West Los Angeles Community Police Advisory Board
A Partnership Between the Community and the LAPD

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C-PAB TRAFFIC COMMITTEE MINUTES

October 12, 2004
8:15am-10:00am
West L.A. Police Station
Roll Call Room

8:37 a.m. Meeting called to order by the Chair Robert A. Ringler. Robert thanks everyone for coming.

Introduction of Guests

Robert asked that everyone sign the roster. New members of the Committee introduced themselves.

Attendees

Robert A. Ringler, Chairman
Steve Twining, Roscomare, CPAB, Vice Chairman, Chair of the Handicap Placard Committee, Parliamentarian,
Treasurer, Westside Neighborhood Council, Chair Traffic and Public Safety
Stan Arcader, Cheviot Hills HOA, CPAB
Tony Barba, Fox Studios
Noreen Brau, Brentwood Homeowner's Association
Joanna Brody, Benedict Hills Estates
Barbara Broide, Westwood South of Santa Monica Boulevard HOA, Deputy Council District Five
Pauline Chan, LADOT, Community Program Division, Senior Transportation Engineer
Officer Mike Davis, West Traffic Division LAPD
Mark Edward, CD 11-Field Deputy
Officer Mike Goldstein, West Traffic Division
Jane Gould, Holmby-Westwood POA
Sgt. Richard Harper, LAPD-West Traffic Div.-CTSU
Bette Harris, CPAB, Brentwood Community Council
Officer Trisha Karandy, LAPD-WLA E-Car
Jeff Keeler, Quicksilver Tow, West LA OPG
Mel Leventhal, South Robertson Neighborhood Council
Rich Levier, Castle Heights Neighborhood Association
Jody Litvak, MTA
Mike Metcalfe, Westwood HOA
Anita Miller, Brentwood Park Property Owners Association
Larry Miller, Brentwood Park Property Owners Association
Tom Mitchell, CPAB member
Debbie Nussbaum, WHOPA
Patti Post, CPAB, Pacific Palisades Community Council
Officer Susan Quan, LAPD, CPAB Coordinator
Bill Schroeder, CPAB
Warren Sefton, CPAB
Gordon A. Smith, C-PAB Traffic/Benedict Cyn. HOA
Lore Stone, CPAB
Paul Verdon, Holby/Westwood HOA

Approval of Minutes

Robert A. Ringler asked for corrections or additions to the September 14, 04 minutes. Samantha Greenberg in the attendees list, is also chair of the Placard Committee along with being Parliamentarian and today's Treasurer. Diana Armijo, she should be listed as being with LADOT Parking Enforcement. Stacey Antler, motion to approve.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Report

Jodie Litvak-Regarding the Wilshire Corridor Bus Lane Project, the LA City Council voted to make it permanent. The MTA Board along with the wishes of Councilwoman hope to expand the line. West to Santa Monica and East to the Federal Property and we're also looking at other areas in the County where this could be feasible. The MTA also voted to issue local bonds, to locally fund five major projects, one of which is phase I of the Expo Line, a light rail line, that advances two to three years to get this going. Phase I, gets us from downtown to Venice and Robertson in Culver City.

Guest Speaker

Nancy Michali, Director of Metro Operations This is one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on, I used to be Manager of Rail Development and worked on a significant number of the rail projects. One of these projects was the Crenshaw Corridor and it wasn't going to be implemented until 2019. In the meantime, we're all drowning in traffic and congestion. What are we going to do before then? Previously, I was with the Orange County Transit Authority, I had a chance to restructure the bus system. We got to do some very creative, exciting things that really made a difference. Why are we looking at our bus system at this point? And quite frankly, we haven't looked at our bus system from a regional perspective since 1978. Since 1978, we've experience job and population growth, since then over 4 million people have joined us in the region. And it is forecasted we're going to have another 3 million in the next 10 years. There has also been a shifting of population densification and expansion. Currently, we have new transportation options, like Metro Link, Metro Rail, Metro Rapid, and we have the bus. Today, we have 81 service providers.

