Palms to Santa Monica in only 30 minutes! -- and more on Measure R

On a couple of recent occasions, I've asked readers whose traffic bites the most -- the eastern half of Los Angeles County or the Westside? After all, opponents of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase to battle traffic in Los Angeles County, are saying it's weighted in favor of the Westside.

In response, I received this e-mail today with the above photo of traffic on Overland Boulevard attached from reader Lorelei Laird of Palms:

I normally work at home, but I had to be in Santa Monica at nine on Wednesday morning and failed to plan for the traffic. Since I was stuck in it anyway, I thought I could at least take some pics illustrating the need for [a] light rail along the Interstate 10 corridor. (Since the sight of all those cars was so depressing, I figured it was better to take a picture than describe the parking-lot-like conditions with words.)

These pics were taken on Overland Avenue between Palms Boulevard and National Boulevard. The cars are heading for the 10 entrance on Overland and National. I'd estimate that it took me 15-20 minutes to get from my home to the entrance, a trip that I can make in three minutes without traffic. Once on the highway, I was lucky enough to be going west.

Her total travel time from Palms to Santa Monica ended up being 30 minutes for a 6.5-mile trip. Laird, a freelance writer, said she's voting for Measure R because she believes that more rail transportation is needed to get people around.

I spent a good chunk of Wednesday in the San Gabriel Valley talking to voters. Most agreed that while traffic in the valley was no picnic, traffic west of downtown L.A. had reached truly epic proportions.

Here's a quote from Paul Kirby, who lives in San Dimas and owns the Train Stop, a model railroading shop in downtown San Dimas:

A few weeks ago we had to go to Marina del Rey on a Friday night for a birthday party. I've got two hours to get from here to there. About one hour and 45 minutes into it, I'm thinking I'm not going to make this birthday party.

We get on the San Bernardino Freeway and it was bumper-to-bumper. Then we get on the Santa Monica Freeway and it's bumper-to-bumper. And we get on the 405 freeway and it's bumper-to-bumper. I told my friend when we finally got there that if you have another birthday party, don't do it on a Friday night or start it later so I've got three hours to get there.

San Dimas is about 48 miles from the Marina, by the way.

As for Measure R, Kirby is undecided. He has concerns, like most people I spoke with, on how the money will be spent.

I also spoke to Claremont Mayor Ellen Taylor earlier today. She recently wrote a scathing opinion piece against Measure R that ran in the papers in the San Gabriel Valley. She doesn't believe the Gold Line Foothill Extension receives enough funds in the spending plan to get it to Claremont and Montclair -- the plan guarantees it $735 million -- and, equally important, she doesn't believe the money that the Gold Line is promised would arrive in any kind of timely fashion.

I posed this traffic question to her: What's it like in the Valley these days? Her answer:

It's miserable. I’ve lived in Claremont for 30 years and traffic has gotten much worse -- to the point that we don’t go into L.A. anymore. That’s not good for me. I like a full life where you experience stuff. We’ll go to a concert on Sunday afternoon [in Los Angeles] rather than Saturday night because it’s easier to get in and out...

We’re like the bologna  in the bread here. And they keep building. You take the 210 east and all you see is roofs and they’re building them without building the infrastructure.

That's a fascinating quote. Why? In early 2007, Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote a piece about how bad Westside traffic is, with quotes from one resident saying they too no longer tried to attend cultural events in downtown L.A. (The Lopez column led to the creation of the Bottleneck Blog). Taylor is essentially saying the same thing, but from the other side of Los Angeles County.

I think the quote that struck me the most about traffic came from David Aure, 24, who I spoke to a Chevron station in Walnut. He commutes about 75 minutes each way to Burbank for his job and said that generally speaking the traffic worsens as he goes west. He said he was likely voting for Measure R because, at this point, any new money for transportation would be helpful.

What about the squabbling, I asked him, between politicians on both sides of the county over the sales-tax increase?

"You can't look at the small picture," he said.

-- Steve Hymon

Photo: Lorelei Laird

A few ideas to deconstipate Westside traffic

I had breakfast last week with David Grannis, an urban planner recently hired by the California Community Foundation for a not-so-simple job: get Westside traffic moving again.

(correction: an earlier version of this post said the money came from the California Endowment.)

As anyone knows who has set tire onto the Westside the last few years, that's kind of like telling someone to put all the sand back into the ocean. It's kind of hard.

Nonetheless, Grannis is optimistic that a few simple steps could work. Like others who have been around Los Angeles a while, he recalls how a regional effort kept traffic flowing during the 1984 Olympics -- an effort that could work again if enough people tried.

