Aug 3
10 boring things we need to change
Before your eyes glaze over, I’ll get straight to the point: there are archaic, boring things that cities like Los Angeles do on autopilot that negatively impact our lives. And because they’re so pedantic, they’re mostly ignored and carry on wreaking havoc.
1 —Stop street dedications. Did you know that in the City of Los Angeles, if an older home (or apartment building) is demolished and replaced with a newer one, the city requires the developer to “dedicate” a portion of the street, widening the street for more car capacity? Not only does this make the housing cost more than it needs to, but it results in absurd looking streets like this block of Martel between Waring and Willoughby; it also is dangerous as cars are weaving in and out of the meandering design. The idea is that, over time, eventually all streets will be widened in Los Angeles. But wider streets lead to more speeding and often destroy mature trees and pedestrian space in the process. They also endanger pedestrians by making them cross a wider street, and be at risk in an intersection for longer.
2 — Repurpose center turn lanes. In the 70s, in an effort to increase car capacity and minimize crashes, L.A. decided to paint center turn lanes everywhere possible. But we know because of induced demand, creating more car space just leads to more cars driving. And in residential parts of the city, these center turn lanes are especially useless. Maybe a driver uses them once or twice an hour, but if we repurposed the center turn lane space for bike lanes, hundreds or thousands of people per hour could use the space, and we’d give people more transportation options.
3 — Use repaving to add tree space. When Los Angeles repaves its streets, it usually just puts the street back the way it was. But given climate change and the city’s lack of shade for pedestrians, it’s missing an opportunity. We should be using repaving as an opportunity to convert a few spaces per block to space for trees. Trees improve aesthetics, help prevent soil erosion, and add oxygen. They also provide shade to people biking and on foot.
4 — Eliminate peak hour parking restrictions. Many streets in Los Angeles restrict street parking during morning and evening rush hour to add another lane for cars, and increase car capacity. This policy is short sighted. For one, peak hour parking restrictions are dangerous and actually lead to more crashes compared to streets that don’t have the restrictions. They also take away valuable space that could be used for a better cause. When we design our street capacity for rush hour, but most of the day isn’t rush hour, the street is “overbuilt” for the needs 20 hours a day, and is clogged 4 hours a day. A far better use of space would be to repurpose the lane for either dedicated bus lanes or protected bike lanes, which would benefit people 24/7, and encourage more non-car options to get around.
5 —Stop having to prove a stop sign is needed. Across Los Angeles, there is inconsistent treatment of 4-way stop signs; some blocks have them, while some don’t. When 4-way stop signs aren’t continuous, they lead to speeding, since drivers have more distance to cover between having to stop. Like in San Francisco, L.A. should have 4-way stops at all residential intersections. This would slow speeding cars down while making it safer for people walking and on bikes; it would also discourage cut-through “Waze” traffic. However, LADOT uses an archaic methodology in determining if they can install a new 4-way stop sign, largely based on car convenience. And we still have equally archaic street designations like “collectors” that relegate otherwise residential streets to being designed to have more car traffic, to the detriment of the neighborhood.
6 — Stop justifying new crosswalks based on car convenience. About three years ago the Mid City West Neighborhood Council (where I serve as Vice Chair and the Chair of the Transportation and Sustainability Committee) tried to get a scramble crosswalk at 3rd and Fairfax, one of the busiest pedestrian crossing intersections in our area. After analyzing, LADOT determined the delay drivers would experience wasn’t worth the safety benefits. The City of L.A. has only a few scramble crosswalks, including at Hollywood/Highland, Hollywood/Vine, and 7th/Alvarado — it should have many more, and we should be prioritizing pedestrian safety over drivers saving a few seconds.
7 — Optimize traffic signal timing for all. L.A. has one of the most advanced traffic signal management software systems in the world, called the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control System or “ATSAC” for short. It gives the city control over every signal in the city, allowing them to adjust timing to “reduce congestion” and “boost travel speeds.” However, this is only for people driving, to the detriment of others. Recently, a bike-only signal was installed at Rosewood and La Brea, part of the Mid City West Neighborhood Greenway. When I was working with LADOT to tweak the bike signal’s timing, I was told we couldn’t make the waiting time shorter, because it would result in longer times for people driving. This wrongheaded approach prioritizes drivers and makes pedestrians and people riding bikes wait longer, as if their time isn’t just as valuable. Our signals should prioritize the most vulnerable first, starting with pedestrians, then cyclists, and then drivers.
8 —Make narrower lane widths standard. You probably don’t think much about the width of car lanes, but their width has big implications. I was part of the effort to convince Caltrans District 7 (which still controls certain roads in L.A. which are designated “state highways” like parts of Santa Monica Bl, Western Ave, Lincoln Bl) to deviate from their standard 12' wide lanes to 10' wide lanes on the Lincoln Bl bus lane project. This 2' difference x 4 lanes = an extra 8 feet! This allowed them to put bus lanes on both sides of the street, where before they were planning on only doing one side of the street. While it’s great that we got them to do this on this single project, it’s not feasible to fight project by project. We should standardize car lane widths at 10' city-wide — any wider encourages more speeding and takes away space from other uses. And low hanging fruit would be to narrow lanes that are still 11' or 12' city-wide, and use the extra space for bike lanes or to slow down speeding cars!
9 — We need to preserve trees while fixing sidewalks. While L.A. does have an Urban Forestry Division, I think we are too quick to approve cutting down mature trees. Usually it’s the lazy solution to fix a broken sidewalk (as a result of the Willits Settlement), but it’s horrible for the environment, and also takes away shade from pedestrians and cyclists that will take decades to get back (if ever, given they usually plant a different species). There is a way to fix sidewalks and preserve mature trees, and it’s insane that in a climate crisis we are still regularly cutting down over a thousand mature trees a year city-wide, and replacing them with trees that will never provide shade like the old ficus trees did.
10 — Get rid of parking minimums. I don’t think most people appreciate the insane impact that mandatory parking minimums have on our city. For example, a 2,000 square foot restaurant must provide 20 parking spaces, a 100,000 square foot office building must provide 200 parking spaces, and a 100 unit apartment building must provide 200 parking spaces. These arbitrary requirements lock in car culture (it incentivizes driving the more convenient you make it) and makes building much more expensive.
Here’s an example of the kind of crater that L.A. routinely makes developers create, and it can double the cost of building the structure:
Here’s another example in Downtown LA:
Requiring developers to create so much new parking works against our other interests — trying to create a more walkable, bike able, transit oriented city. And in an affordable housing crisis, it’s even more insane. We need to eliminate mandatory parking minimums city-wide, and start to institute maximums around areas havily served by transit.