In the past our system was very downtown LA oriented, and what we are looking at now is really LA County is a County of many diverse communities. Our studies show that people stay within their own sub region. 80-85% travel stays within a sub-region. We're looking at how do we better serve those subregions, how to better serve and connect our bus resources at a regional effort. We're looking at a 'Hub and Spoke,' which we call Metro Connections. Where the centers are very community oriented transit centers. We're looking at the year 2010.

The Seattle experience, initially focused on downtown, peak period travel, and through service. The revised plan which will be rolled at in 2006, emphasizes multi-destinations, all-day, two-way travel, and destination-based service. Our project overview starts off with the identification and analysis of: community centers, initially these will be broad brush strokes, for example downtown Burbank, Hollywood, were not indicating specific location or facility. Then we started to look at the key travel corridors. How people will be traveling to and from those areas. As we develop those travel corridors some of the centers have fallen off the table and new ones have risen up. We hope will result in a regional system plan. That we will be implementing the first phase in December of 2005, which will be rolled out over a period of 2-3 years. There may be an associated capital program, that may take longer. My background is as an architect and urban designer, I am very conscious how transit fits in and serves the community.

We're looking at a four-tiered concept of these centers, one that is:

1. 'Regional', is one that would be incorporated in a mixed use development and it would be connected with a high capacity, high speed, backbone system. And that is Metro Link, Metro Rail, and Metro Rapid and we have a lot of bus transit ways: the El Monte, the Harbor, and now the Orange Line in the Valley.

2.Then a 'Sub-regional' one, one that just serves the local area, like the Westside and it serves the residents.

3. A 'Community' center is one that might be a smaller scaled one. This could be a center that becomes the entry point of a community and the corresponding transit corridor.

4. 'On street' stops will continue to be the majority of our entry points. We will be looking at how you upgrade these stops and how you enter and experience the system. People want a bus that runs on time, they want to feel safe, they want a clean bus, and a pleasant driver and they want to understand how they can get back.

We came up with 81 possible centers based on future year forecast information. For example, Beverly Hills has a 15% load share, that means 15% of the people coming to work in Beverly Hills take the bus. Century City is 18%, so we already have high numbers out there at some locations. Other centers like Warner Center is 3%. Long Beach has started to approve plans for 6 million square feet of mix use development adjacent to the airport. That is something that will need to be considered in the future and need to be aware of. Another key issue is having community input, that is very important in deciding where these possible centers may be implemented.

We have identified six regional centers, in the Westside/Central Area, which is basically from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The six centers are, based on employment and population:

1.Hollywood
2.Mid-Wilshire (Wilshire-Vermont)
3.Union Station
4.West Los Angeles (La Cienega)
5. Westwood/UCLA
6. Santa Monica (Downtown)

The proposed sub-regional centers include:

1. Beverly Hills/Century City
2. Crenshaw District
3. Culver City (Downtown)
4. 7th/Metro Center
5. Mid-Cities (Pico-Rimpau)
6. Koreatown (Wilshire-Western)
7. USC/Exposition
8. Third/Fairfax

We also looked at the corridor analysis, we looked at County to County, for example 94% in 2010 will still remain in LA County and 6% will be traveling to other Counties. Number one destination to another County, 60% go to Orange County, number two; San Bernardino, number three; is Riverside, and number four; is Ventura County. We also looked at sub-region, what we found in the Westside/central Area, you have the strongest travel connections within your own sub-regions. You stay within your own area for travel. The only changes are, going to the central area from the west and into the San Fernando Valley. For a center to center perspective, when we look at the Santa Monica, Westwood and West LA. What we looked at as key indicator of trips, was the number of internal trips, in 2010 how many of the trips stay within a one and a half mile area of each of the trips. These are all modes of transportation.

On a sector perspective, we have a Governance Council, that represents all of you to MTA and meets on a monthly basis. We've also pulled in all the service providers in the sub-region and better coordinate our services. One of the purposes of this analysis is to the see if the current providers are meeting the needs of the community and what needs need to be changed as we approach 2010. We're interested in future travel patterns and needs. The fit of existing services. We've found that we have missing services, which will give us the basis of implementation phasing. What we have found on the corridor connections, we have ranked them tier 1 and tier 2 have the best possibilities in having a transit connection. Tier 3 and 4, might be taxi vouchers, carpools, might be another lower level, that MTA facilitates, which would not qualify for a bus line.

