LADOT

(Update: Paul Krekorian's office provides a copy of the resolution and a plug for the importance of Neighborhood Councils on their blog.  Read it here.)

Rumors are floating around City Hall that Rita Robinson will be stepping down as General Manager of the LADOT to take a high-level position with L.A. County.  While nobody who discussed the rumor with me wanted their name attached to this story, I can say that the sources are high enough up in the city bureaucracy to be credible.

Through the LADOT Bike Blog, we've gotten some answers as to what the heck happened on Westholme Boulevard, where a large portion of Sharrows were covered up last week.  Basically, there was a communication breakdown between the Bureau of Street Services, the same government body that physically installed the Sharrows in the first place, and the LADOT.  Further compounding the confusion, the Sharrows don't yet appear on the Street Plan for Westholme because the Sharrows are part of a study.  The Bike Blog explains the significance:

Last night, UCLA Planner Madeline Brozen tweeted that the Westholme Sharrows, which have been on the street for nearly five weeks, have been partially removed after Westholme Avenue had been repaved.  The Sharrows used to stretch from the corner of Westholme and Wilshire Boulevard all the way to the UCLA Campus area, but after a repaving project north of Santa Monica Boulevard, the Sharrows have been covered by a layer of asphalt.

Yesterday, Judge Robert O'Brien of the Los Angeles Superior Court issued a tentative ruling that traffic calming measures in the Holmby-Westood community that were removed by the LADOT and City Council in the summer of 2009 be returned.  The traffic calming was first put in as part of a Neighborhood Protection Plan (NPP) when the Palazzo development was constructed on the west side of the community.  The measures were "only temporary" pending a vote of the neighborhood six months after installation.  However, when LADOT surveyed the community, they surveyed a different and larger area than the one agreed to in the plan.  The vote to keep the traffic calming was approved by "only" 60% of residents who responded to the survey, which was short of the two-thirds needed to keep the calming in place.

Via the LADOT Bike Blog comes the news cyclists and community activists have been waiting for: The Department of City Planning and LADOT will finally be releasing the final draft of the Bike Plan, a mere half a year behind schedule.  Sources at LADOT have told me to expect the new plan to appear at labikeplan.org later today.  The Bike Blog offers a preview of some of the differences we can expect between the much-panned draft released last summer and the new version:

Sometimes I enjoy having dinner at the Wilshire/Western Denny's for the opportunity it affords to watch the amazing dynamic transit action occurring at that intersection. This includes frequent and very busy bus lines (local and Rapid) along both streets plus hoards of people entering and exiting the rail station. It reminds me how tremendously heavy transit use in the Wilshire corridor is. And partially explains why a Wilshire Bus Rapid Transit Project has been in gestation and has now reached the draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment stage.

Playing the part of Gallant is the LAPD. At Soap Box, Stephen Box outlines several important policy changes announced last week by the LAPD/Cyclist Task Force. The LAPD committed to filing reports when Metro buses are involved in crashes and enforcing parking policy when cars or trucks are clogging bike lanes. They debuted training materials that lay down the rights of cyclists so that there is no confusion. And, they clarified once and for all that crosswalks are an extension of a sidewalk.