The West Hollywood City Council approved surveying Harratt Street, where West Hollywood Elementary School is located, to possibly reduce the speed limit. (photo by Sam Mulick)

The West Hollywood City Council codified speed limit reductions on six residential streets and approved further speed limit surveys at the July 7 City Council meeting.

In December 2023, the City Council adopted the WeHo Target Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to reduce traffic accidents and injuries in the city. During the July 7 meeting, the council codified speed limit reductions for six narrow residential streets, including Betty Way, Sherbourne Drive and Shoreham Drive, among others. The council also directed staff to conduct speed limit surveys on Almont Drive and Harratt Street to possibly recommend further reductions. Conducting a speed limit survey requires a focused engineering and traffic survey to meet the requirements for additional speed limit reductions under state law, with each survey costing roughly $3,000-$5,000, according to the staff report.

Harratt Street is the location of West Hollywood Elementary School and often draws speeding complaints, despite it already having speed humps. A mandatory 15-20 mph school zone speed limit could be enacted for the street if the speed survey recommends it. The residential portion of Almont Drive south of Melrose Avenue is also suitable for a lower speed limit due to it having short blocks, already existing traffic calming measures and being closed to non-emergency vehicles on the north end.

There was no discussion of the item. West Hollywood resident Nick Renteria called on the council to do more to protect bicyclists and make streets safer after sustaining injuries from being hit by a car in 2023 while riding his bike at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Crescent Heights Boulevard.

“[The] measure is performative at best,” he said. “A sign won’t change the way people drive. I was hit below a sign that read ‘Bikers may use full lane.’ We talk a lot about inclusion in West Hollywood, but our roads are exclusively designed for cars. We need to follow in the footsteps of cities like Santa Monica and build out a network of protected bike lanes.”

“I want to give our city credit by pointing out a huge success in street safety – the Design District,” Renteria added. “The city removed a lane of traffic both ways, widened the sidewalk, installed high visibility crosswalks and transformed a street that used to be a cut-through into a safe, prosperous street. I think this should be a model for the rest of the city.”