One way: No way!

Sounds like the one-way plan for Pico and Olympic boulevard is continuing to get a cool -- or tepid -- reception out in the real world. This from the Daily Press:

A proposal to remove parking during rush hour and alter traffic lights along Pico and Olympic boulevards to favor one-way traffic flow received a cold reception by Angelenos earlier this week, who argued the plan would harm businesses on the busy corridors. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled the “Olympic West-Pico East” plan in November, an initiative that aims to alleviate congestion on the two boulevards by changing signaling patterns during peak hours so that westbound traffic is favored on Olympic and eastbound traffic flow on Pico. The proposal covers a roughly seven-mile stretch of the two streets from La Brea Avenue to the Santa Monica city border at Centinela Avenue. The changes could have an effect on traffic flow in Santa Monica as both boulevards serve as arteries for commuters coming into and out of the city. L.A. transportation officials said they are working with city planners in Santa Monica to ensure a smooth transition. Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, who represents West Los Angeles, where the majority of congestion is concentrated, held a town hall meeting with residents and city planners on Wednesday evening, a night when many Westsiders complained that city officials should instead save taxpayer’s money and synchronize signalization and keep street parking intact.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? SPEAK OUT!

Photo: LAT

Comments

[E.]

This is only a band-aide solution, at best. And temporary. While there is no silver bullet that will solve all of our traffic problems, what we definitely need are options. Currently, our only option is to drive. We need more options! We NEED a subway line running through the west side, and even then, only a Wilshire route is not enough, but it is a start. We need a network of public transportation that does not use surface streets (ie buses or surface street light rail), thus competing with automobile traffic. We should follow Denver's lead and start public-private partnerships to get the ball rolling, otherwise we'll never have the funding needed.

[Harold L. Katz]

Having spent over 37 years working on traffic and public transportation matters, and having attended Jack Weiss' Olympic/Pico Committee meetings and this weeks community meeting sponsored by the Westside Neighborhood Council, my conclusion is save the money. Presenters always follow the politically correct protocol and no one appears to want to face the truth about the Westside.

I don't know how many people attended Councilman Rosendahl’s meeting, but I estimate that there were between 100-150 people at the WNC’s community meeting. Even if there were twice that number, it is an infinitesimal percentage of the people in community, yet it is there comments which are taken to represent the tens of thousands of members of the silent majority.

The representative of DOT said that the plan is designed to protect the neighborhood streets, which means it is dead before it even starts. He suggests that people exiting Century City will drive East on Pico to San Vicente and then turn South to pick up the Santa Monica Freeway going East, and those going West will drive West on Olympic to Centinela and pick up the SMF at that point. That is like saying that water will not find the shortest route to where it wants to go.

The Westside traffic capacity was not designed for the development that has taken place over the last 40 to 50 years, yet every attempt to improve traffic is met with the cry that increased capacity will bring more development. That song was sung the other night when someone said the proposed improvements will bring more development. In a moment of political incorrectness the representative from DOT pointed out that development will come with or without this improvement.

The first thing that we have to do is redefine the term “quality of life.” We are never going to enjoy the 1950s, 1970s or 1990s again, and we better face that truth. The fact is that some people will give up in disgust and move out of the Westside, only to be replaced by people who love what the Westside has to offer.

For those that are not up on their history, I moved into Century City in 1966. I befriended the executives from ALCOA that owned all of Century City at that time. They had been promised the Beverly Hills Freeway and a Subway. They had planned a Subway station in the parking garage of the Twin Towers. Neither was built and the blame can be apportioned partially between Beverly Hills, and in great part to the NIMBYs of that era who felt that those two improvements would bring more development.

Why do we have so much development on the Westside? Many would like to blame the developers but that is not true. Developers could not build if there were no demand for what they build. Where does this demand come from? It comes from the owners of businesses and professional offices who live on the Westside and want to have their businesses near their homes.

I could go on and on, but I will close with this comment, in order to save many of the neighborhood streets, some streets are going to have to be designed to carry North/South traffic. Motor has to be reopened to what it was. The people suffering the most are the people who live off of Motor who cannot get in and out of their homes due to the traffic mitigation installations. The same is true regarding East/West. As to Olympic/Pico, during the periods that there are no parking restrictions, permit parking on surrounding neighborhood streets must be relaxed to allow the customers of the business to park while they go into the stores. Of course this is a politically incorrect suggestion.

The end result will be we will do nothing and traffic will get even worse than it is now. The other day my wife and I were trying to get to an appointment with her doctor and while we left 50 minutes to make a 20 minute trip, half way there we called the doctor and told him we couldn’t make it in time and he couldn’t stay late. That is our future until control shifts from those that oppose everything to those who apply logic to problems. It will take hundreds if not thousands of different improvements to stay ahead of the curve.

The population of the East side is going to continue to grow, while the jobs on the Westside will continue to grow. The Westside now has only 60,000 less jobs then downtown and downtown has every railhead ending at or near Union Station. The Westside has none, even the Exposition Line was broken into two phases to protect a few homeowners who didn’t want trains running on the tracks that have been behind their homes since before their homes were built.

Good luck!

[Kate]

I don't support the plan. The two streets are too far apart in many cases for this to be practical. The impact on the smaller residential streets in between will be awful. And what about bus commuters?

[Wilshire & Bundy]

here we go again. everyone wants something to be done about traffic but they don't want to be the one who makes a change. everyone else in the city should do something to make my commute easier, right?

[MRS-MAN]

It is much easier to synchronize traffic lights in one direction than it is to do it in two directions. (In many cases two-way streets cannot be synchronized unless the lights are a certain distance apart.) My own understanding of the plan is to synchronize the lights on Pico eastbound and synchronize the lights on Olympic westbound. Two-way traffic will probably still be allowed on each street (to accommodate short trips and buses).

Is Beverly Hills on board with the one-way synchronization? Currently, the slowest stretch of Olympic is through Beverly HIlls.

The only thing that will impact businesses in the first two phases is the parking restriction. Olympic has a rush hour parking restriction in place from Downtown to Sepulveda. Pico has a rush hour parking restriction from Beverwil to Sepulveda. The DOT will just extend the parking restriction to La Brea and Centinela so that each street will have 3 through lanes in each direction, through the zone during rush hours.

There are many other streets that already have a rush hour restriction, and businesses have adjusted. E.g. La Brea Ave, Sunset Blvd. (between Vermont and Crescent Heights), Wilshire Blvd (from Downtown through Beverly Hills), Western Ave, Vermont Ave, and many other main business streets.

I think this should be tried, it may produce some amount of relief.

[Pico commuter]

I definitely support the plan. Right now, commuting on Pico or Olympic in the evening is ridiculous. Sometimes you have three lanes, sometimes you have two. Then there are people double-parked or holding up traffic while they wait for the valet or a parking space outside the kosher market. Traffic comes to a standstill because one person doesn't feel like pulling all the way next to the curb so grandpa can get in. Even if they don't change the parking restrictions, the no double-parking restrictions need to be strictly enforced! You can't stop and wait for five minutes for someone to come out of the store!