Traffic and Transportation Updates
SBRA is monitoring projects impacting traffic and transportation in South Brentwood
Barrington/Chenault Traffic Light Review
Board members of the South Brentwood Residents Association and other Brentwood HOAs invited representatives from LADOT and the Council Office on a field trip to Barrington/Chenault at 5 pm on a Thursday to see the back-up caused by the new traffic light. LADOT’s on-site response: “Oh wow. I had no idea it was this bad.”
LADOT is reviewing the timing of the light signal and other potential remedies to see if they can alleviate some of the back-up.
SBRA Supports Councilmember Park’s Resolution to Quantify HLA Impact
SBRA sent a letter of support for Traci Park’s resolution asking the City to quantify the impacts of projects in Measure HLA including its impact on maintaining other City Services.
Measure HLA (which passed) requires the City to install bike lanes and other street changes from the Mobility Plan 2035 whenever a street is repaved or other work is done.
Of particular concern is adding protected bike lanes to San Vicente instead of the current painted bike lanes. This would almost certainly require a “road diet” eliminating two lanes on San Vicente.
HLA is estimated to cost $250M/year over ten years. The City currently has a deficit of $500M. As a comparison, $250M is the annual budget of Inside Safe.
Mobility Plan 2035 was never intended to be implemented in full:
This Plan is not intended as a recipe book that must be followed to the letter but simply a preliminary roadmap to guide the City in making future multi-modal improvements.(page 134)
Mobility Plan 2035 requires community outreach before any project is implemented, but now that outreach is in question.
SBRA Supports Subway Alternatives for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor
SBRA sent a letter of support to Metro’s Board of Directors supporting a subway through the Sepulveda Pass. This project will go from Van Nuys to the Sepulveda/Expo Station with a stop at UCLA. Metro has since eliminated one of the subway alternatives that was under consideration.
While a monorail is also being considered, Metro’s ridership estimates are significantly higher for the subway options and the transit times are much lower. The subway options we supported would go from Van Nuys Metrolink to UCLA in about 15 minutes, less than half of the time that a monorail would take and the projected ridership is almost double.
Two of the three monorail options under consideration would not have a stop on the UCLA campus so that riders would have to take a shuttle or walk after arriving in Westwood.
More information about the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project can be found at https://www.metro.net/projects/sepulvedacorridor/. SBRA is a member of the STC4All Coalition, which supports a Metro station on the UCLA campus. https://www.stc4all.org/our-coalition.html
Wilshire Purple Line Construction (Line D)
For the latest information on Purple Line Construction and to sign up for updates, please visit this page. https://www.metro.net/projects/westside/
Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega are slated to open in 2024.
Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City/Constellation are slated to open in 2025.
Wilshire/Westwood and Wilshire/VA Hospital are slated to open in 2027.
SBRA is monitoring progress. We are concerned about how people will access the Westwood and VA stations given that no parking is planned for either station and Wilshire Blvd and all of the other East-West streets in our area are already gridlocked during evening peak hours.
STAP (Sidewalk and Transit Amenities Program)
The Bureau of Street Services plans to replace the existing bus shelters on Wilshire Blvd. with new ones that will include digital rotating ads to replace the static ads currently on the shelters. These are scheduled to be installed over a 4 to 6 year period beginning in 2024.
SBRA reviewed the locations in Brentwood (north side of Wilshire at San Vicente, Barrington, Brockton, Bundy, and Carmelina) and discussed with the STAP team that we’d like them to delay installations that are near housing (Barrington) or small commercial spaces (Carmelina). In addition, STAP should ensure that the lighting never shines into these locations. According to STAP, lighting on the shelters is designed to be no brighter than ambient lighting, which is no more than 4 lumens above existing light conditions and similar to the lighting in place today. Unlike the current shelters lighting on the new shelters will be able to be dimmed remotely from a central station and is LED not fluorescent.
While earlier plans for the new bus shelters considered cell phone charging stations and water, these are not currently scheduled to be part of the project. The bus benches will be modular so that people cannot stretch out and sleep on them comfortable, as is the case today.
The vendors installing the bus shelters are responsible for maintaining them and emptying the trash receptacles. If you see a maintenance issue, please email streetsla.stap@lacity.org or call 1- 866-633-0068 (stops with shelters) or 1-855-441-1300 (stops with bus benches only.)
More information on the STAP program can be found here. https://streetsla.lacity.org/stap-program-fact-sheet
Congestion Pricing/"Traffic Reduction" Study
Metro is still considering congestion pricing – aka toll lanes --- for all lanes of the I-10 from Santa Monica and in Westside canyons as part of its “Traffic Reduction Study.” https://www.metro.net/projects/trafficreduction/
SBRA has taken a position against congestion pricing as adding tolls to the freeway would only force more cars onto Brentwood’s streets as drivers who have no alternatives avoid paying tolls.
We have requested that any consideration of tolls be delayed until after the Wilshire Subway and Sepulveda Transit Corridor projects are implemented and give people an alternative way to get to and from the Westside.
Metro recently sent an email stating that:
“We plan to conduct further analysis regarding the types of improvements that people would like to see funded in these areas, such as bus-only lanes, Metro station upgrades, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements.”
SBRA has confirmed with Metro that this email does not mean that congestion pricing is off the table. Instead, Metro is asking for suggestions so that they can be used to justify why Metro congestion pricing revenue is needed to fund them. SBRA continues to monitor this issue.
Additional parking for Farmers Market
SBRA explored whether parking guidelines could be relaxed on the north side of San Vicente during the Farmers Market to allow for legal parking, but learned that safety issues prevent this from happening. Farmers Market attendees who drive should continue parking along the golf course (San Vicente and Montana) and in the surrounding neighborhoods where available. Parking illegally in conflict with the posted street signs is subject to ticketing.
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