LADOT

New bike lanes are in use on Reseda Boulevard. L.A. StreetsBlog readers will remember that these lanes were approved in the city of Los Angeles' 1996 bike plan, but weren't implemented due to conflicting Department of Transportation (LADOT) plans for additional peak-hour car lanes. When the peak-hour lanes plan faced opposition, LADOT pledged to implement a mile of bike lanes on Reseda Blvd from Devonshire Street to San Fernando Mission Road.

This afternoon's Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee was dominated by the taxi controversy explained in this earlier post. In brief, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is overseeing a taxi assessment to set future taxi policy, and LADOT awarded a contract for that assessment in a manner that bypassed agreed-upon processes.

Photo, by Joe Linton, from the L.A. Taxi Workers Alliance protest at City Hall in August The agenda for this Wednesday’s Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee includes an important hearing on the future of Los Angeles’ taxi system. As is evident in cities throughout the world, taxis can play an important role in providing a healthy … Continued

Yesterday we reported on the ongoing debate over the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes, but that's hardly the only item of interest on next Wednesday's City Council Transportation Committee Agenda.

Normally, I wouldn't add a Flickr page to our blogroll on the right; but given that the LADOT press office is operating on a shoestring budget a flickr page from the LADOT General Manager could be a useful tool to get information out to the public.

So, a lot of you didn't like the Emmy Award Winning P.S.A. put out by LADOT in 2008 which showed a young girl getting hit by a speeding car because it put too much of the blame on the girl and not enough on the driver.  I thought it was a powerful piece, maybe because as an expectant father any image of a child being mauled by a vehicle is going to get my attention, and many commenters thought it was a missed opportunity to make a point about dangerous driving.

Given how we've mocked LADOT's previous Emmy Award Winning P.S.A., you might think this headline was sarcastic, but it's not.

Last Thursday "DJ Wheels" spent his day attending the arraignment of Robert Sanchez, the driver accused of killing Rod Armas and his fourteen year old son at the end of the L.A. Wheelman's June Grand Tour Double Century and then pedaling downtown to get an update on the trial of Alejandro Hidalgo, the driver accused of killing Jesus Castillo in a hit-and-run last April.

Recently, the City of Santa Monica completed a series of speed surveys on it's streets, as required by state law.  The result might be a surprise to people that have followed the inability of the City of Los Angeles to maintain lower speed limits when these surveys are done.  In Santa Monica, fourteen street locations are seeing their speed limits lowered while speeds will be increased in only two areas: on Colorado Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard and on Second Street between Wilshire and Colorado.