For the past two years, Los Angeles city officials have been surveying residents and business owners about what they perceive as hazardous for pedestrians and cyclists along the 2.5- mile stretch of Reseda Boulevard between Parthenia Street and Victory Boulevard in Reseda.
Based on that input, a $17-million plan to make the stretch safer, improve the flow of traffic and beautify the area is being rolled out.
Top priorities among those surveyed were the need for new and improved crossing opportunities for the young and old and access to the destinations they frequent, such as senior centers, public schools, social service providers and parks.
Reseda Boulevard, one of the main north-south streets in the San Fernando Valley, has a high incidence of collisions and fatalities, and the aim is to make it a calmer corridor.
Fifty people were killed or severely injured between 2009 and 2017 while travelling on Reseda Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Department to Transportation. Of those people 53 percent walking or riding a bike. Many of those people were either walking or riding a bike, officials added.
The proposed plan, called the Reseda Boulevard Street Improvement Project, is in the design stage and, if ultimately approved by the Los Angeles City Council, will take about a year and a half to complete and will most likely start in late 2020 or early 2021.
Solutions include crosswalks with flashing beacons, pedestrian islands, new traffic signal and protected left turns lanes, 18 bus boarding islands and a protected bicycle lane.
The money will come from leftover Community Redevelopment Agency funds and the 2016 voter-approved Measure M, which dispersed transportation money across the region.
About 75 community members attended a recent workshop held at L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield’s Reseda district office to look over the plan and get questions answered as time closes in to make any changes.
Reorganizing the street means eliminating some of the stretch’s 680-plus on-street parking spaces, but city officials plan to improve the four city-owned public parking lots that offer nearly 300 parking spots.
The basic element of the project is to get the roads and sidewalks up to par, officials said.
“In the San Fernando Valley more people die from traffic collisions than from murder,” Blumenfield said. “We need to make Reseda Boulevard a safer street.”
Statistics show every weekday at least 5,600 people get on and off the bus and another 5,000 plus on the weekends within the proposed project area.
“There are more bus passengers than any other street in the West Valley,” Blumenfeld said.
No travel lanes will be lost in the proposed project, but the installation of nine bus boarding islands on the north side and corresponding islands on the south side raised concerns for some attending the workshop.
The islands will allow passengers to wait in the area currently adjacent to the curb, so buses will stop to drop off and pick up passengers without driving in and out of traffic.
Jeff Mausner, a Tarzana Neighborhood Council member, said he liked that city officials are thinking about the future, planning for it and working on it.
He uses Reseda Boulevard to go shopping, doctor’s appointments and visiting friends.
“One concern is the buses will travel in the right lane and will stop and not pull off to the side. I see cars using the left lane more and those in the right lane going around the buses,” Mausner said. “It’s already congested. It will make it more congested.”
The project could include green elements like bioswales that help rainwater filter into the soil instead of running into the concrete-lined LA River and planting a lot more trees.
Lee Blumenfeld, an Encino Neighborhood Council member, applauded the project and was happy to see the green or environmental elements featured.
But he, too, was concerned about the impact to already stressed-out intersections along the Reseda corridor especially in terms of the bus boarding pads.
He said intersections have safety “ratings” and the proposal didn’t address that, so the jury was out for him.
“I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle,” Blumenfeld said, adding that the bus boarding islands, in his opinion, will obstruct the flow of traffic.
“(And they) could cause an increase of traffic onto the side streets,” Blumenfeld said.
The proposed project was discussed multiple times at the Reseda Neighborhood Council and surveys were conducted with all the businesses with storefronts on Reseda.
It focuses on safety as a priority and is based on Vision Zero guidelines and goals, while also seeking to ease congestion at the same time.
The goal of Vision Zero, an initiative between the city and its partners that has the support of Mayor Eric Garcetti, is to end all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2025.
“We’ve received overwhelming support for the project from businesses after having the opportunity to educate the community on proposed designs,” said Oliver Hou, a transportation engineer associate with the city.
Hou said the proposed bus-boarding islands tend to improve the flow of traffic and not make it worse.
“Instead of having to both pullout and merge back into traffic, buses are able to load and unload passengers quicker and more smoothly. In addition, bus boarding islands improve the safety of other street users such as bicyclists by reducing the conflict between bus zones and bike lanes,” Hou said.
