WeHo hasn’t shared Fountain bike lane plans with Fire Department

The Los Angeles Fire Department revealed they had not reviewed or even been advised by the City of West Hollywood about plans to cut down Fountain Avenue down to two lanes of traffic to make way for protected bike lanes, potentially impacting access and response times for firetrucks and ambulances.

During Monday night’s Public Safety Commission meeting, former City Councilmember Steve Martin brought up the question during public comment.

“It seems like next week the city’s going to be considering funding for the Fountain bike lanes, which will result in Fountain being reduced to one lane in either direction,” Martin said. “It’s really frustrating that there has not been, and does not appear to have been, any input by this commission. There does not appear to have been any input by the Sheriff’s Department as to how that would impact response times. There’s been no outreach to the Fire Department as to how reducing traffic to one lane on Fountain is going to impact the ability for first responders. … When Fountain becomes one lane and there aren’t always adequate left-turn lanes, there’s going to be chaos and gridlock on Fountain. And that chaos and gridlock is going to extend down to Santa Monica Boulevard. I’m not even aware that there’s been a traffic study. It’s very, very frustrating to watch how staff and Council have moved forward on this project in such an irresponsible manner, and I do mean irresponsible, because this is not the way we have ever done a major project in West Hollywood that would impact so many people. ” 

Commissioner Brandon Blau posed Martin’s question to Assistant Fire Chief Division 7 Drew Smith.

“Do you know if the fire department has been engaged with respect to the design yet, so any of that may compromise or impact emergency vehicles and how that is looked at with input from the fire department?” Blau asked.

“There are some great concepts out there, but we don’t want it to jeopardize our public safety mission either,” Smith said. “So, there’s a lot of creative designs out there, and yes, we would like to have and will have input on that to come up with the best solution we can.”

Commissioner George Nickle pressed further.

“There are also plans to do protected bike lanes on Gardner,” Nickle said. “So, have you been engaged by the city at this point as far as the plans? And what is your feeling about this? I ask because I know that when HLA came before voters in Los Angeles, the union—LA Local 112—the firemen’s union spoke out against it. They said it could impede emergency response times. How are we doing here as far as these plans and your input?”

“So, I have not seen the plans, so I can’t give any weigh-in on it and how it is,” Smith answered. “I would have to go and look at what my perspective of it is and how those impacts might be. I can say with our fire agencies—us being Los Angeles County and Los Angeles City—our fire trucks are the same length and size, so I could wholeheartedly say if there are some questions to be asked or some challenges that possibly need to be identified on their side, I feel strongly that we would also like to look at those same comments. But I haven’t looked at them, though, George—I haven’t—so I can’t take judgment on it, but I would love to, so we can see and make sure that we’re meeting the need. Because ultimately, we understand that there needs to be that traffic plan. We need pedestrian use—mixed-use—whether it’s bikes, street walkers, or stroller pushers, or what have you, to have those accommodations. But we really need to look at that public safety component with our fire engines and emergency apparatus.”

“I would certainly hope so because it is a matter of public safety,” Nickle said. “Hopefully, you’re being engaged and have absolute input before anything moves forward because we’ve been told that this was far in the future whenever it was brought up, and now it seems to be upon us. Especially for Gardner—there’s even a nursing home there. And I see this is my neighborhood, so I know it extremely well, and I see, unfortunately, there is a need to respond to nursing homes. First responders and fire trucks are there all the time. And when you’re there, even as the street currently is without protected bike lanes, you’re pretty much blocking everything, correct? So, I can imagine that it would make responses to that situation more difficult, correct?”

“Correct,” Smith said. “And we know that when—and I field questions quite a bit on this—when our apparatus are parked on an emergency, there are questions like, ‘How come they’re blocking driveways?’ and so on. We know that parking is a challenge and that people need to navigate their lives, so when we bring that equipment, it does have an impact on possibly the 911 customer service delivery and on people who are totally uninvolved with the emergency that’s going on, who of course are on a time crunch to get somewhere and now find themselves blocked. So, we know that navigation and parking are very challenging in West Hollywood.”

The contentious bike lanes have long been pitched to residents as a pilot project, but City Council on Monday is gearing up to accept an infrastructure grant that forecasts construction beginning in late 2025 or early 2026.