Westside traffic relief coming with widening of Sawtelle

Los Angeles and Culver City road crews expect by mid-July to complete work on a new northbound left turn lane on Sawtelle Boulevard at Venice Boulevard. 

The two cities jointly received a grant from Metro for the $250,000 project at the congested corner. 

Sawtelle is being widened on the west side from Venice to 200 feet to the south. 

New left turn signals have been installed for northbound and southbound traffic on Sawtelle. The aim is to improve safety and traffic flow through the intersection.

-- Martha Groves

Comments

[stewart]

good grief martha? thats it? thats all dept of transportation dept has? oh the humanity....sawtelle a north south minor street in the face of Olympic three lanes each way Pico too? tens of thousands of commutes each day? and sawtelle holds the rosetta stone of a solution? tell me dot is not serious, that this was a typo?

[pb]

street widening will do nothing to decrease congestion!  that is all we have been doing for the past 50 years and we have more traffic than ever!  why can't people see that every time we widen a road, we just make more room for more cars?  we will never satisfy the demand for driving in LA with additional lanes -- people who are staying home because traffic is horrible will just decide to drive and clog it up again.  Or, people who have decided to take the bus because the traffic is horrible will switch back to driving.  Or, the third response to widening, is that people who were leaving work later to avoid traffic, say at 7 instead of 6, will leave earlier and just re-congest the intersection.

Widening does not bring traffic relief!  It may allow for more people to travel through an area at a certain time of day, but calling it congestion relief is completely misleading.

[TN]

Stuart,

I pity your ignorance. Sawtelle is not a "minor" street. It is a major north-south thoroughfare and a viable alternative to the 405 during rush hour between Culver City and the VA (the portion of the 405 which is usually the most clogged).

Every little bit helps. Even if it's not on your daily commute.

[Tony]

Traffic on the westside and Santa Monica is beyond repair. It was ill-advised city planning that created this mess. Where's the light rail in and out of there? Where's the light rail in and out of the airport? You've had years upon years of neglect to create this problem and widening a street is supposed to be the fix? Please. I avoid that area, including Culver City like the plague.