Posted on 01/19/2019 5:23:31 AM PST by reaganaut1
...
Los Angeles, like cities nationwide, is transforming its streets. In July 2017 the city installed a “road diet” on a 0.8-mile stretch of Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista, reducing four lanes to two and adding bike lanes separated from traffic by parking buffers. The project is part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities in the city by 2025. Launched in 2015, Vision Zero is the most radical transformation of how people move through Los Angeles since the dawn of the freeway era 75 years ago.
By almost any metric it’s been a disaster. Pedestrian deaths have nearly doubled, from 74 in 2015 to 135 in 2017, the last year for which data are available. After years of improvement, Los Angeles again has the world’s worst traffic, according to the transportation research firm Inrix. Miles of vehicles idling in gridlock have reduced air quality to 1980s levels.
The international Vision Zero movement began in the 1990s in Sweden, where it apparently worked well. The Swedish government claims a 50% reduction in traffic deaths since 2000. Hoping to achieve similar gains, U.S. mayors from New York City to North Pole, Alaska, have adopted Vision Zero. Projects range from multibillion-dollar light-rail lines to retiming traffic lights for slower traffic. Road diets are key.
In neighborhoods across New York City, residents, community boards and local businesses have done battle with city officials over “traffic calming” measures imposed by city hall. Lane reductions, bike lanes, new meridians and other innovations designed to reduce vehicle speeds make it difficult for bulky ambulances and fire trucks to respond quickly to emergencies. And while pedestrian deaths have plummeted in the Big Apple under Vision Zero, deaths of bicyclists, motorcyclists and people in vehicles have ticked up.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Trying to implement policies along northern European lines in US cities is ridiculous; until recently those countries had homogenous populations that were for the most part all “on the same page”. Traffic in US cities is unmanageable because our permissive policies let people in who have no concept of driving - and we issue them licenses at will. The gauges I use here in NJ are 1) how many people don’t use blinkers anymore, 2) how many people don’t use their headlights in rainy/snowy weather (it is required), and 3) how many people will stop in the middle of a busy roadway to pick someone up - even if that person will “be out in five minutes”. In the remaining civilized areas, those offenses will generate warnings or tickets from cops; in the areas filled with foreigners, cops don’t even bother. My town is morphing from the former to the latter.
We have put in all kinds of medians. They make maneuvering to addresses difficult.
The emergency vehicle operators hate them.
I naively thought they were a proven safety device with a trade-off for all the inconvenience.
Now--They are some silly Swedish leftist fad?
Designed to get rid of the automobile?
“The international Vision Zero movement began in the 1990s in Sweden, where it apparently worked well.”
That’s because Sweden in the ‘90s consists of Socialist blond bimbos and girly men who will do as they are told. I wonder if their new muslim overlords are as cooperative.
Stop your stupid plans! You have no idea what you are doing! You screw up, and the next guy has a “plan” to fix it, which screws things up even more, so that the next candidate comes up with his “plan” which also fails.
Just go in a corner with a good book and don’t break things that are not broken.
It’s not who we let in. It’s our pathetic driver training. We put completely unskilled drivers on the road in hoards. Our licenses come out of crackerjack boxes. We are the most undertrained underskilled drivers in the western world. And it shows in our accident rate.
It is more than the licensing; the auto industry seems to determined to sell cars to these newcomers (they are prized as CONSUMERS, not workers), but at the same time even their other habits need work. How many times do you see them push strollers out into traffic, or use children as airbags in cars?
yes, Designed to get rid of the automobile - is my guess.
These feel good commie mayors should be arrested and exiled to their socialist utopia of choice.
Say “Hi” to my Mom in the trailer park over there off Avenue A.
Her and Dad made the trip for thirty years. Lost Dad about five years ago, but she’s still going at 92.
Liberals hate private transportation.
No it’s the licensing. I know people that have transplanted in both directions. Americans who go to Europe ALWAYS fail the license exam. European who come to America are ALWAYS aghast at how easy the test was. We are bad drivers. PERIOD.
Newark, NJ, having solved all of their other problems, is now installing traffic calming features on all of the major surface roads. Needless to say, traffic has ground to a halt on Broad Street. If they start on McCarter Highway, it will be Game Over.
But with all the disruption, all the torn up pavement, they did not touch those 100-year-old water mains. Those remain undisturbed.
Are there any tricks any more to get thru the WSJ paywall short of shelling out couple $100?
City planners are largely impractical lemmings who have been taught to hate the automobile and move us to a wonderful future filled with walking, biking, and mass transit.
The smartphone was Introduced in 2010. THAT IS THE CAUSE. The rest of these measures are a waste of money.
The government is a process designed to never result in drummed up issue resolution.
I’m glad someone else thinks essentially what I do about city planners.
Hey, there is a positive side to the “road diet.”
Since Eric Garcetti has visions of higher office, there is an opportunity to gather video clips and sound-bytes of people impacted by this grand scheme.
If you like the ROAD DIET vote for Eric!
Venice Blvd., heavily used by commuters going to and from the West Side is a major alternative the Santa Monica Freeway. Reducing the number of lanes from from four to two will impact the freeway and other surface streets, greatly exacerbating the drive between Downtown LA and Santa Monica/West LA while polluting the air.
Can they read?
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