Adding bike lanes would worsen traffic, reduce parking spaces for residents, according to city’s study
At their first post-election meeting on Monday night, City Council will try to tackle one of the campaign season’s true hot-button topics — bike lanes on Fountain Ave.
Councilmembers will be presented with the study they asked for in 2021 on how feasible the idea is. The study lays out three options for integrating bike lanes, two of which would require the removal of two lanes of traffic from the four-lane road. The thought of an even narrower, more congested Fountain Ave. horrified residents who live along it, as well as WeHoans citywide who regularly drive it.
Former Councilmember John Duran broke the story to the public in a WEHOville opinion piece and made his opposition to the plan a central part of his campaign platform.
Fountain Ave. runs 1.9 miles through West Hollywood and currently provides what is known as a Class 3 bicycle route, having no dedicated or marked bike lanes, but allowing bicycles to use the vehicular lanes. The road carries up to 37,000 vehicles through West Hollywood per day — Councilmember John Erickson memorably referred to it as a “death trap” during an April 2022 Council meeting.
Eighty percent of its sidewalks are substandard, according to federal ADA standards. Any improvements to Fountain Ave. would trigger a legal requirement to widen the sidewalks to comply with those standards, which require at least 36 inches of a clear path of travel for pedestrians and people with disabilities.
The study notes that changes to Fountain Ave. would force up to 40 percent of the street’s traffic onto nearby Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards, prolonging rush hour congestion.
ALTERNATIVE ONE: Protected Bike Lanes
This plan calls for 7 to 8 feet of space for the bike lanes, as well as barriers that separate them from vehicular traffic
PROS: Best protection for bicyclists, greatest overall safety upgrades, sidewalks brought up to standard
CONS: Loss of between 150 and 190 on-street parking spaces on one side of Fountain Avenue
ALTERNATIVE TWO: Striped bike lanes
Alternative Two gives the bike lanes 5 to 6 feet of width, but no barriers.
PROS: Less disruptive than Alternative One, some sidewalks brought up to standard
CONS: Loss of between 35 and 40 parking spaces
ALTERNATIVE THREE: Leave Fountain Ave as is
If Council decides to proceed with Alternatives One or Two, city staff and the consultants on the project will produce detailed construction plans and provide cost estimates. If those are approved, the city will test the bike lanes as a temporary project.
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I’ll say this, making the protected bike lanes next to each other on one side for the full stretch would save space and keep some park, instead of 2 buffers with lanes. That being said, i love that they are trying it out to see how it goes. To note, the idea what “city study” the Author and Editor is referencing in the title, as it’s not in the article. Brandon was that on purpose to be misleading or just unfiltered bias? BTW, all these studies done in cities around the world, maybe here in the USA are almost always… Read more »
This is the one of the most stupid projects The City of West Hollywood has initiated. And the majority of residents DO NOT WANT IT.
totally agree.
[…] Hollywood City Council approved a pilot project to install protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave. in spite of fierce opposition from residents who turned up to their Monday night […]
Tonight at CC it appears that the Traffic Engineer does not exactly have the mind of an engineer. Not good news.🙄🙄
Let’s hope so. It’s time to return Fountain Avenue to the neighborhood.
End “Fountain Freeway”.
But by reducing lanes & parkPARKINGing in favor of a bike lane IS part of the MAJOR REPLANNING of WeHo, to wit per Guess Who, John Heilman … Like Trump, Trying to squirm on his belly back into controlling what is MOST IMPORTANT PARKING IS THE BIG (UGLY SECRET) OF THE ONGOING PLAN SET IN PLACE BY HEILMAN. REMOVING MORE EXISTING PARKING, EACH SPOT WILL ADD TO THE NUMBER OF PARKING TICKETS AND THE REVENUE THEREFROM. A DECADE OR SO, THE AVERAGE/GOAL WAS 400 PARKING TICKETS ISSUED A DAY. MULTIPLY 360 DAYS and Multiply avg amount of tickets (including late… Read more »
Your caps are unbearable….NEXT!
Your math doesnt account for a multitude of variables, least of which is that roads like Fountain currently that have “Peak Hour No Parking” are some of the most lucrative spots to give out tickets or worse, tow. The are not Full, Permanent Parking Spaces. I have one such situation on my street. Residences that need more space or have guests for all the buildings around here, don’t consider then ‘real parking spots’ because the over-night reality or lack of after-work parking. It also unhealthy for the amount of stress from moving and searching for new spots when they do… Read more »
Weho, where problems go to become bigger problems. So dumb. So Weho.
