LA Council Votes for Vision Zero

UPDATE:  LA City Council vote 12-2 approves their Mobility Plan 2035. The automobile is no longer king in Los Angeles. "People were strong-armed into automobiles but no longer" - Council member Mike Bonin.

Next the Plan goes to Mayor Eric Garcetti for approval. 

Tuesday August 11 the LA City Council votes to approve the new mobility plan for the city of Los Angeles that includes Vision Zero - a program to abolish traffic fatalities by 2025. The overall intent of the plan is to reduce Angelinos reliance on the automobile for transportation.  The plan was approved in a preliminary council vote on 4 August and cleared for the vote tomorrow. This document replaces the existing LA Circulation Element, the transportation component of the city's General Plan. Laguna's Circulation Element was last updated in 1998, as an exercise a working document was prepared but with no intention to update the General Plan.

Hear audio coverage of this development at KPCC Radio 89.3 FM here.


The Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035 is arranged in these sections:

Pedestrian Enhanced Destination Areas - identifies high pedestrian concentration areas and their proximity to transit

Transit Enhanced Network - prioritizes improvements for increasing mode share of auto alternatives at the expense of driving mode share

Bicycle Enhanced Network - a 180-mile street network for prioritized bike mode share including bike lanes and cycle tracks

Vehicle Enhanced Network - identifies 79 miles of heavy regional traffic slated for more infrastructure, active enforcement, limited parking and active monitoring to optimize traffic flow

The document calls for an additional 300 miles of protected bike lanes separated from traffic by curbs or other physical barriers. It identifies 117 miles of new bus-only lanes and another 120 miles of streets where bus-only lanes would operate during rush hour.

Mobility Plan 2035 also adopts the commitment to Vision Zero adopted by a growing number of European and US cities.

Vision Zero - a bold commitment to traffic safety with zero tolerance for cyclist and pedestrian fatalities due to traffic by 2025.

StreetBlog LA says it this way: "Vision Zero is a transportation planning, law enforcement, and planning project started in Sweden in 1997. The goal is simple: eradicate traffic fatalities. Any traffic fatality is one too many. Every decision involving transportation, from how wide a road should be to how to target traffic enforcement efforts, must meet the goal of making the streets safer for all road users."

Statistics show three of every 100,000 Swedes die in traffic crashes every year, 5.5 per 100,000 across the European Union and 11.4 in the USA. The US has three times the number of per capita fatalities as Sweden.

LA Walks specifies the mission strategy for Vision Zero this way: 

Freedom to Move

The Human Factor

The Vision Zero Initiative

The planning process has not been without controversy. Major issues raised over the mobility plan written by David Zanhiser, Los Angeles Times:

• The measure of traffic congestion, the means to alleviate it and the criteria for success is not in the domain of automobiles exclusively.
• The environmental impact report concludes the plan's projects would increase congestion, noise and cause cut-through traffic in residential neighborhoods.
• Road user behavior is changing, generations of people under age 35 choose to live car free and car-lite. 
• More scrutiny is anticipated to ensure emergency vehicle access.
• L.A. officials say the mobility plan is an acknowledgment the city can't build its way out of congestion problems.
•  "A paradigm shift of this kind often causes growing pains," said Connie Llanos, spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Garcetti, who supports the mobility plan. "But the long-term benefits outweigh the impacts."

Hear audio coverage of this development at KPCC Radio 89.3 FM here.

Transportation Alternatives of NYC invites you to sign a petition to change motor vehicle 'accidents' to 'crashes', that would change the way law enforcement and the insurance industry treats collisions with pedestrians and bike riders.
-LS

CicLAvia is SUNDAY!

The best way to introduce your community to Complete Streets Policy is experiencing the CicLAvia, Adonia Lugo PhD, Urban Anthropologist, Urban Adonia. 

The Culver meets Venice CicLAvia is Sunday August 9, 2015.
 

This six mile route connects Culver to the beach and back, 9am to 4pm Sunday.

