American Dream

Tom Rubin pointed this story out on the Transport-Policy Yahoo! group, and I think it's something that the readership might be interested in here. As for the residents of this area, I think the line "be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it" applies.

July 20, 2005 latimes.com
COLUMN ONE
'Calmed' Roads Led to a Storm
Engineers tried to ease Cheviot Hills traffic by slowing it to push drivers elsewhere. But only residents' anger is flowing more freely.
By Martha Groves
Times Staff Writer

July 20, 2005

Quotes:

For the most part, Glen Friedman loves living in Cheviot Hills, a choice Westside neighborhood with undulating streets and gracious multimillion-dollar houses.

If only he could get in and out of it.

The same goes for Chuck Shephard, a lawyer in Century City who in spring 2004 had to allow 40 minutes to get from his desk to his son's 5 p.m. Pony League games at nearby Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. That's for a 1.4-mile trip that Mapquest, the online service, says should take three minutes.

"People have become prisoners of Cheviot Hills," said Shephard's wife, Robin. "You can't leave in the morning or get back at night."

If it sounds like it's time for a traffic fix, consider this: The city has already instituted its most extensive neighborhood traffic measures ever to slow down and redirect the crush of commuters who pour daily through Cheviot Hills.

Many residents say it's the so-called traffic calming fixes themselves — four-way stop signs, metered signals, road narrowing curb extensions known as bump-outs, re-striped lanes and right- and left-turn restrictions — that are the problem.

The people of Cheviot Hills and traffic engineers are learning a sobering lesson about life in the vehicle-laden big city: In the absence of mass transit that gets people out of their cars, or more roads to accommodate the rising number of motorists, it's not enough to just push the traffic around. One street's sweet relief can quickly mean another's misery.

"Nothing is working on the Westside anymore," said Sandy Brown, a longtime activist. "All these wonderful mitigations, and traffic is backed up for blocks. If you really talk seriously to a traffic engineer, they'll tell you they're out of tricks."

For years, residents of Cheviot Hills have complained loudly to City Hall about traffic — with good reason.

Their affluent enclave of doctors, producers and lawyers, in the heart of the Westside, has long been the cut-through of choice for thousands of commuters trying to get from the Santa Monica Freeway to Century City, and vice versa.