California, more specifically Los Angeles, does a lot of crap that makes the rest of our heads spin and wonder “WHY!!”. They believe themselves to be a step above, so to speak, when it comes to “social issues” and other crap. Well, this one is no different.
The quick version… the new “bike lanes” appear to be adding an hour ride time to vehicles on the road.
Local resident Susanne Madden started a petition against the road diet, which has gathered about 3,000 signatures so far.
“It has caused a nightmare for everyone that commutes to their jobs,” Madden says. “It’s hurting families, punishing hard-working people who are just trying to get to work.”
What in the actual fuck is this? Horrible idea. Surprised they aren’t also promising to punch each driver in the face.
— Chris Sacca (@sacca) June 2, 2017
Ugh. Just drove Vista. Torture. Will keep me from going North.
— Chris Sacca (@sacca) June 2, 2017
As reported on RedState.com by Jennifer Van Laar:
And thus, city workers and contractors began re-striping roads in the Playa del Rey, or Silicon Beach, area of Los Angeles, which is just north of LAX and just south of Santa Monica.
It’s all worked out just perfectly, right? Well…. read on.
Traffic on LA’s west side is notoriously horrific, no matter the time of day or night. That is partly because there is no north/south freeway except for the 405, and residents of the affluent west side neighborhoods loudly oppose mass transit proposals. So if one lives in the South Bay, south of LAX, where most of the defense industry tech jobs have been in the past, but commutes to the Silicon Beach area, north of LAX, where the tech industry is now booming, the only way to somewhat easily get there is on surface streets.
If at least one lane in each direction is taken away in a short period of time, and the number of vehicles needing to access that road is not sufficiently lowered, it leads to … a traffic jam! A massive traffic jam that some commuters say is adding an HOUR each way to their commute. Susanne Madden started a petition against the road diet, which has gathered about 3,000 signatures so far.
As reported on LAWeekly.com:
For months, pressure has been building on Los Angeles City Hall to scale back its ambitious policy known as “road diet.” As the Weekly reported in June, the road diet calls for building bike lanes and eliminating car lanes for the purpose of getting cars to drive slower, thereby making streets safer. The current focus of the policy — and the attendant controversy — is on Playa del Rey, the Westside neighborhood near LAX also known as Silicon Beach for its plethora of tech startups.
The road-diet measures have made Playa del Rey and its environs more pedestrian-friendly for residents and a traffic headache for scores of motorists commuting back and forth from the South Bay to the Westside who cut through the area to avoid the 405 freeway. Some locals claim the lane reduction has added as much as an hour to their morning commute.
It started in May with the redesign of the beachfront Vista del Mar. Then in June the city followed through on a plan to restripe an additional four streets in the area — Culver, Jefferson and Venice boulevards and Pershing Drive. Again, the plan called for more bike lanes and fewer car lanes as part of what city officials call the “Safe Streets for Playa del Rey Initiative.”
City Councilmember Mike Bonin, whose district covers the Westside, has been a staunch supporter of the projects, and he has been getting grief on social media and AM talk radio since they took effect in May. “Under the auspices of making the roads safer, a lot of us believe that the real agenda is essentially to harass drivers out of their cars and into public transportation or onto bicycles, which is not a practical reality for most people,” said Doug McIntyre, host of McIntyre in the Morning on KABC.