We're still doing more travel corridor analysis and pulling that together. We're going to develop a Tier 1 system, which will include Metro Rapid, Express, and limited services for Los Angeles County. And we will be turning it over to the sectors who will be refining it from a sector perspective. Then we will be doing detailed service plan and identifying how we will roll that out, we are working closely with other service providers and we looked forward to continued Community/Stakeholder input. We're looking at a lot of input from January to April of 2005, I am interested in any detailed ideas you may have.

Warren Sefton asked how are you monitoring the trips you were talking about? Nancy responded with, we use the SCAG (Southern California Association of Governments) model that was done for the year 2010. This uses the 2000 Census and incorporates all of the transit systems. We compare that with the 2010 model and the request we get for service. We get 15,000 for trip information a day and that is not just new riders.

Leslie Hope I noticed you haven't mentioned LAX yet, is there any plan to have Metro Rail service to LAX, especially along the 405 Corridor? Nancy responded with, unfortunately for today's discussion LAX is in the South Bay Sector, so, I did not bring that up for today's discussion. It is a very strong travel corridor, and currently where the transit center will be at LAX is being played out in the City Council. We also, included the Playa Vista that we looked at because it will have a significant impact in 2010.

Steve Twining A lot of us live in the hills side and have a lot of cross canyon traffic. Do you have any data on how many people go to the other side of the hill, to the Valley, and vice versa?
Nancy, Yes we do. We have it a gross level at this point. We have not analyzed it. There is a significant connection between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

Jane Gould You mentioned that in Beverly Hills there was a 15% load share, and 18% in Century City. Do you know the load share for transit here in Westwood? Nancy thought the load share in Westwood was around 12%.

Mel Levanthal I'm involved with the bicycle study that MTA is doing that is comparable to this you didn't mention the study or the fact that they're working on inter-model uses and are there duplicate efforts going on. Nancy answered with, No. The people that are working on the bicycle master plan and I are working very closely together and are coordinating our efforts.

Leslie Hope asked what is the load share in Santa Monica? Nancy thought it was approximately 10% but will get back to the committee on the exact load share.

Steve Twining wanted to know if the regional facilities will have parking. Nancy responded by saying, yes, the regional facilities will have parking with it and now we're looking at sub-regional facilities having parking as well. We're finding that people would use Metro Rapid if there was parking associated with it.

Robert Ringler thanked Nancy and Jody for coming, which drew applause. Robert encouraged the committee to participate in discussions that include alternative forms of transportation as well as discussions regarding the automobile. There is no doubt that if less people used their vehicles there would be less congestion. So, the MTA provides a viable alternative to the use of the automobile.

Bill Schroeder asked the committee why it's so difficult to find a parking space around the station. I spent more time looking for a parking space than it does me getting here. With all these lots in the area can't we make some arrangements to have the committee park in one of these lots. Bill threatened to resign from the committee unless something isn't done to resolve this. Robert pointed out that the Officers have problems parking as well, since they can not use the County lot across the street. One possibility is the City lot that's adjacent to the city offices and municipal court.

Committee Reports

Volunteer Committee-Patti Post There is nothing new to report.

Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) Report

Community Programs Division-Pauline Chan I just want to report on one of the special projects I have been working on. It is the Speed Radar Program. I have been working on a proposal to do a pilot program to use photo radar equipment to do speed enforcement on local residential streets. The Police Commission and the Board of Transportation Commissioners met a couple weeks ago as a joint meeting, at that meeting they heard about the Speed Radar Program. LADOT submitted a report detailing a program that would include one or two vans operated in neighborhoods that supports such a program. The objective of the program is to capture on camera speeders that are going at a predetermined speed above the speed limit and then sending out citations. The Police Department also submitted a report supporting the concept of this pilot program. At the end of discussion, both Commissions supported the evaluation of such a proposal and to request the City Attorney to do a legal analysis of this proposal. As you know the City of San Jose has been running a similar program for the past 6 years. Other cities also have a similar program, some have a person involved others are 100% automated. Photo enforcement using radar is legal in the State of Oregon, Arizona, and Washington D.C. so, we have a lot of models to follow. We know that the Mayor is interested in proposing State Legislation to clarify any ambiguities that would make photo enforcement illegal. I'm very glad that Robert and Steve Twining came to the meeting to support the program. Pauline pointed out, if this works out this would only augment our Police Department not replace them. There are a lot of legal issues that need to be clarified. We will need the support of the communities and elected officials to offer their support to this project.

