Calling Los Angeles streets a “front door to the world and the place where public life and private enterprise connect,” Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city Department of Transportation released a strategic plan Monday aimed at making them safer and more accessible by 2025.
The 61-page report, titled “Great Streets for Los Angeles,” looks toward ending all pedestrian-related deaths, improving safety around public schools and changing the timing of streetlights to account for the amount of time it takes people to cross streets.
Among the proposals are increased use of technology to help motorists find parking spaces, a major investment in the Automatic Traffic and Surveillance Control street signal program, promoting the use of bicycles around the city and expanded DASH bus services to encourage people to get out of their cars.
There would be additional bike corrals in the city and more DASH buses with bike racks.
“Our streets are our largest public asset,” Garcetti wrote in a forward to the report. “They occupy 15 percent of Los Angeles’ total land area and serve as our city’s circulation system. We need them to also foster community by providing places to gather and enjoy.
“This strategic plan has my full support and reflects my belief that we can provide prosperity for both current residents and future generations through smart investment, strong management and forward-thinking policies.
Seleta Reynolds, general manager of the Transportation Department, said in an interview the plan’s renewed focus on public safety represents a “sea change” in what the department has been doing.
“One of the centerpieces (of the report) is a call to action for Los Angeles to sign on with so many other cities and the federal government to have zero traffic fatalities,” she said. “Up until now, people have sort of accepted fatalities as a natural byproduct. That has changed significantly, and it will require everybody in the city to come together around this goal.”
Reynolds added that while achieving that mission will involve some engineering of streets crossings, it will also require a greater awareness among drivers.
The goal of ending pedestrian deaths — there were 80 last year, and the numbers have been pretty constant year to year — will be met in stages by studying where each fatal collision occurred and if anything could have been done to prevent it.
The report addresses the mayor’s proposal for safe routes to schools, calling for a thorough review of traffic conditions around schools as well as meetings with parents and administrators. A series of short-term improvements would be in place by the fall of 2017, including new crosswalks, traffic signs, signal timing and speed reducers.
The Transportation Department also plans to play an aggressive role in Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative, which has already zeroed in on the first 15 intersections to be converted into areas more amenable to pedestrian and commercial activity.
Reynolds stressed the department will explore ways to improve traffic backups around the city.
“We need to manage the flow of traffic better, and that requires us to get smarter on how we partner with Caltrans,” she said. “A lot of the traffic problems we have on city streets is a byproduct of the traffic on freeways.”
As part of that, the proposal calls for an upgrade of the ATSAC system, where traffic signals are coordinated to allow people to avoid stops and starts in traffic.
Reynolds said the report does not require City Council approval since it is designed as a document for the Transportation Department. One of the keys to its successful implementation will be the Transportation Department’s ability to coordinate with other departments, such as the Bureau of Street Services, which oversees repair and repaving of city streets.
“The condition of city streets plays a huge role in what we do,” Reynolds said. “If we can get to the point where we can influence the prioritization of which streets are being resurfaced, we can put them back into service in a more organized and smart way.”
Hillary Norton, executive director of the consortium Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic, praised the report.
“This looks at efficiency, sustainability and operability, as well as the infrastructure investment that is needed,” she said.
“The key is it will improve the amount of time it takes to get around the city. When you talk about being able to improve access for people to approach streets as a pedestrian, a bike rider or a bus transit customer, the rule of thumb is if just 5 percent of people got out of their cars, it would improve traffic by 5 percent.
“Investing in bikes, transit, buses and shuttles all will reduce travel times for everyone.”
