Last week, the Los Angeles City Council approved a nearly $6-million package of left-turn arrows and traffic-signal upgrades that promises congestion relief at 361 intersections on the Westside. But despite local experiences of mind-numbing waits at jam-packed intersections, none in Pacific Palisades will benefit. Officials at the L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT) blame the lack of change on the community’s Specific Plan, part of the municipal code that regulates commercial development in the Palisades’ four commercial zones. The Pacific Palisades Commercial Village and Neighborhoods Specific Plan does not collect fees to address the ‘cumulative impact’ of additional traffic created by new development, says Jay Kim, a senior transportation engineer at LADOT. And because money raised through the plans must be spent within the areas they cover–in this case, parts of West L.A., Brentwood, Venice, Westchester, Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey–LADOT is prohibited from making similar improvements in the Palisades. ‘We could have been part of the global West L.A. Specific Plan if only we had known,’ said George Wolfberg, president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association (SMCCA), which frequently advocates for traffic improvements. LADOT’s Kim warns against expecting rapid progress if the Plan is changed. Relative to those areas on the Westside, development in the Palisades is less frequent and smaller-scale, which means that raising necessary funds could take a long time. ‘It might take 10 years before you have a sizeable balance,’ Kim says. ‘Every bit could help. But the expectation should not be that there’s going to be immediate change.’ Of course, improvements to Westside traffic infrastructure have not happened quickly. Most of the changes that LADOT will make involve replacing technology of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Beginning this fall, the LADOT improvements will include making the following specific upgrades: ‘ Controller Improvements. Currently, there is more traffic on the Westside than signals can process. New computers atop signals will send 25 percent more data to the city’s traffic engineers, allowing them to see traffic and change signal length in real time. Engineers expect intersections with the most lanes like Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue to see the most change. Also, these new controllers will recover automatically from power outages, unlike current ones which require that city crews reset each signal manually. ‘ Enhanced Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS): More lane sensors will be installed to ‘better monitor how many people are at an intersection and change the length of lights, accordingly,’ according to LADOT. ‘ Left-turn Arrows. Thirty-three designated left-turn arrows will be installed at 18 intersections. Engineers expect the largest improvements at these intersections. In West L.A., the streets with the most signal improvements include Sunset, Barrington, Bundy, Centinela, National and Olympic. Noticeably absent from the list is Wilshire Boulevard, where only a few changes are planned. According to LADOT Principal Transportation Engineer Sean Skehan, most of the signals along Wilshire were upgraded a ‘few years back.’ He said that by replacing the surrounding controllers, the department will be better able to manage traffic throughout the area. ‘There should be some improvement realized on Wilshire,’ Skehan said. Although Palisades’ streets won’t benefit directly from these upgrades, city officials insist that local residents who commute throughout the Westside will notice the changes. LADOT officials expect a three percent increase in traffic capacity overall on city roads as a result of the controller and lane improvements. They also predict bigger benefits from the left-turn changes at affected intersections. ‘That three percent increase in capacity translates into shorter queues,’ Skehan said. ‘It’s a small perceived benefit to the individual motorist, but a large benefit to commuters as a whole.’ City Councilman Bill Rosendahl co-wrote the motion that will bring traffic upgrades. The councilman, who ran for office with the pledge of lowering congestion in his Westside District 11, foresees benefits for his Palisades constituents. ‘This is a quick fix,’ he told the Palisadian-Post last week. ‘It helps the Palisades incrementally. It’s not a complete solution, but little things add up. If it saves people a couple minutes commuting time, it’s worth it.’ Changing the Specific Plan to collect development fees for traffic upgrades would require City Council action and community support. But even if the money were raised locally for LADOT traffic improvements, it wouldn’t affect some of the most congested intersections along State Route 1 or Pacific Coast Highway. That’s because the highway is owned and managed by the state’s–not the city’s–Department of Transporation (Caltrans). According to Caltrans Spokesperson Maria Raptis, the department has begun installing the latest technology along 40 miles of PCH. Raptis said, ‘124 intersections will have this technology that will tell us how many cars are at the intersections.’ Also, 19 new cameras at intersections along the highway, including ones as Sunset, Temescal and Chautauqua, will give the department live video of traffic conditions. Caltrans expects that work to be complete by summer 2008. —– To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
