Lawmakers added last-minute language to a bill that could affect a street safety project at the center of a debate between Mayor Karen Bass and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman.
The original project would have eliminated a traffic lane on a one-mile stretch of Forest Lane Drive for an updated bike lane and added a turning lane. Following pushback from surrounding cemeteries Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills and Mount Sinai Memorial Park, several neighborhood councils and local lawmakers who raised concerns that the plan would make traffic worse, Bass instructed the city’s department of transportation and street services bureau to come up with a redesign. Weeks later, Councilmember Raman and safe streets advocates who pushed for the project criticized Bass’s decision in the wake of a fatal crash.
The language, added before deadline Friday night, would prohibit a city with a population of 2 million or more from “reducing the number of vehicle travel lanes on a street that provides the only access to 2 or more adjacent cemeteries without prior approval of the governing body and the concurrence of the mayor of the city” and would require a public hearing.
Bass’s office previously said the new plans would create a protected bike lane without the elimination of a lane. A representative for the cemeteries did not immediately respond to comment.
“This last minute amendment to the legislation is clearly meant to stop one road safety project in my district, which is designed to save lives while keeping travel times nearly unchanged for commuters,” Raman said in a statment.
Michael Schnieder of Streets for All, a group that advocates for bike lanes, bus lanes and pedestrian safety measures, said the language would jeopardize street safety improvements, which include a push for bike lanes protected by barriers.
“The cemetery has enough customers. California lawmakers shouldn’t help send it more,” Schneider said in a statement. “People have already been seriously injured and killed on Forest Lawn Drive. After years of work to finally make this street safer, Sacramento is threatening that progress because powerful interests objected. Politics should never come before human lives.”
According to the city’s transportation department, there have been more than 95 crashes on Forest Lawn Drive since 2013. Those accidents have included four fatalities, including one on Aug. 13 when a 70-year-old man died in a solo crash just before 2:30 am.
It’s unclear what led to that crash, but safe streets advocates and Raman have pointed to it as a reason for urgent attention.
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