Bring your special interest concerns and aspirations to West Hollywood plant in fertile ground and watch them hatch and flourish. The graveyard of real values.
They are creating traffic everywhere. They can’t be this stupid. It has to be intentional.
Fountain IS a residential street. From New Hampshire Ave to LA Brea Fountain is 2 lanes this changes in WeHo in front of my apartment where it basically turns into a race track every night with some drivers speeding irresponsibly through our neighborhood where the road dangerously (and without much warning) switches from 2 to 1 and back to 2 lanes again, The city has tried many ways with community input to stop this. Crosswalks, bump outs “your speed is” signs with flashing strobes were implemented all to no avail. In my opinion there are 2 options to solve the… Read more »
Correct me if I’m wrong.
Isn’t the parking lane A NO PARKING area at Rush Hour to increase the driving space during rush hour
With bike lane going the length, you can’t suddenly have NO PARKING between 4 to 6 pm.
Gotten old, and haven’t gotten out much as such.
How about banning bikes on Fountain, transplanting them into neighborhoods where the air is cleaner, the landscape more inviting and you actually get where you are going within a relative time frame. Much less disruptive!😊
Makes too much sense!
Biking in dense areas are the only way you get real use out of them. This isn’t for fun, it’s an alternative transport. Like the difference between something you do for work verses a hobby. People that don’t see it as a serious want/need don’t have the empathy to visualize and understand, thus, of course you can’t see how it would work. Suburbs don’t need bike lanes, because commuting 15 miles isn’t what we are talking about here. Short trip replacement is what makes this work and it ALWAYS does. I’m from Minnesota, yes trail biking can be fun with… Read more »
Please anybody name one other city that has even contemplated removing the lanes to effectively strangle the flow of traffic, obliterate parking and shift traffic patterns into neighborhood residential streets.
The City prefers to do these listening sessions, think-a-thons, creative wishy hopey groups to keep the natives occupied while they lack the strategic antenna to layout clear proposals for the residents to start with. Taking years to come up with ideas and outsourcing brain power while maintaining highly paid staff whose chief talent is creating door stop sized Staff Reports full of Word Salad.
Another Wag the Dog Concept 🙄😢.
Hollywood Blvd.
It seems the situation was less intense, parking remained with a possible adjustment during peak hours, and no advocacy for bike lanes. It is also absent long stretches of flat speedway dynamics.
It’s called a road diet. Here are some cities that are studying them; many have been successfully implemented. They can increase safety without significantly impacting vehicular traffic flow.
Chicago
Grand Rapids, MI
Pasadena
Santa Monica
Reston, VA
Des Moines, IA
New York City
Seattle
Indianapolis
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/what-are-road-diets-and-why-are-they-controversial
Read up on them. The Fountain Ave traffic flow could be improved by not blocking traffic for left turns (which creates sudden lane changes), and not having to have rush hour no-parking areas (it only takes one parked car to block the entire lane – and create more sudden lane changes).
City street plans can be RADICALLY different. LAs streets can be radically in one city The City of WeHo has to go down as the most radically bad original and now permanent WORST STREET PLANNING CITY IN THE COUNTRY. The Fountain Freeway – is unlike any street anywhere I’ve driven. The only certainty is 1. It has been (40 yrs I’ve driven) not wide, long, and too overused. The continued popularity,/choice to fountain makes it CERTAIN that it’s still better than SMB & SUNSET. The two big boulevards on the north & south of Fountain have some flexibility that could… Read more »
I could name literally dozens and dozens in the USA in Asia in Europe. All the projects are the same, no one thinks it will work, says waste of money, then everyone eats their hats and wonder how they ever lived with the way it was before. Instead of just the advocates doing research, how about the denial people try it out.
How crazy to consider removing lanes.
[…] it might additionally require the removal of at least 150 parking spaces; another plan for painted bike lanes would require eradicating as much as 40 […]
Hey! parents who live around Fountain should have to ride their kids 5 miles to school on their bikes to appease the fascist on West Hollywood City Council that can’t even figure out what gender they are. Happy to debate any city council member any time of the day.