See the route map and information page here. 
See the CicLAvia FAQ page here.
-LS

Building Bike Mode Share through Bike Trains

In Los Angeles the growth in bicycle mode share has grown 70% in fifteen years particularly for bicycle commuters who bike to work.  For newbies the transition from auto to bicycle can be intimidating but there is comradery and added bike safety-in-numbers by joining a bike train as Meghan McCarty of KPCC Public Radio did during her LA bike to work. 

Bike Train builds cycling safety-in-numbers

Bike trains serve Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles, Silver Lake to NASA/Caltech's JPL. The Irvine Barranca Metro Station to Laguna is only 10 miles apart, easily managed by bicycle. This commute route needs a bike-train and it's not rocket science.  What is a bike train? Check-out existing routes or propose a new route at LA Bike Trains here.     -LS

LA Summer Gas Prices Surge

Union Station downtown Los Angeles 7/13/2015

Immune to Gas-Wars

Festival Season Transportation Alternatives

Slow and Go   Rush Hour   Heavy   Bumper to Bumper   Rage Level 1  Stuck in Traffic   Light    Traffic Jams Road Rage  Bottle Neck Hit-and-Run  Beat Traffic Rage Level 2 Slog  Traffic Fine  Snarl  Stuck

As Laguna's festival season begins so does the heaviest traffic congestion and consequences of a saturated car-centric mobility system. Normal weekly traffic alerts now occur daily.

Laguna Canyon Rd now has 1 lane open in each direction. Expect heavy traffic.Expect heavy traffic SB (inbound) Laguna Canyon Rd before the 73 fwy due to summer like conditions.Laguna Canyon Rd remains closed in both directions between El Toro & Canyon Acres until further noticeLaguna Canyon Rd is closed in both directions due to a brush fire in the 1900 block until further notice. Expect heavy traffic SB (inbound)Laguna Canyon Rd before the 73 fwy due to summer like conditions. 

Starting this festival season consider using alternatives to the automobile for arriving in and getting around Laguna Beach.

Trolley

During Festival Season a FREE summer trolley services 3 routes from 9:30am to 11:30pm June 26 to August 30. See a route map here. See the route descriptions here. Trolley Tracker mobile App here.

Municipal Bus 

(No service July 4) The blue and white bus, Monday through Friday 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM, Saturday 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM. Route map here. Click for route maps:  Gray route service, Blue route service,  Red route service. Bus schedule here.

For more information visit the city transit page here.

OCTA Bus

Route 1 Long Beach to San Clemente, route map.

Route 55 Santa Ana to Newport, route map.

Route 85 Mission Viejo to Dana Point, route map.

Route 89 Mission Viejo to Laguna, route map.

Taxis

Sally's Fund - local ride scheduling 949 499-4100

Age Well Senior Services - local ride 949 855-9766

LB Transit Plus Taxi Voucher Program - Suzi-Q Community Center front desk 9am-3pm 497-0504

Yellow Cab OC Company - 714 999-9999 pick-up schedule here.

Silver Streak Tranport Services - 949 435 3460

Uber - Ride on demand signup page here.

See more senior transportation details here.

Bike

Door to door service, alternate routes, easy parking. 

See the historical bike-route map (2004) here. 

See the bike-route map (2012) here.

See the latest city bike-route map (2015) TBD.

Walk

Get some exercise, meet a neighbor, experience old Laguna like you never have before. Paak-da-Ka if you dare here, and walk to your destination. Can't find parking?  Leave the car in the garage and experience Laguna's vistas, walk to your destination anyway.

"Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines" -David Letterman

-LS 

Traffic Conditions Around Laguna

For car traffic alerts like these in your Inbox, provide your email address at the Laguna Beach City website sign-up page here. Note that walking, biking and bus alerts are not available.

San Diego City Adopts VISION ZERO

Today the city of San Diego adopted Vision Zero (video), a zero tolerance plan to reduce the number of traffic related fatalities to zero by 2025.  Like New York, San Francisco and Seattle before it, San Diego is taking steps to reduce traffic fatalities caused by collisions between motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to zero in 10 years. 

The zero tolerance measure was requested as a budget measure in a memo to the mayor and Council members in January.  In a state of the city address Mayor Kevin Faulconer said "We are going to fix our streets".

