It's getting popular: the Crimanimalz started it, now another group of cyclists hits the freeways, this time the 101 in Silverlake to the 110 Freeway in downtown L.A. Yep, still illegal.
Our own Peter Viles has been tracking the price of a gallon of gas at his local Mobil station. How much time transpired between the photo on the left and the one on the right?
A disheartening answer (and a few more pix) at his fine blog, LA Land.
George Calvarescu bought a kayak, saw the L.A. River, had an epiphany and, 52 miles later — dressed in his business suit — the San Fernando Valley resident had paddled the L.A. River downstream to work in Long Beach. Full story in the LaLa Times.
We love those left-turn arrows when the streets are jammed and no one is going to give you a break. But it's a different story when there's no traffic and you are just sitting there itching to be released from your turn-lane prison. It's not only a time-waster but, many argue, a waste of ever more expensive gasoline. That's why some traffic experts are looking harder at adopting more "permissive" signals that give motorists more opportunities to make that left when there's no traffic around, reports the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
While restrictive left-turn arrows are considered better for traffic safety, the rising price of gas is putting more pressure to consider other options. How much time and gas do you save each time you can turn left without waiting? Probably not much. But those savings do add up on a cumulative basis. The big savings, however, are reserved for drivers who make the effort to avoid left turns, period. After changing its Southern California routes to cut down on left turns, UPS estimates it cut its fuel bill by about $1 million.
First things first -- here's a map of the red light cameras in SoCal.
So, these cameras. They're placed to catch drivers who run red lights, but it turns out they're used mostly to nab right-turn-on-red violations. Rich Connell explains how those watchful sentinels have turned into cash cows:
In Los Angeles, officials estimate that 80% of red light camera tickets go not to those running through intersections but to drivers making rolling right turns, a Times review has found. As [Porcia] London realized that day in court, her turn was illegal because she did not completely stop before turning.
One of the most powerful selling points for photo enforcement systems, which now monitor 175 intersections in Los Angeles County and hundreds more across the United States, has been the promise of reducing collisions caused by drivers barreling through red lights.
But it is the right-turn infraction -- a frequently misunderstood and less pressing safety concern -- that drives tickets and revenue in the nation's second-biggest city and at least half a dozen others across the county.
Is it worth it? Is it fair? The debate rolls on and so do the cameras, raking in millions each year. Get the details -- plus a very cool animation of how the cameras work, and downloadable camera trackers for your GPS -- in Rich's full story.
What -- you were expecting quick action? Our traffic guru, Steve Hymon, is here with how things work in the real world:
Superior Court Judge John Torribio issued a stinging ruling this morning that prevents the city of Los Angeles from going forward with a plan to make Olympic and Pico boulevards behave more like one-way streets. Torribio said that the project -- backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Jack Weiss -- needs to be extensively studied under the California Environmental Quality Act first before going forward. In other words, the city is going to have to do a lengthy impact study, which typically takes months to complete, circulate and get approved.
It's a bit of a victory for the homeowners and businesses who had sued the city to stop the plan. More info on what happens next in Steve's full story.
Now there's a SoCal question. And answers vary from the smug (work-at-home types) to the outraged (getting anywhere, almost any time, on the 10 east). Our traffic guru, Steve Hymon, ever in search of a way to ease your pain, explains why turning carpool lanes into toll lanes (a.k.a. congestion pricing) is a good thing.
Caltrans data shows that carpool lanes typically move faster than regular lanes but also suffer from congestion during rush hour.
Of course, you don't need a spreadsheet to tell you that. One recent Thursday, I drove in the 210's regular lanes from Pasadena to Upland between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. At times, I was going faster than vehicles in the carpool lane, where traffic by my count was averaging about 30 mph before speeding up east of the 57 junction.
This is where the toll comes into play. Officials say the fees (which are yet to be set) would discourage some people from using the carpool lane during rush hour and thus improve speeds to at least an average of 45 mph.
This being a topic near and dear to our automotive hearts and, readers of this blog being an opinionated bunch (comments are open but please, no cursing, name-calling or urls), I'm guessing there's lots to say.
One thing we can agree on about the Olympic/Pico one-way traffic plan: It's hard to get anyone to agree. About anything. Is it the answer to the Westside's gridlock woes? The death knell to a neighborhood? As of yesterday, the whole issue's quite probably delayed. Steve Hymon, our traffic guru, has details:
A judge issued a tentative ruling Tuesday that the city must do a thorough environmental study before turning Olympic and Pico boulevards on the Westside into virtual one-way streets.
The two-page ruling by Superior Court Judge John Torribio sets the stage for a hearing today in Norwalk where oral arguments will be heard. A business group and a homeowners group have each filed lawsuits over the proposed project.
