Nick Roman
November 26, 2007
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The City of L.A. today outlined a new plan that promises to cut seven minutes from the commute along two of the city's busiest east-west streets: Olympic and Pico Boulevards. Seven minutes doesn't sound like much, but to anyone who drives across Los Angeles during rush hour, seven minutes can be an eternity. KPCC's Nick Roman says the plan won't get you from here to eternity, just across town a little faster.
Nick Roman: First of all: The "Olympic West-Pico East Initiative" does not mean the City of L.A. plans to turn about six miles of those two busy boulevards into one-way streets. That would move traffic faster. But when planners have floated that idea, it's gotten the folks who live along the side streets fighting mad. They say drivers who want to travel one direction on a street that goes the other way will cut through their neighborhoods to turn around. L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss says that won't happen with this initiative. Traffic will move and the neighbors will stay happy.
Councilman Jack Weiss: The proposal will turn Pico and Olympic into virtual one-way streets with actual results for our commuters, while at the same time protecting our residential neighborhoods.
Roman: Here's how the City of L.A.'s Transportation department will turn Olympic and Pico into "virtual" one-way streets along the few dozen blocks between La Brea and Centinela:
Come January, there'll be no more rush-hour parking on Olympic or Pico. Next up, in February or maybe March: a little tweak of the traffic signals. The green lights on Olympic will be timed to favor westbound traffic. Headed east? Then Pico's your choice. Its green lights will be timed to move eastbound.
Those two steps – no rush-hour parking and the synchronized traffic signals – will speed up the traffic flow across L.A. by about six miles an hour. At least, that's what Mayor Villaraigosa's office predicts. It'll cost about $600,000. But another mayor, Jimmy Delshad of Beverly Hills, says it could save a few million headaches.
Mayor Jimmy Delshad: Seventy-three percent of our traffic that goes through Beverly Hills is a pass-through traffic. Those are not the traffic that are coming to stay in Beverly Hills or initiating in Beverly Hills. If we don't help that traffic move on faster, go to the Downtown or go to the beach, Beverly Hills is choking. We are choking already on many, many areas. So, smart traffic lights, it's something that I've been talking for a long, long time. And I'm happy to see the City of Los Angeles and the councilmen are in favor of that.
Roman: Not everyone is in favor. The rush-hour parking restrictions could hurt businesses along Olympic and Pico. It'll certainly be tougher for customers to shop at stores in the middle of a block. But UCLA urban planner Brian Taylor told KPCC's Patt Morrison that businesses don't own the pavement along the curb.
Brian Taylor: These rights-of-way are incredibly important public resources. And the idea that we have to reserve eight feet of that on either side as a place for businesses to have customers, when on a block you typically have about eight parking spaces in parallel parking – it's not a very effective use of really scarce resources.
Roman: If the first two steps in the "Olympic West-Pico East" plan work, then it's on to Step Three: more westbound lanes on Olympic and eastbound lanes on Pico.
