Century City/ Westwood march 25 – April 28, 2022
NEWS CenturyCity-WestwoodNews.com
Slower Speed Limits Approved for Century City-Westwood Area Garcetti signs ordinance to lower speed limits on city streets By Sam Catanzaro Slower speed limits are officially coming streets in the Century City-Westwood area. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Monday held a signing ceremony for an ordinance that will lower speed limits on 177 miles of streets across Los Angeles. The ordinance, which was drafted by the City Attorney and approved by the City Council, was a direct result of the passage of AB-43, a State bill led by Assemblymember Laura Friedman that grants greater authority to cities to control speed limits. “The ability to manage speed limits locally is critical to reducing the risk of fatalities and serious injuries, and after a long fight at the state and local levels, this ordinance will help make our streets safer for everyone who uses them,” Garcetti said. City officials worked with Assemblymember Friedman to help shape the bill and shepherd it through the legislative process. The bill specifically targets speed limit reductions on
streets with high rates of traffic fatalities and severe injuries or heavily-trafficked pedestrian and bicycle routes. “The City of Los Angeles was forced to increase speed limits across the city because of an arcane state law that allows speeders to set the speed limit. It’s a flawed policy that’s had devastating consequences. Recklessly fast driving has only increased, resulting in a 21 percent uptick in traffic fatalities in the city in 2021,” Friedman said. Before the passage of AB-43, state law required municipalities to conduct a speed survey in order to set an enforceable speed limit for a city street. During the last round of speed surveys completed in 2018, the such surveys required Los Angeles to raise speed limits on roughly 94 miles. “After signing the new ordinance, the City will have more autonomy to make its own decisions around speed limits and focus on pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorist safety,” Garcetti’s office said in a statement announcing the ordidnace signing. In the Century City-Westwood area, the following streets will see speed limit reductions: Century Park East between Olympic Blvd. and Pico Blvd. from 40 to 35 mph; Deep Canyon Dr. between Mulholland Dr. and Hutton Dr. from 35 to 30 mph;
Olympic Blvd. between Century Park East and Centinela Ave. from 40 to 35 mph; Overland Ave. between Coventry Pl. and Palms Blvd. from 40 to 35 mph; San Vicente Blvd. between Pico Blvd. and Wilshire Blvd. from 40 to 35 mph; Sepulveda Blvd. between City Limit n/o Ohio Avenue and Venice Blvd. from 40 to 35 mph; Sepulveda Blvd. between Getty Center Dr. and City Limit s/o Cashmere St. from 45 to 40 mph; Venice Blvd. between Cadillac Ave. and Bentley Ave. from 40 to 35 mph. Road users can expect the installation of new, reduced speed limit signs to begin one month after approval. The move by lawmakers comes after new data showed a sharp increase in traffic fatalites across Los Angeles. In 2015, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launched Vision Zero, intended to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. More than five years after the launch of this program, traffic deaths in the city are soaring, reaching their highest number in nearly 20 years. 294 people were killed in traffic collisions in 2021, LA List recently reported on Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) data. Not only does this represent a 22 percent increase from 2020, but it is also the highest toll since
Photo: Sam Catanzaro Olympic Boulevard between Bundy and Centinela.
2003. Around half of those killed in these collisions were not in vehicles themselves, including 132 pedestrians and 18 cyclists. Furthermore, 1,479 traffic crashes resulting in severe injuries occurred on LA streets in 2021, a 30 percent increase from 2020. Traffic fatalities increased across the city in 2021, except for the LAPD Central bureau area, which includes downtown LA and Silverlake. Overall, since Garcetti launched Vision Zero, traffic deaths in Los Angeles have increased 58 percent. Since then, traffic deaths have jumped 58%. So how did this get this bad?
UCLA Pushes for Adding Campus Station on Metro’s Proposed Sepulveda Rail Line Studies show that it would be the busiest nontransfer station in the entire MetroRail system By Sam Catanzaro UCLA is pushing transportation officials to add a campus stop on LA Metro’s proposed Sepulveda Transit Corridor, which would allow rail travel between the Valley and Westside. Metro is currently considering various proposals for construction of the Sepulveda Transit Corridor line from the San Fernando Valley to the Westside. According to UCLA, Metro studies indicate that an on-campus rail station at UCLA would be the busiest nontransfer station in the entire MetroRail system. “Ensuring that the Sepulveda Transit Corridor includes a station in the center of
campus is a top priority for UCLA,” said Michael Beck, UCLA’s administrative vice chancellor. “We believe it is an equity imperative for Metro to provide the people of Los Angeles with a smart MetroRail option to provide improved access to the UCLA campus and UCLA Health for the nearly 85,000 daily students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors. Given that over one-third of our students are federal Pell Grant recipients, providing an affordable transportation option to our campus is very important.” UCLA is also pushing for the Sepulveda line to connect directly with the Purple Line station in Westwood Village to make it easier for people in the eastern-most part of the county to get to and from UCLA. “If designed correctly, the Sepulveda line will substantially reduce travel times between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside, and will greatly improve the lives of Angelenos who live closer to and further from Westwood,” Beck added.
The first phase of the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project will run from Van Nuys to the Expo Line, with a future second phase to connect to LAX airport. Metro expects to decide the route of the Sepulveda Transit Corridor line and the location of stations — including a possible oncampus UCLA station — in early 2024 as part
of the environmental clearance process. Metro’s projected opening date for the line is between 2033 and 2035. The project is funded in part by Measure M, the transportation sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2016. The total project will receive $9.5 billion in funding from Measure M and other local, state and federal sources.