Pauline mentioned that at last month's meeting we had a presentation by Lan Nguyen on the Watch the Road Campaign, which promotes traffic safety in our communities. Currently, there will be a media blitz as well as I hope to make it more of a community program to highlight the top ten behaviors that contribute to crashes. We have a lot of collateral items that you can bring into your community. Lan Nguyen brought some of them to you, but we would love to hear some ideas from you about how we can use the Campaign's resources to bring that message out and customize it to your community. Some of you have already submitted the forms to us as proposing that your community be a partner in this program. So, I encourage you to keep that on your radar and bring us your ideas. This program ends at the end of 2005.

asked Pauline about the news item, regarding the Santa Monica Transit Parkway Project has been delayed until 2006. Pauline was unaware of the news item but did know that the City's Bureau of Engineering has requested an acceleration of the project with the intention of finishing by the end of 2005. LADOT has been asked how this can be accomplished by modifying some of the traffic control requirements that the contractor has to abide by, as part of the original project DOT has helped craft traffic control requirements.

Noreen Brau asked Pauline where to get the forms to sign up for 'Operation Watch the Road'. Pauline said she would be happy to get that information if you give her your information.

reported that the project staff of the Santa Monica Transit Parkway Project, Tanya Durrell and Carl Nelson and have called in local homeowners groups who are most affected by the project. The original completion date was 2005 and they indicated that at the current rate they estimated it won't be completed until August 2006. The community is very concerned about the delay since we have to live with it and our troubled by having the city approve the plans and then DWP come in later to change them. It also came to our attention that the Metropolitan Water District has a major water line to Santa Monica, which also has to be replaced. Why wasn't this part of the original plan? As part of the original EIR there were to be three lanes in each direction now we're told in order to expedite this project it will need to be reduced to two at times. Construction would be allowed during peak morning rush hours. Currently, construction starts at 9am, they would like to start at 7am. There will be construction on Saturdays from 8am-4pm as needed. Barbara wasn't sure if they had been invited in to discuss the changes or if this was a "done deal." Carl indicated that it was a 'done deal' and further indicated they may have to come back to the table again to discuss future modifications to their schedule. Pauline Chan added that DOT has identified certain traffic calming mitigation measures that we would like the neighborhoods to consider that address some of the potential spillage of regional traffic onto the neighborhood streets. I look forward to meeting with your homeowners associations to explain the logic behind some of them.
-Paul Backstrom from CD 5 added all these proposals are reversible. So, if this proposal becomes a disaster it can be reversed. The Council Office doesn't want this project to go on any longer than need be.

Parking Enforcement Division-Sgt. Diana Armijo Nothing new to report.

Sepulveda Boulevard Task Force Update-Robert Ringler members of the Taskforce and LADOT met with the Brentwood Community Council last week to discuss the recommendations made by the Task Force. The project on the south boundary is Wilshire and the northern boundary is the Sepulveda Tunnel. Some of the proposals include a reversible lane component in the pm hours in the tunnel, which adds one lane in the north-bound direction, some improvements at key intersections, some widening, some bike lane improvement, right turn and left turn pockets, signal changes, re-striping along Sepulveda Boulevard. The intention is to improve mobility through that corridor safely. The next presentation of this Task Force will be October 19th at the Westwood Recreation Center on Sepulveda.

Community Traffic Reports

Benedict Canyon-Joanna Brody pointed out that the Benedict Canyon project form Mulholland to Hutton Drive appears to be on schedule.

