(Disclaimer note: I, Streetsblog Editor Joe Linton - acting in a non-work capacity - have challenged the city's Measure HLA inaction. I am fighting for HLA in court and at the Board of Public Works. This post includes Measure HLA matters that I am not a neutral observer of. I have editorialized here, and I am sharing another reporter's work that I advised on. I don't have a fiscal stake in this, but I am an interested party in Measure HLA matters.)
This week, The Future is LA published a piece I wish I had written. In L.A. has stopped repaving our streets, Oren Hadar outlines L.A. City's shift away from decades of routine street resurfacing, and into only "large asphalt repair" (LAR). Hadar notes that a wholesale shift from resurfacing to LAR appears to be the city shirking its responsibility to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But that's not all, LAR also helps the city shirk the requirements of Measure HLA, which also requires accessibility upgrades - plus bus/bike/walk improvements.
What is "Large Asphalt Repair? The city's work on the ground doesn't match the city's definition online. Generally it mostly means that instead of the city fully resurfacing from curb to curb, the city resurfaces parts of a street (often several lanes) while leaving other parts of the street un-resurfaced. See photos below.
I've been feeling frustrated about so-called "large asphalt repair" since at least April when the city asserted that resurfacing projects that "involve" LAR are exempt from Measure HLA. (After I formally appealed that claim, the Board of Public Works walked it back somewhat, calling it erroneous.)
The city has promoted LAR quite a bit since July.
So I was thinking about how to write about LAR, and The Future is LA got there first. Hadar did contact me when he was writing the piece, and I shared several suggestions that I think helped shape his piece.
I will share a few excerpts here, and then add my two cents, and share a photo gallery. If you're interested in accessibility, multimodal infrastructure, and safer streets, probably just read the whole piece.
In the past, the L.A. Public Works Department Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) did hundreds of miles of street resurfacing every year. Then something changed:
StreetsLA has resurfaced exactly zero miles since July 1st. And they stopped pretty abruptly - their list of resurfacing work completed has lots of projects leading right up to June 30th, and then nothing.
Instead of resurfacing streets, the StreetsLA only does LAR.
The thing about large asphalt repair is that it’s…not a real thing. It appears to be a term made up by the city... Why did the city suddenly stop repaving streets and shift instead to repaving only parts of them? Why is it using a made up phrase to describe its work?
Hadar attributes the change to new federal ADA requirements, called PROWAG [Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines].
[PROWAG says accessibility facilities - mainly curb ramps] have to be added/updated when a street is “altered,” including repaving... but not when doing maintenance, like filling potholes, patching pavement, or filling cracks. The city looked at these definitions and decided that from now on it would call all the repaving it did maintenance. Thus was born the city’s savior: “large asphalt repair”.
Hadar terms LAR the city's "innovative way to wriggle out of its ADA obligations."
But the city Public Works Department isn't just thwarting access for folks who have a disability. The city claims that LAR also blocks bus, bike and walk improvements. Measure HLA now requires the city to install these when the city resurfaces more than one-eighth of a mile of city streets.
What happens [to HLA] when the city stops repaving its streets?
If all the city will do to maintain its streets going forward is large asphalt repair and slurry sealing, HLA implementation is basically not going to happen until someone forces L.A.’s hand. The city’s invention of large asphalt repair has allowed it to wriggle out of two basic commitments - making our sidewalks safe to walk on, and making our streets safe to ride on. Maybe ADA and safe streets advocates can come together to fight this large asphalt abomination together, because the safety of just about every Angeleno outside of a car depends on it.
Too often it feels like governmental entities can pit underfunded groups against each other. For example, accessibility advocates and bicycle advocates end up competing for scraps, while transportation agencies lavish city funding on car drivers and car parking. City staff openly claim that bike projects are too expensive now because PROWAG and HLA require the city to install costly curb ramps.
I am really grateful to Hadar for concluding with a call for solidarity between bike advocates and accessibility advocates. As numerous access activists have pointed out, making places accessible benefits everyone. A curb that is wheelchair accessible gets used by folks in wheelchairs, as well as folks with canes, with strollers, with shopping carts, and of course folks on bikes.
I think "large asphalt repair" is a scandal, a serious breach of public trust. The mayor and the city council need to end this ridiculous pernicious loophole. The city needs to grow up, and stop privileging driver convenience over the life and limb of folks with disabilities, transit riders, pedestrians, and cyclists.
(I should close there, but a few photos showing what "large asphalt repair" looks like where I bike along it.)
