case summary: We won! Pdr's LANES are BACK!

District 11 Councilmember Mike Bonin conceded that the road diets in Playa del Rey were “extremely unpopular,” and all lanes have been restored. Other safety measures were implemented, including speed feedback signs, flashing beacon crosswalks, speed tables and head starts for pedestrians at crossings. These were exactly the solutions that should have been implemented from the start.

Your calls and emails, your donations and encouragement were an essential part of the fight. Because people stood together, we got our lanes back. KeepLAMoving is deeply grateful to the residents, commuters, and businesses owners in Playa del Rey; to the Westchester/Playa Neighborhood Council; to the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce; to the South Bay Cities’ leaders; to our donors and to the individuals of KeepLAMoving who kept up the fight. And thank you to the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation for making it right.

The road diets in Playa del Rey caused more than 50 accidents in just 4 months on streets where accidents previously averaged fewer than 12 per year. They damaged lives and livelihoods, families, businesses, and communities. In an effort to reduce the number of cars on the roads, proponents forgot about the human beings in those cars. They forgot that being able to drive — to work, to school, to the doctor, to home — is essential the average person in this spread out metropolis.

Now that the roads have returned to normal, we can all show our gratitude by patronizing the businesses in Playa del Rey, driving at safe speeds, watching for pedestrians and cyclists, and helping each other enjoy the ride. 

L.A. has plans for many more arterial road diets, despite engineering standards that prohibit them on essential, heavily traveled roads. If elected officials look carefully at the actual causes of accidents, they’ll find that there are better ways to make streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike. Those solutions are key to keeping L.A. moving safely.