeway, or in the Southeast San Fernando Valley. If someone wants a low-density, car-friendly, suburban lifestyle, that is great. That person will have to MOVE to suburbs like Simi Valley, Whittier and Torrance or father out to do it, and with even increasing difficulty there.

NIMBYs must no longer be able to sabotage the common good for the rest of the city anymore by resisting needed transit projects. Modifications are one thing, thwarting and permanently delaying through obstructionism is another. The planning and building of the Wilshire Blvd. subway was delayed for 20-years because of NIMBYs, the Orange Line started as a busway rather than rail because of NIMBYs and NIMBYs are also fighting the Expo Line. Enough!!!

On the other hand, single-occupancy motorists with a sense of entitlement to drive and park, quickly, affordably, anytime, anyplace, anywhere in Los Angeles, must also be told the car-based way of life they've grown accustomed to is not sustainable either economically or environmentally at the same level of quality and efficiency, and will only continue to decline in quality over the next few decades, and there is nothing Caltrans or the MTA can do to change that basic fact, but slow the rate of decline.

Both motorists and the residents who want development stopped in order to preserve past levels of traffic are equally delusional. 4 million people additional are coming to Los Angeles here over the next few decades, and they are going vertically on top of where existing people are now for the limits of sprawl have been reached.

Los Angeles is changing to become like every other metropolitan city in the world -- vertical and dense, and requires a massive investment in its public transit infrastructure with the same scale and scope over the next fifty years that freeways were built in the past 50 years..

Many of the people nostaligically holding on to the past and to their mythological car-based, suburban-in-the-city, lifestyles that they've grown up with or seen on television will resent it, even try to fight it, but the future is coming anyway.

The only question is whether we plan for it and give adequate alternatives for those who want to or are willing to get out of their cars can do it, so that L.A. can remain economically and environmentally sustainable. No one will be forced to change their lifestyle or will able to use transit to commute because the nature of their job. However, many will no doubt choose to because drivng to certain parts of the city will just no longer be affordable in time or money, or simply worth the hassle -- just like every other major metropolis on the planet.

In addition to huge investment in heavy, light and commuter rail, rapid and local bus, bike and pedestrian paths, one way streets need to be seriously considered. In addition to Olympic & Pico, Los Angeles should be looking at other one-way street "pairs". Melrose and Beverly perhaps? Fairfax and LaBrea? These specific pairings are not recommendations, but just an acknowledgment that the Los Angeles of the future is going to look very different than the Los Angeles we've seen on television and in the movies for the last 50 years.