Credit: Circulate San Diego

Steps to meet zero tolerance include road improvements costing $15 million to get started. A challenge to $120 million more in bond financing was defeated preserving the additional financing.UPDATE:  Latest story here from City of San Diego.

These graphs show the number of fatalities from auto collisions for 10 years 2002 - 2012 for PCH (San Diego City Hwy 5) for San Diego compared to Laguna Beach.

San Diego 153 Fatalities

Laguna 15 Fatalities

French Asparagus

Like kids and Asparagus, pedestrian zones are hard to swallow in LB.

 "Road reserved for cyclists and pedestrians 

10am - 7:30pm"  - City Hall

Asparagus and Les Trolleys

Fuchsia

Rouge

These silent all-electric trolleys  serve French cities from the suburbs and peripheral parking lots to the city center. Les Trolleys were demanded by city residents for their aesthetically pleasing design and convenience. In the city of Reims local residents realize too many cars increase noise and air pollution, make outdoor eating very unpleasant and ruin the feeling of their town. French aesthetics demand a better visiting experience hence the trolleys.

Unlike Laguna, Reims is essentially void of automobiles or running engines. Like Laguna, Reims is a tourist destination town yet their streets are completely empty of  cars. Residents and tourists walk. There are some cars parked at curbs but everyone uses trolleys. Locals say it is so much easier to use trolleys for transportation, they run from 8:00am until 9:00...some until midnight.

Think outside the gear-box

 

What if, just what if Laguna was served by Les Trolleys from the Barranca Irvine station to The Festival of Arts? Even if you've never tried Asparagus you'll love the trolley.

Jaune

Bleu

Les trolleys are powered by overhead electric power or alternatively a ground level low-voltage supply safe to pedestrians and animals so overhead wires are not necessary. Wireless les trolleys are used exclusively in Reims serving a six-mile route from suberbs to the city center.

At the moment Laguna resident Jahn Levitt is visiting Reims and has this to say about her experience.
"The Cathedral with Chagall stained glass and les grand marques (champagne houses) like Mumms, Taittinger, Veuv Cliquot....have headquarters in Reims, all give daily tours and tastes. So why do these visiting tourists and residents use public transportation in Reims and don't drive around the city? Why don't they drive cars to the champagne chateaus? Because the city hall demands that these vineyards provide some type of public transportation to get outside the city. The majority go on tours and are driven in buses. Here's the issue... You can take the train from Paris to Reims for $50 round trip, it takes 45 minutes. How can you get to Laguna from LA? Or Irvine? You drive. I thought it was really interesting because there are also no car dealerships, no car washes, or gas stations, as there are in Laguna. The superb public transport from Paris make daily trips to Reims possible, j'adore les trolleys fuschia et jaune. "     -Jahn Levitt

OCTA Regional Bikeways South OC

(Update) On June 4 2015  The Orange County Transportation Authority held another roundtable meeting to review plans for 10 regional bikeway corridors in South Orange County, 6 corridors serve beach cities including Laguna. A discussion followed the presentation where city planning personnel and the public again contributed ideas to the planning process. Laguna Beach City planning personnel did not attend.

These are the current bikeway corridors planned to serve Laguna Beach and Aliso Canyon. View high-resolution maps of all 10 bikeway corridors here.











The corridors are designed to increase the cycling mode-share and improve cycling safety as measured data show from other installations.





 
To understand the level of cycling competence  among the participants the spectrum of abilities was measured in this chart. The audience measured from average (green) to expert (black).

 

Update: To show the corridor preferred greatest some meeting attendees selected their preferred route from Corridors A-J. Laguna Canyon Road is I, most preferred is Regional Parks Corridor A.

To identify routes to be completed first, priority is assigned according to weights given in this table. There are more projects to be completed than there are resources available so a weighting criteria is necessary.






The OCTA planning process to increase the mode-share of rail, transit and cycling continues. Local city planning departments are encouraged to PARTICIPATE. The next opportunity for public collaboration on the Bikeways Strateby appears here.

The OCTA meeting agenda appears here.
The OCTA Round Table summary and follow-up appears here. 
The OCTA Round Table meeting presentation appears here.

-LS