Fix the City Attack on LA Mobility Plan 2035

Fix the city, an LA advocacy group, is filing a lawsuit against the recently approved  the City of Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035. the lawsuit claims that the plan is illegal under the California Environmental Quality Act because removing car lanes will increase car congestion and thus increase vehicle emissions.  Fix the City Vice President James O’Sullivan said the city acted as a “social engineer" when approving the mobility plan:

“They want to make driving our cars unbearable by stealing traffic lanes from us on major streets and giving those stolen lanes to bike riders and buses,” O’Sullivan said.

“Don’t get me wrong — I love bike riders and buses,” he said. “But not all of us — in fact, very few of us — have the luxury of being able to ride to work on a bike or bus. We rely on our cars. If there were meaningful options to car travel that would be another matter. But there aren’t.”

Some points made in the article:

In response to Fix the City VP’s comments:  Wasn’t the last century's wholesale investment in the automobile  “social engineering”?

How can there be meaningful alternatives to car travel if every effort to promote alternative transportation gets attacked?

Shouldn’t car advocates be grateful that the Mobility Plan 2035 actually continues to favor expansion of car facilities on its Vehicle Enhanced Network and Widened Streets?

The funding behind the agency comes from long-time foes of increasing the city’s transportation options from the Westside. The agency is backed by people who successfully fought the Hollywood Community Plan which sought to allow taller, denser residential towers near transit stops.

In my opinion the lawsuit unintentionally reinforces the notion that LA residents hate traffic and that something needs to be done to address the traffic issues. Offering alternative modes of transportation will ultimately reduce emissions and increase mobility it simply needs to be given a chance.

The lawsuit should be a wake-up-call to Mayor Garcetti and show that there is no sitting on the fence.  Now is a critical time for a safe and diverse transportation system, even at the marginal expense of the desires of car commuters to be able to speed through local roads.

Lawsuits and Leadership: Where Is Mayor Garcetti On L.A. Mobility?

http://la.streetsblog.org/2015/09/10/lawsuits-and-leadership-where-is-mayor-garcetti-on-l-a-mobility/