The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink Aboutdocuments distributed4 , r . � L➢'i/F:a-aid � '� t ��ri•�• ��'Yj�4 t` 21 r Theclilenaiinasumsfr0m• Decadi*bdd state law' �a�aaes- c rorn�a�a�v desig�ied to pmtieet dr vs aimed at p��teeting 3�rom speed t s. 'The- laver 'limits that -refiept driers from speed - :. �Sl�res td�ies topost speea::. Traps gets.blamed..: : m #10-00 1,orOfi"Syears,out. .l3YLAU�i,AJI�EL�02d^� :�. •ofdat�#fieapQlieeeah'ttase. aidaf guns :or'#Oher elec- Shelia ; Rrow-was true.:de ccs vette shocked to learn;n the. speedingticoke tsthere springof 2009 that: - t Los More tli'an 20b' files Of, Angeles . 3' rouricil was I16i Angel@ streets Have ex planning to raise the speed pi e_d apeeci`iimits a�iid very limit on ZelMhAVenue, a*w little,' ; speed A* 4, p;' cement:. blocks. from leer home. ,in Whose , struts include Granada3iUls,.. - crosstowri•'�: thorougli`fares- A few weeks before, a-60- and -a � andful.o� corridors .year-old woman had leen that are 'r<ons3dered the struck and killed in a cross deadest' .Tor pedestrians walk on Zelzah,'Brown told audiiir�yclists . - the CityCouncilinanimpas- Thereit=lctionsonpDIIce signed letter. She said the using electronic devices has frequent round of screech- [See $peed limit, A201 Ing tires as drivers narrowly avoided collisions was proof that allowing higher speeds would put residents acid stu- .dents'in;danger:. ' need to die in orde � toprove _t .7s toyou?`';Brown asked: 'Two months later, the City Couticii ,raised the !speed limiVon Zeizah to 40 inph.frOni 65. Last Dee'mw to -45- mph ! even.. though Zelzah- it class fie is as one of the .city's iriost daa- gerous-stiedts for.pedestt- ans and bicyclist's, Zelzah's growing speed limits epitomize the catch- 22 that Los Angeles oi�icials have 'faced for decades on dozens of miles of major:city streets: Raise the speed iim- ,it or lose the ability to write most speedingtickets. rK at ht J -_". If "LA 4.k [speed Limit, from Ail coincided with a 77%drop in the nwnberof speedingtick- ets written annually by the Em Angeles Police Depart- ment, from 99,333 in 2010 to .22,M la$tYw. Traffic officers have been particularly hamstrung in the San Fernando Valley, where the majority of the city's speeding tickets are written and more than 130 miles of streets carry speed enforcement restrictions, according to a Times analy- sis of city date - People are driving like maniacs on city Streets.". said Dennis e, a foimer city [ ounCilmanintheVORY -who vorko'd as a traffic OM- Cer. OWS COstingpeople their lives.". . . . . . . . . . im Angeles has worked jrrmtiq _y up A an -to a* speedspeedd limits go traffic officers Can' ,rjsumethelrwqrkrenewlng � the ed Oe nits On mopelin than &W miles of sheets t1 ejasi6 M TranSrpOrtatIOIl Denali - jneit'0411 ale first irst -ed sti4tithe may. c6"aers Whe'themost dangefpi-isIor captures trail of lights !�r OM" cke4jd ii -. stretch of Wzifli Avenu�Jri bicych'its- and p ".46sklans, A LO*IG exposure the e 'a a vehicle's . the curb such as Izah- As �A result, -est lice can " z t speed, ed.- t. _qffir '.e Irn erseannowwri speedby�sigh or riving nue in 6 .,j�jtickietsonx�c)rithai'95 an 0 gside it; method -streets, e6inV4,ed- orItfiese -'st list street,. 0%1-n'2016,JDhrI MA -thrown out -in. 5 mph 'like rown 7 e. -said. In Decemberthe City ,. coatitdir St. "Officers do an d ttodo t Council raised speed i6nits- ''Dohiii tions, Nn r lia�i D ame of eSu_ma ons", i - , ong4miles h . ;A., - radar' H6 stretch T 6� 0 91 2-M. offla Thy W -J in the Valley. The city also .,.,With -.new 45 mph has Worbs4.Jn Valley steering lowered limits on 52 miles of 'ent �.ey din speed limit; tilan a v( je enforcem .I�C;iaqre streets where traft. has . ! .. . 4._- . . ' . - de6dd6.fTh0,dWt Jca' I -§6ta to V N�rfh�jE - . CO. slowed 6 time, Mosby in to U_ not and soLuld T central and south JA Z. divides ed by' Some'streets, laidifig , ? 