Brentwood Homeowners Association-Noreen Brau at our Board meeting last night a board member brought up that on Bundy north of Sunset, particularly around Norman Place, there is a lot speeding in that area. On Kenter, Homewood and Tigertail there is a lot of speeding. On Kenter the City will be installing an edgeline.

Westwood Hills-Debbie Nussbaum We're concerned about Montana between Veteran and Sepulveda this is used by commuters. Even though it is posted at 30, vehicles travel a lot faster and we've had lately numerous accidents. We also noticed that one the west bound side on Montana that new signs have been posted saying Tow Away/No Parking between 3 and 7 pm. Our concern is that the City is trying to make this a two lane road, which would in our opinion create more speed and more congestion. This is a residential area with lots of children and elderly people. We're concerned that this would only create more accidents and make the street even more unsafe.

Robert Ringler received a complaint that the crosswalk on Santa Monica Boulevard at Barry, that no one is obeying the crosswalk. Vehicles consistently do not give the pedestrians the right of way in that crosswalk and needs to be enforced.

Westwood South-Barbara Broide There are a number of complaints by the residents on Overland Avenue as it has taken up the overflow traffic that normally would use Motor Avenue as well as Santa Monica Boulevard. We are looking at gridlock and when it is not gridlocked they're speeding and the residents are very concerned about his problem. We wanted to thank DOT for reconfiguring the intersection at Pico by the Westside Pavilion. It is a work in progress.

Neighborhood/Community Council Reports

Bel Air/Beverly Crest-Robert Ringler The Neighborhood Council supports a yes vote on Proposition A, which will bring in more Police Officers, which we badly need. It requires a half cent increase in the sales tax. Barbara Broide wanted those who support this Proposition to be aware of that Tom Hadden is mounting an opposition to the proposition if changes or promises are not made to include prevention programs and juvenile diversion programs.

South Robertson Neighborhood Council-Mel Levanthal First of all I would like to thank Pauline Chan and DOT for moving traffic along Pico Boulevard. We're also experiencing more traffic south bound onto the ten freeway due to traffic being diverted away from Motor Avenue. Some of the residents have suggested that signage be included that encourages people to use Manning Avenue to go east bound on the ten freeway. There is signage indicating to go to Overland or Robertson but he encourages more signage to include Manning Avenue.

Pauline pointed out that the strategy for routing traffic around the neighborhoods bounded by Pico to the north, Overland to the west, Robertson to the east and the ten freeway to the south is to bring traffic onto the arterial streets, meaning Overland or Robertson, anything in between are mainly local residential streets, like Motor, Beverwil, Beverly, etc., the only point we could possible direct to make a southbound right turn onto National toward Manning. The only problem with that is you're directing traffic to go west to eventually go east, for a mile, in order to get to the on ramp and backtrack on the freeway. I question the effectiveness of a putting up a sign that would ask people to take a longer route to get to their destination. The problem is that on the eastbound on ramp to the ten at Robertson only has one mixed flow on ramp lane and one carpool lane and nobody ever uses the carpool lane. We have requested Caltrans to turn the carpool lane into a mixed flow lane. So far, Caltrans has not complied with that request. I'm not sure what the solution is but we are aware of the bottleneck. Maybe if the community dealt directly with Caltrans they would soften their position.

Westside Neighborhood Council-Stacy Antler On Friday, October 15th they're having another emergency drill at Century City, if you don't need to be there try to avoid the area. There will be a lot of streets blocked off.

Police Department Reports

West LA Division-Officer a Karandy reported we have lost one of our E Car members. We wrote about 750 tickets. We have received the laser gun that was given to us the the Bel Air/Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council and I want to thank you for that. Robert pointed out that the Westside Neighborhood Council also purchased a laser gun for this division, which brings the total now to three.
West Traffic Division-Officer Goldstein At Avenue of the Stars at Constellation they're doing a lot of construction in that area that will last approximately 2 years. There will be a couple of weeks where that entire street will be shut down.

Announcement of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on November 9, 2004 here at West LA Police Department. A motion was made to adjourn by Stacy Antler and seconded by Stan Arcader, it was approved and the meeting ended at 10:10 am.