"If you think about it, we haven't done anything different in 40 years," said Grannis, the president and CEO of Planning Company Associates. "We're organizing ourselves on a 1950s model" -- in other words, all getting up and going to work each day.

Grannis is still putting the finishing touches on his report, but he has begun to go public with some of his findings. He's looking mostly at the area north of the Santa Monica Freeway, east of the 405 and west of either Robertson or La Cienega, the idea being to find a few short-term fixes.

Here are three that I think are the most interesting:

1. Get employers to offer shuttle bus service for employees. Grannis says that his study reveals that a very high number of employees on the Westside actually live within five miles of their job. To help do this, Grannis proposes the parking tax be raised in Los Angeles with the increment -- the difference between the old tax and new one -- used to help employers get their buses rolling.

"The pitch I'm going to make is that government is not going to solve this all by themselves," Grannis said, adding that employer-operated bus services are common in the Bay Area. "These guys don't wait. They do something about it."

I mentioned to him that Century City is a little different -- there is no Google (which runs buses). Grannis said that's no big deal. Different employers could band together to offer bus service.

He also had another interesting idea: Use the old Exposition rail right-of-way to run electric shuttle buses for employers. He chafed at my description of that plan as a busway -- as I called it two weeks ago -- and said it's an interim step intended to help employers move employees through the Westside's high-tech corridor.

Expo right-of-way: should it be a busway?

There has been a steady flow of traffic studies lately from various groups. The latest comes from David Grannis, of Planning Company Associates, who tomorrow morning will talk about a study he did on Westside traffic. The study was requested by Councilman Jack Weiss, whose district includes much of the Westside. The study looks at short-term fixes that can be done in the next five to 10 years to improve traffic in the area bounded by the 405, Robertson and/or La Cienega boulevards, the Santa Monica Freeway and Wilshire Boulevard.

In my view, the most eyebrow-raising part of the study is Grannis' recommendation that the MTA-owned right-of-way from Culver City to Santa Monica -- which the MTA may use for Phase II of the Expo Line between Culver City and Santa Monica -- be used as a busway.

Among Grannis' other suggestions: push employers on the Westside to offer more shuttles for workers, since many workers live within five miles of their jobs; try to better manage the flow of cars trying to cram onto the freeways at the same time; and use more managed lanes during peak times (i.e. contra laws and transit-alone lanes).

Grannis is presenting his ideas at a breakfast meeting tomorrow sponsored by the Los Angeles Business Council. It will be interesting to see what, if any, Weiss pushes in the next few months. Weiss is running for city attorney in March and if he wins will leave leave the council at the end of June. It will fun, too, to see how the candidates to replace Weiss -- most of whom have provided few fleshed-out details on what they'd do about traffic -- think of Grannis' work.

The report isn't complete yet; Grannis is only previewing it tomorrow. When it's done, I'll try to get a copy to post here or at least provide a link to it.

--Steve Hymon

Breaking: Delay on Pico/Olympic plan

The city of Los Angeles has agreed to delay for three weeks a plan to try to speed up traffic on Olympic and Pico boulevards on the Westside, according to the office of the city attorney. Implementation of the plan, proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was supposed to begin March 8.

Two groups filed individual suits last week to stop the plan, which they allege was not properly studied under California environmental law. The groups — the Westwood South of Santa Monica Boulevard Homeowners Assn. and the Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce — fear that the plan will actually put more cars on both streets and affect businesses and residences.

The city’s plan is to synchronize traffic signals to give an advantage to westbound traffic on Olympic and eastbound traffic on Pico. In addition, the city wants to eliminate most street parking on both streets during the morning and afternoon rush hours to give an extra lane to vehicles.

— Steve Hymon

Fixes coming to Wilshire

Transit officials are working on a $35-million package of street improvements along Wilshire Boulevard to speed buses along one of the city’s most heavily traveled corridor.

With dedicated right-turn lanes that would allow buses to travel faster in the curb lanes, better traffic signal priority for rapid buses and just smoothing rough concrete on some blocks, transit officials believe they can cut 20 minutes off the ride from Santa Monica to downtown L.A.

MTA officials say they haven’t given up hopes of building a bus-only lane down Wilshire (remember that idea). In fact, they are trying to expand it in a few spots where gridlock prevails. But they will need the city of L.A.’s approval to proceed.

--Jean Guccione

What do you think? Will $35 million help Wilshire? Hit COMMENT and speak your mind!