2 speeds I 9,61bod and.Chandier 13oule'- fudge fn zz eery 1y[s v ler 27, tries wi� az'- pee. Had not seen d viqi]rds_�h4 e� enforeementformorethanA soiL:" Sources: Nextgenl.op"entfreefmap JumigN -H. LANGE Los Apg&les �hnes 4: ; office as d Said, -decade. Drivers had grown 6 Scion b] to - speeders Qiet accustomed to speeding moving M.. I- t'-)ns,lnx W Ii2 the first two years of Vi- plenty,- w urges a 20. -a IC 11 gI 'hapeedlunit"t* PKAF Iii .said. Higher aver -ago speeds tionZeMpedestriandeaths mp N .., I v.In h, . W -W he I? - . 7cellphoneP,- , - _ _ , .. 'with no; citations, --p01.ice which using forced the city td raise t rose 82%. The incre—as sing- r- .Bests that pede h-CeTs cEM! .Ala speedlimitto esumeticket- str*ns are O'il'_tIW_ Pnit 7 Higher oing faster th that beingbAbydriversat to dc, 4' pp�eeding has beeomt� JiL speeds than -in the Past offs to have a' de Vignificalit stumbling block claIS say. Pollee, officers say WIS. for Vision Zero, los Angeles Aped,estrianstruekby'a betterto have an enforce-. able speed then t 0 ver -going 20 mph -as a able speed �_�hce C, also U tffi - mph other:5 Mayor.,E-riq -e-are, ettr s diiw •- h limit, even tive to eiirnjn�Lte t - r-affic, 909,6chancepfsurvival, but -A higher, than having none at and _1� devices to tic n6et6d y at 40 all, because they can ticket spi�j=s�� chopl zones, eet. deaths on city 'streets b 20%chance 6f survivaI i0eridOrs . - where the. ffim_�� -26 niph .2025. rnph, according �ofederal thewdrst radax. gials or - F en are sent of dAV( By one measurement, data. The datainspired the Without �F len c theproblemisgettingworse: advocacy catehphiase'"20is other electronic devices, tio- A eirthp street's re&k th.e.lirni SP6 * J - ' ntornot t IN spbed is Curre C C�,JVO aWor --- . transport!.-_"�, unietr-jit --WiIi:advoea[Us -a ifim. llhevi of the Policy t egs M som. j7d haw fast P Los An P generallydrive. Too F Citil s along a stretch of Zelzah Avenue in Northridge, where the speed limit was raasea. lice can estimate a vehicle's speed by.sight or by driving alongside it, methods that are less accurate and more likely to be thrown out in court. "Officers don't wantto do estimations," said LAPD Officer Troy Williams, who 'has worked in Valley traffic enforcement formore than a decade. "They don't want to go to court for nothing and get embarrassed by some judge- or an - attorney who. tries to act like Perry Ma.- som" Ynstead, officers will try to cite speeders for other movingviolations, including failing to signal or using a cellphone while driving, he said. Officers can also cite drivers going faster than 65 mph, even if the street does not have a currently enforce- able speed limit, he.' e. said. Police can also use radar and laser devices to ticket speeders in school zones, where the limit is 25 mph when children are present, whether the street's regular speed limit is current or not. California transporta- -ion advocates take a dim view of the policy that pegs speed limits to how fast peo- ple generally drive. Too many people already feel comfortable driving at speeds that are fatal. to pe- destrians and cyclists, they say. mates run the asylum," Sala bicycle advocate Stephen Box, who fought a ave of speed limit increases ^Toss the Valles,\nearly a de de ago. "A city es a speed s veytoenforce iespeedl' except nov eople can d e.faster." , added: "Tin 's no puma on Earth th t. can look at I s and say, v ':h a straight A ce, `That ma s complete s se,' except th. LAPDandth LADOT" California's peed limit 1 w was first d ed more t five decades' o, when poli officers first ti . us - ng r ar guns to titch speede . Fears me • d that tee logy would it easier - cities speed limits 'ar belovi the normal flow o traffic, pick rivers off one - one, and ckettherevenu tate officials en rsed a poli requiring eit s to postR °ts that are base on driver s eeds and that -e updated To ut the curb lane on Fulton Ave- nue in Sherman Oaks..The street, lined With, ranch houses, had a speed limit of 35 .mph that expired in 2012, according to records :ob- tainedbyThe Times. Doherty balanced a radar gun,orithe top of the steering wheel and took aim at -drivers zipping toward him with 'a screeching sound like a dial-up modern, the device began to display speeds for each passing ve- hicie: 37, 