The controversial plan is being pushed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Jack Weiss. The project would initially change the signal timing so that eastbound traffic on Pico and westbound on Olympic are given speedier commutes. Some street parking also would be removed to add a lane of traffic during rush hour.
The city has argued that the modifications to roads and traffic operations are exempt from more study under the California Environmental Quality Act. Torribio ruled otherwise, writing, "The very purpose of the project is to expand the use of the existing streets."
More -- we're betting lots more -- on this to come.
* Updated 3:48 p.m. A judge took no action this afternoon on whether the one-way street plan needs an environmental study. A ruling is expected Friday and the judge ordered that the city do no work on the project until noon Monday.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times
A 10-year-old Riversidearea boy playing in a sand pile dies after being buried.... Fire hits the intersection of Hollywood & Vine....Police allege that a Santa Ana man who drove his SUV off a cliff was trying to kill himself and the two boys he was carrying after a dispute with the boys' mother (LAT and OC Register)....Gang members wielding a skateboard beat up and robbed a Marine while walking on Redondo Beach's Esplanade.... After spending more than 30 years as a fugitive, a San Diegomother who walked away from a Detroit prison in the 1970s has finally been caught.... The owner of L'Opera and other Long Beach restaurants was tied up and robbed at his Rancho Palos Verdes home.... Avocado thieves arrested in Camarillo.... Truckers and motorists driving on the 10 Freeway in Riverside County should prepare for high winds.
A busy day for traffic guru Steve Hymon. Here he is again:
This just in from the Republic of Santa Monica: A group calling themselves the Residents' Initiative to Fight Traffic said today that they turned in 10,295 signatures to the city to qualify a November ballot measure that would limit commercial development in the city for the next 15 years.
"Out of control" is how one member of the group described development in the city-by-the-sea. Signatures still have to be counted -- and verified. The magic number: about 5,800.
Stay tuned. And in the meantime, check out the group (RIFT, get it?) at its website.
What happens when bad luck meets bad timing in Malibu? Nightmare traffic on PCH.
Here's the scene during the record-breaking heat last weekend, where thousands of hot and sweaty (and cranky) drivers inched their (cranky) way northward to a bottleneck that's not going away any time soon. Caltrans has bumped the seaside highway down to a single lane near Latigo Canyon and on weekends, beach traffic backs up for three miles. All day long.
Our road guru, Steve Hymon, found out why.
Last January, when the winter rains were upon us, a rockslide on PCH almost hit Malibu Councilman Andy Stern's car. Upon further investigation, Caltrans found the Latigo Bluffs needed to be shored up. So out came a long-reach excavator that weighs 200 tons – the only one in the state, according to Caltrans -- and work on the project began Feb. 25.
The excavator broke down. Twice. Then the project ran out of money and for a week, nothing happened. But a Caltrans spokeswoman says the cash is flowing again and PCH should return to two lanes in less than a month.
Until then, enjoy the view, crank up the radio. And please, be nice.
Several accidents on L.A. freeways and roads today left two men dead, a disabled man in San Diego was beaten to death with his own crutch, a bicyclist was shot to death near Mar Vista, a man who was cleaning his swimming pool in Vista was killed by the big rig that crashed into his yard, a kid riding a bike and hitting people with a plastic baseball bat was arrested in Canoga Park, a construction worker in Chino was hurt when he fell through the roof, a man in Lakewood was so peeved it was too late to buy beer, he drove his truck through the front of the store, police responding to a domestic dispute in Long Beach wound up shooting at the family dog, and officials of the Sheriff's Department in the O.C. are looking into whether Theo Lacy jail personnel Tasered a cat to death.
This photo of workers removing the wreckage of the small plane that crashed into a house in Compton was shot by Rick Loomis of the L.A. Times photo staff.
Homeless 17-year-old in NorCal gets perfect SAT scores. KCRA
Union City, Calif., among six cities natiowide caught shortening the time of a yellow traffic light to make it easier for you to get caught running the red -- and owe the city money. Motorists.org
Reporter from KKTV sues LAPD for treatment during last year's May Day protests. Daily Breeze
Feds say lawyers working for Michael Corona, the scandal-plagued ex-O.C. sheriff, are abusing the subpoena process by asking for files that could include nearly 30,000 pages, says the O.C. Reg blog, The Crime Scene
First case of childhood measles reported in L.A. County since 2006. LA County
Fewer students might mean fewer schools in Pico Rivera. Wave Newspapers
USC buys University and Norris Cancer hospitals from Tenet. LABJ
Why reporters get less sleep than ever. Daily Breeze
Seems officials in Beverly Hills are going to throw their weight behind a bill in the state Legislature to allow the use of cameras to catch cars breaking the speed limit, our traffic guru, Steve Hymon, reports. The bill would:
...create a pilot program allowing a marked mobile unit to set up only in school or residential neighborhoods where the speed limit is 25 mph or less. Signs would be posted to warn drivers that cameras were present, Hines said, and officers would oversee the cameras and inspect the photos before mailing them to vehicle owners with citations attached.
