{"id":98972,"date":"2022-02-21T21:04:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T03:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=98972"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:33:47","slug":"traffic-initiative-brings-hope-skepticism-to-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/traffic-initiative-brings-hope-skepticism-to-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"Traffic initiative brings hope, skepticism to Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alex Hutton
\n<\/strong>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Death, taxes and bumper-to-bumper traffic in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The city\u2019s large number of highways and lack of public transportation have made traffic a constant presence and created some of the worst vehicular congestion in the United States. Los Angeles has become so synonymous with bad traffic that the 2016 musical film \u201cLa La Land\u201d set its opening number on a congested stretch of freeway as a way of introducing viewers to Hollywood.<\/span><\/p>\n

A large amount of traffic can lead to more traffic-related injuries and deaths. Those numbers have increased in recent years, but a city initiative is hoping to bring them down. Way down.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vision Zero is a project with the goal of eliminating traffic deaths in Los Angeles by 2025. Based on a concept that originated in Scandinavian countries, it was instituted in Los Angeles in 2015 and hopes to diverge from the traditional model of traffic regulation to reduce and eventually eliminate fatalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vision Zero uses a variety of strategies in the hope of curbing traffic deaths, including increasing the number of bike lanes on streets and installing more traffic control measures such as stop signs, crosswalks and traffic lights. These tools have been placed in areas of Los Angeles with the highest rates of fatal accidents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVision Zero recognizes that people will sometimes make mistakes, so the road system and related policies should be designed to ensure those inevitable mistakes do not result in severe injuries or fatalities,\u201d the Vision Zero website says. \u201cThis means that system designers and policymakers are expected to improve the roadway environment, policies (such as speed management), and other related systems to lessen the severity of crashes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But some are questioning whether or not it is the best policy for a metropolis like Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many commuters that it\u2019s difficult to reach all of them and to get the buy-in,\u201d said Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Andy Neiman, who oversees the Valley Traffic Division. \u201cSo I think this is a program that is really designed and works well in a smaller, closer-knit community. We just don\u2019t really have that here in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also a substantial movement to lower speed limits, brought on by changes to state law. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation was previously required to set speed limits based on the \u201c85th percentile rule,\u201d which puts the limit at a speed that 85% of vehicles consistently obey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis meant that the fastest drivers on the road often set the speed limit,\u201d LADOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney said. \u201cIn practice, this required LADOT to raise speed limits every few years in order to use radar enforcement, even when there were no physical changes to the street that would merit a higher speed limit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, LADOT is no longer bound to this rule and can also lower speed limits previously raised under the 85th percentile policy. This aspect of the initiative has been stressed as particularly important to the larger goal, and proponents of Vision Zero are hopeful about what it can do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSlower speeds give drivers and others more time to react to prevent collisions and reduce the severity of collisions that do occur,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cThe new speed-setting law, as well as our ongoing safety projects, will help calm streets to improve safety.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But others in Los Angeles are more skeptical. Detractors point to locations where Vision Zero has successfully reduced traffic fatalities, including Scandinavia and Hawaii. Those places don\u2019t have nearly the same population density or historical traffic congestion as Los Angeles, making it much easier to overhaul the transportation system there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHawaii, obviously, is a much smaller state,\u201d Neiman said. \u201cTheir ability to control and communicate with their partners that are involved in traffic management is much better because they\u2019re a much smaller entity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The numbers surrounding accidents and deaths in Los Angeles have not declined in the way that was hoped, and Neiman said he believes the city\u2019s existing setup makes it inherently difficult for Vision Zero to gain any traction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStreets (in the San Fernando Valley) are very long, very wide, very straight,\u201d he said. \u201cThat tends to lead to higher speeds. It\u2019s very difficult to calm traffic along those types of roadways unless you do some significant engineering modifications. And that really has not been done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These struggles have caused the program as a whole to slow down significantly. Neiman says the project\u2019s weekly meetings have ceased, and he feels as though the city isn\u2019t doing enough to rejuvenate the program. Even advocates of Vision Zero are admitting their targets may need to be reconsidered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to zero by 2025 will be extremely difficult given where we are, existing resources and staffing constraints,\u201d Sweeney said.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he also said that \u201chaving the goal is important for accountability and as a benchmark of where we need to get to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But whether or not Vision Zero is the right way to get there is very much a question, and there may be deeper issues that need to be addressed first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take convincing drivers to change their driving behavior,\u201d Neiman said. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t do that just by putting in some bollards and some bike lanes. There has to be a real concerted effort in terms of educating the public. They have to buy into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Hutton is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow him on Twitter at @AlexHutton35<\/a>.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Hutton Medill Reports LOS ANGELES \u2014 Death, taxes and bumper-to-bumper traffic in Los Angeles. The city\u2019s large number of highways and lack of public transportation have made traffic a constant presence and created some of the worst vehicular congestion in the United States. Los Angeles has become so synonymous with bad traffic that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":821,"featured_media":98974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5201,5153,31,5212,5155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medill-explores-2022","category-quarter","category-sports","category-la-sports-2022","category-winter-2022"],"yoast_head":"\nTraffic initiative brings hope, skepticism to Los Angeles - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/traffic-initiative-brings-hope-skepticism-to-los-angeles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traffic initiative brings hope, skepticism to Los Angeles - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Alex Hutton Medill Reports LOS ANGELES \u2014 Death, taxes and bumper-to-bumper traffic in Los Angeles. 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