39,44. "Fiiftyy?ive, my," Doherty said, as a' driver in a black Scion blew past, rattling the van's windows. lie made a tally mark oil his clipboard next to "55 mph." A later analysis found that F ulton's critical speed was 42 mph. Engineers rounded down to 40 mph, then reduced the limit by an- other 5 mph, citing discon- nected sidewalks, varying street widths, and "dense shrubbery restricting views of driveways." The city set the limit at 35 mph= leaving it unchanged. Cities can reduce a speed limit by an additional 5 mph in some circumstances, as Los Angeles did on Fulton, by citing collision records, safety issues for bicyclists and pedestrians, or "condi- tions not readily apparent to tlae driver," including hidden driveways or a nearby park ovision on alzah, where enXpeers rile ed a criti- cal a ed of48 mph. Xting 13 ans and Xcyclists in Nee Years, the &V rounded t o esteel limit d to 45 xr�ph, Z n ase. To keeup with LA:: more than 1, miles of sur - eyed streets, `•ransporta- t cr ofiacials have ed to re - But during the at Recessio L.A.s rate far belov, that, as th Transportat n_ Depart- meat's survey cup lost five fits seven emp ees to hir- freezes, me r al letpve an early retireme , dfr- cials d. "It s a darktime fo he city, an here were a lot f things .. ended u# no. getting don ." said Meta driver speeds,Reynolds, " Dish a streetin enera n who was The Transportation De- partment denied The Times' request for the data- base -of streets with current and expired speed limits, de- spite releasing the same record three years ago. The risk created by mak- ingthe informationpublic as traffic deaths rise outweighs the publics right to access government records, said department spokeswoman Patricia Restrepo; citingthe balancing test outlined in the California Public - Re- cords Act. The department does not "want to release a list of streets to the -public where they can speed with impuni- ty," Rest -repo said last year. There's little evidence that a higher speed limit en- courages people to speed, Williams of the LAPD said. He cited a Federal Highway Administration study in 22 states that found raising or lowering the speed limit had little effect. That conclusion remains in dispute at the federal lev- el Researchers with the Na- tional Transportation Safe- ty Board recommended last year that of icials move away fromthe 85th -percentile pol- icy, saying it leads to "unin- tended consequences," in - eluding more speeding. "The emotional argu- ment is that raising the speed limit to 40 mph will make people drive- faster," Williams s ' "Put most ecple don't r know at the speed ' s when the '�drivi�ng.� Te, city oft' .'•-Ts say tead, street signs need change to force people to dri more slowly. he city plans -o retrofit s • ets that are d. .. ed to mo, as many ears , pos- sible —k=subtracting t tel so backed ch $ es to the stk.�J.e's 85th-pereL- rile law, but sere are few p al- ternat es. Attempts a , re- forming e iawhave repe A bill to stvt a test pro - Un for spe cameras, ich are barn ' Califor- died in commi ee last A r -ent bill introduced byRep. uraF'riedmara(D- Glendale) ,ould have al- lowedeities etspeediim- its up to 9 rep below the critical speed. It was gutted Ver a legislative analysis found that nearly half of ,i,4- at,., m i- oiimhia fnr many pe a already feel comfortable driving at NIspeeds that are tat to pe- - j_ and cyc s, they say. Y 're letting the �r- mates run the asylum," said bicycle advocate Stephen Box, who fought a wave of speed limit increases across the Valley nearly a decade ago."A city does a speed sur- veyto enforce thespeed limit — except now, people can drive faster." He added: "There's no human on Ewrth that can lcok at th*s and say., with a straight face, `Thai melees complete sense,' except the LAPD andthe LADOT." California's speed limit law was. first drafted more than five decades ago, when police officers first began us- ing radar guns to catch speeders. Fears mounted that technology would make it easler for cities to sat speed 1 ndw far below the norynel flow of to aMc, pick drivers off one by one, and pocket