The cameras have been a success in other states, but visions of Big Brother have kept the program from getting off the ground here in California. And then there's the story about the guy who was caught by a camera going 147 mph because, as he later told police, he was late for work.
Traffic on the eastbound 210 Freeway is backed up through Pasadena this afternoon after an accident involving a truck had left one person dead, according to the California Highway Patrol. Television images showed burned-out portions of the big-rig, which had tumbled over the side of the road.
Only two eastbound lanes were open at Rosemead Boulevard and traffic was jammed all the way to the 134 Freeway junction as the evening commute begins. No word yet on when lanes would re-open.
They love it, they hate it, and never the twain shall meet in the matter of the Pico/Olympic one-way plan. Depending on who's talking, the scheme will either solve the West Side's traffic woes forever, or drive a stake through the heart of every business in the area. Steve Hymon has this update:
In the latest wrinkle in the city's attempt to turn Olympic and Pico boulevards into kinda sorta one-way streets, Superior Court Judge John Torribio ruled today that two lawsuits against the plan -- one from a homeowners group, the other from businesses -- can be considered as one lawsuit.
So what does that mean for Westside commuters? The city won't be doing any work to implement the plan until an April 30 hearing in court in Norwalk. The lawsuits both allege that the city was trying to ram the plan into place without doing required environmental review.
A shooting this morning has forced the closure of the eastbound lanes of the freeway near Crenshaw Boulevard. The California Highway Patrol website says traffic is being diverted off the freeway at Crenshaw. Motorists are able to get back on the eastbound freeway at Hoover Street. It might be two or three hours before the freeway is reopened, CHP officer Francisco Villalobos said.
"We received a call from the Sheriff’s Department, and they requested they close the freeway down due to an investigation related to an incident in the city of Hawthorne," Villalobos said. Times staff writer Francisco Vara-Orta is gathering more details.
* UPDATE: The shooting involved an off-duty sheriff’s deputy, who shot and wounded an individual. Officials did not say what prompted the shooting. Full story.
Perhaps it's time to change the official color of St. Patrick's Day from green to red. As in red brake lights. Red signal lights. Red faces behind steering wheels.
That's what you are seeing plenty of right now in downtown Los Angeles as a St. Patrick's Day parade has traffic jammed across the central city. One motorist (a blogger who shall remain anonymous) reports taking an hour driving up Broadway from the 10 Freeway to the Civic Center.
It's too late for her. But you might want to check the parade route to avoid running over any unlucky Irish.
If you find yourself stuck at the interchange of the 405 and 10 freeways, spend some time (since you are not going anywhere soon) to admire the long, sweeping ramps that soar overhead. This is the work of Marilyn Jorgenson Reece, the state's first licensed female civil engineer. This morning, Caltrans will honor Reece, who died in May 2004, by naming the junction the Marilyn Jorgenson Reece Memorial Interchange.
Women were still a rare sight in the engineering and architectural departments in the late 1940s, when the South Dakota native started work for the State Department of Highways (now Caltrans) as a junior engineer. But in 1954, Reece (who liked math but didn't want to teach) was the first woman to earn a California civil engineering license and later the first to design an interchange, the three-level at the intersection of the San Diego and Santa Monica freeways.
"It is very airy. It isn't a cluttered, loopy thing," she told The Times in a 1995 interview. "That was so you didn't have to slam on the brakes, like you do on some interchanges."
Of course, it now seems like brake lights illuminate Reece's interchange nearly all day as traffic congestion has grown way beyond what she and other engineers ever imagined. But there's still a simplicity and elegance of her design that led urban critic Reyner Banham, author of "Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies," to praise the interchange as "a work of art, both as a pattern on the map, as a monument against the sky, and as a kinetic experience as one sweeps through it."
Now if only this traffic gets moving and you can zoom across the carpool ramps on the Harbor-110 freeway.
The morning commute was tougher than normal in Westwood and the San Fernando Valley this morning. Sepulveda Boulevard south of Sunset Boulevard (map) remains blocked after a landslide this morning sent a portion of a backyard, trees and other debris into traffic lanes, according to Times staff.
Meanwhile, in the Valley, traffic was backed up on the westbound 101 after multiple collisions near Warner Center left the three lanes closed and several people injured, reports Tami Abdollah.
