Santa Monica mayor calls one-way plan "interesting"

Speaking about the Olympico Plan, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom tells The LookOut: "I think it's really interesting, and we should certainly leave no stone unturned." However, the plan faces some unique obstacles in S.M., including the fancy new pedestrian-friendly improvements on Pico, and all those beautiful old coral trees that run down the grassy strip in the middle of Olympic.

Britain to restrict one-way streets

Interesting news from across the pond: The Times of London reports that the "one-way street is to be phased out in residential areas [of the U.K.] as part of a government plan to give pedestrians greater rights to road space." Says the article:

One-way streets have been singled out for criticism by the transport department, which says that rather than reduce “rat runs” they actually encourage speeding, prolonging journeys and inconveniencing cyclists.

Louise Duggan, one of the authors of the guidelines said: “Since the late 1950s, the number of cars on the roads have meant they have taken priority. Now we have realised our roads should be used for more than getting from A to B. Our highways make up 80% of our public realm and we have realised it is wrong that we are only doing one thing with this space.”

(snip)

The transport department’s plans have won the endorsement of the RAC [the British equivalent of the AAA]. Robin Cummins, its road safety consultant, admitted some drivers treat one-way streets like “racetracks”.

“We accept the need for pedestrians and drivers to live together better in residential areas,” he said.

Olympico on KPCC's Airtalk

KPCC's Larry Mantle covered the initial Olympic/Pico proposal on April 16. You can listen to the 37 minute program here (requires Real Player).

Koreatown Opposition

The Los Angeles Business Journal reports on some early opposition to the Olympico Plan from businesses. Some merchants in Koreatown and elsewhere are concerned that turning Olympic one-way will harm their customers' access.

Two interesting notes from the piece: L.A. City Council members Tom LaBonge and Herb Wesson "have voiced opposition." Also, it seems the perception on the eastern side of the Olympico zone is that this whole idea is mainly intended to allow Westsiders to get to downtown entertainment venues more easily. From the LABJ piece:

The opposition is most intense in Koreatown, where business owners fear the community’s retail center along Olympic Boulevard will be harmed.

“Olympic has all the main stores in Koreatown. If we tinker with this, there’s concern that all of Koreatown may collapse,” said Kee-whan Ha, president of the Hannam supermarket chain and also president of the recently-formed Anti Olympic-Pico One-Way Task Force that includes about 500 businesses in and around Koreatown.

(snip)

[Pico Blvd. restaurant owner Demetrios] Pantazis said he believed that the plan was crafted for the benefit of wealthy Westsiders who want quicker access to the Staples Center and not for the neighborhoods and business districts in the middle.

The Wrong Way

The LAT's March 29 story about the Olympic and Pico One-way Plan (and this accompanying graphic) got the proposed direction of the streets backwards. (Click the image to enlarge.)

According to the feasibility report prepared for LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Olympic would go EAST, toward downtown, and Pico would head WEST. In other words, the entire loop would circulate clockwise.

LAT on the Olympico Proposal

On March 29, the LAT published its first major piece on the Olympic and Pico One-way Plan (which we're calling the Olympico Plan for short). It's the brainchild of L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and according to the piece it already has the backing of L.A. City Council members Bill Rosendahl and Jack Weiss (who's also the subject of a so-far small recall effort because of his alleged coziness with Century City developers).

The Times makes the Olympico Plan sound like a cheap, easy fix to snared traffic in a city that can't seem to get its public transportation act together. The piece barely addresses another way of looking at this, a perspective anyone who lives, works, or sends their kids to school remotely near these two streets has certainly considered: Zev's plan essentially puts two new seven-lane freeways right through the heart of L.A. residential and business neighborhoods, and within blocks of more than two dozen schools. (For example, Carthay Center Elementary School and Los Angeles and Beverly Hills High Schools are actually on Olympic.) The hundreds of north/south streets that run between the two freeways also suddenly become "on-ramps," as motorists find inventive ways to navigate to certain locations on or near Olympic and Pico.

Perhaps the city as a whole will decide two new freeways are a good idea, but we shouldn't pretend we're talking about a simple re-striping job. A few key excerpts from the Times piece:

There are a lot of ideas for fixing traffic in L.A., but almost all would cost a fortune.

Subway to the sea: $5 billion. Extending the Expo Line: $800 million. Widening the 405: $1 billion.

Then there is an idea that would cost comparatively little and is generating growing buzz around City Hall and the Westside: turning Olympic and Pico boulevards into one-way streets from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

A traffic consultant is completing a study of the concept, which was proposed in January by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and has been the subject of much discussion since.

It remains to be seen exactly how much the conversion would improve traffic. The study marks the beginning of what would probably be a more than yearlong process to reconfigure the streets. The change would require approval of the L.A. City Council as well as leaders in Beverly Hills, home of a small stretch of Olympic.

(snip)

The idea isn't new. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which closed the Santa Monica Freeway for months, then-Mayor Richard Riordan proposed making Pico and Olympic one way to improve east-west traffic. The proposal died amid concerns from some residents that the boulevards would turn into dangerous speedways.

As traffic has worsened, fears of a "one-way racetrack" have largely dissolved.

Still, Pico and Olympic are unusual candidates for one-way conversion. Most one-way streets are one block apart, making it easy for drivers to switch directions.

By contrast, the distance between Pico and Olympic varies. Through large swaths of West L.A., Mid-City and Beverly Hills, the streets are only two or three blocks apart. But in Century City and neighborhoods south of Hancock Park, the gap widens to up to three-quarters of a mile.