the revenue. State officials endorsed a policy requiring cities to posthmits that are based on driver speeds and that are updated regularly. To update driver speeds, city engineers visit a street in the late morning or early afternoon, park along a stretch of road without stop signs or traffic lights, and use an electronic device to measure the speeds of 100 drivers. They rank the speeds from fastest to slowest and identify the 85th percentile — that is, the speed just be- low the 15th -fastest driver. City engineers use that "critical speed" as a basis for establishing a new 'speed limit, typically rounded to the nearest 5 mph. On a sunny fnorning last year, transportation engi- neer Brian Doherty sat in ft:Lety issues for bicy is tended cons ences," in - an edestrians, or "con cludingmore spe g. tions n eadily apparent to "The emotional - thedriver, cludinghidden m t is that raising he driveways or earby park spee limit to 40 mph will Los Angeles also i jNsed the provision on Zelzah, where engineers measured a criti- cal speed of48 mph. Citing 13 crashes involving pedestri- ans and bicyclists in three years, the city rounded the postedlimit downto 45 mph, still a 5 -mph increase. L.A. fell behind during recession To keep up with L.A.'s more than 1,200 miles of sur- veyed streets, transporta- tion officials have tried to re- new the e-newthe studies for about 200 miles of streets per year. But during the Great Recession, L.A.'s rate s far below that, as th Transportation Depart- ment's epart ment's survey group lost flv of its seven employees to hir- ing freezes, medical leav and early retirement, offi cials said. "It was a darktime forth city, and there were a lot of things that ended up no getting' done," said Selet Reynolds, the department' general manager, who w hired in 2014. "This was on of them." At the same time, engi- neers, were forced to reeom mend higher speed limits o dozens of miles of streets mostly in the Valley. The in- creases required City Coun- cil approval, but some mem- bers em bers sawthe votes as so con- troversial that they let the speed limits expire without making a decision. "It's an autobahn," said David Lasher, who was rear ended on Rinaldi Street Porter Ranch. The posted speed limit is 45 mph, h said, and many drivers g much faster. people don't really know what the speed limit is when they're driving." , That's true, city officials say — and insteai�, street de- signs need to change to force people to drive nip: e slo7!y. The city st.z�5 ;s ! tat:: move as merry cess pm- sthle by iubt-ract'rsg travel lanes, adding bike lanes and budding medians. Los Angeles officials have also backed changes to the state's 85th -percentile law, but there are few proven al- ternatives. Attempts at re- formingthelawhaverepeat- edly failed in Sacramento. e. A bill to start a test pro- gram for speed cameras, e which are banned in Califor- nia, died in committee last e year. A recent bill introduced by Rep. LauraFriedman (D- e Glendale) would have al- lowed cities to set speed Um- t its up to 9 mph below the a critical speed. It was gutted s after a legislative analysis as found that nearly helf of e drivers would be eLgible for a $238 spending ticket. A new version of the bill would study efforts to re- n duce traffic deaths, includ- ing other ways to set speed limits. As legislators chew over - whether to overhaul the law, Brown continues to fearthat Zelzah Avenue is growing more dangerous. Her home is a few blocks north- of the 45 -mph zone, on ablock with no sidewalks. Drivers m scream past at uncomfort- able speeds as Brown and e her neighbors drag their re - o cycling bins to the street. Recently, she said, a driver in a BMW crashed into a utility pole, ricocheted - off and struck the curb on the other side of the street. Thentl'ie city raised Zelzah s speed limit again. "How many times do you have to hear screeching tires 1 and people running into_ each other before you decide this isn't workinganymore?" Brown asked. laura,nelson@latimes:com Twitter: @laura nelson Ilk u . 'ts- — jA V iitli- C7 w co rm- 0 C\j C - p cts 2