Traffic Enforcement

A new motion introduced by Councilmen Tony Cardenas and Bernard Parks seeks to overturn the recent decision of the Police Commission to end the city's wildly effective red light traffic camera program.  Their motion is scheduled to be heard at tomorrow morning's City Council hearing.  The Councilmen claim that they can force the Police Commission to change their ruling, while the Commission claims the Council has no such authority.  It was previously reported that a 2/3 vote of the Council, a full 10 votes, would be needed to over turn the Commission.

Last night, at the end of the "KoreatownWednesdays" Midnight Ridazz ride, a couple of dozen Ridazz were standing at the bottom of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook waiting for the rest of the ridazz to make it down the hill.  The ride begins every week in Koreatown and heads to the overlook.  There the group parks their bikes, ascends the hill and takes in the view.  I've never done the ride, but I'm told it's a pretty low-key ride, runs at a fast clip, and is very peaceful at the end.

Last week the Los Angeles Police Commission, the citizen panel that oversees the LAPD, unanimously voted to reject the LAPD's recommendation to extend the city's contract with an Arizona based group that provides, maintains, and utilizes "red light cameras" at 32 Los Angeles intersections.  The move came as a shock to the LAPD, but has been widely praised, including two editorials in the city's two largest newspapers.

The Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is like a daughter of Caltrans. The mothership builds the roads, then Traffic Safety comes on the scene, addressing the safety deficits with education and enforcement efforts. The OTS conference, scheduled every other year, is a forum which unites local government, safety advocates, and a whole lot of police officers. MADD, Mothers against Drunk Driving, set the tone. The 2011 Leadership Seminar was held last week in San Diego. The agency offers a number of scholarships covering tuition, travel and accommodation. I attended the Bicycle and Pedestrian track, other tracks covered DUI, drug impairment, collision investigation, engineering and leadership.

When we last discussed Los Angeles Municipal Code 80.27, we explained how a couple of sentences of city law makes it technically illegal to ride a child in a cargo bicycle or front-mounted bicycle seat.  While this law has been sparsely enforced, it is on the books and has been a thorn in the side of cyclists that picture a future Los Angeles looking more like Bogota or Copenhagen than the L.A. of today.

Our local paper recently ran the story of Edith Cameron, killed in a car crash on a road we sometimes use. We anxiously scanned the column looking for that something that one of the drivers involved must have done wrong—the thing that we surely would never do, like hit the road without a seatbelt or after downing a few beers.

A new ordinance that gives cyclists broader legal options after being harassed, assaulted or just run-down, heads to the City Council Transportation Committee for review before heading to the Full City Council tomorrow afternoon.  Bill Rosendahl has been championing such an ordinance since at least 2009, and now it seems close to becoming a reality.  If passed, this ordinance would be the first of its kind in the nation.

Last week, in the run-up to the City Council Transportation/Planning and Land Use Committee Hearing on the Bike Plan, Josef Bray-Ali wrote, "I don't think I can make it, but if someone can mention LAMC 80.27 (the anti-cargo bike law) and ask for its repeal as part of the bike plan that would be awesome."  The response from many people, including at least one Streetsblog commenter, was confusion.

A new study shows that, despite their supposed reputation as government revenue collectors, red light cameras are saving lives.