West Hollywood has installed safety measures on Fountain Avenue over the years including high-visibility crosswalks and radar speed signs. (photo by Edwin Folven)

At the Aug. 4 West Hollywood City Council meeting, City Manager David Wilson gave councilmembers safety recommendations for Fountain Avenue.

The discussions came in the wake of a July 10 hit-and-run on Fountain Avenue that claimed the life of 27-year-old bicyclist Blake Ackerman. At the beginning of the Aug. 4 meeting, Mayor Chelsea Byers announced the meeting would be adjourned in remembrance of Ackerman, and Councilwoman Lauren Meister read a message from a friend of the cyclist. Ackerman’s death, along with other recent traffic collisions, have reignited debates in the city for increased bike lanes on Fountain Avenue.

In recent years, West Hollywood added signalized traffic crosswalks in major traffic corridors to promote pedestrian safety, including on Fountain Avenue, City Manager David Wilson said at the meeting. The speed limit was reduced on Fountain Avenue to 30 mph and radar speed signs were added. The city also installed in-road warning lights on crosswalks on Fountain Avenue, which flash when a pedestrian is crossing, Wilson said.

Wilson also recommended the council implement more immediate solutions to Fountain Avenue before the completion of the entire streetscape project. He recommended eliminating peak hour parking restrictions on Fountain Avenue, changing traffic signal timing cycles to automatically cycle from green to red instead of relying on censors and to implement longer pedestrian intervals at crosswalks, which would provide additional time for pedestrians to cross before a traffic light changes.

Vice Mayor John Heilman encouraged city staff to analyze how removing peak parking restrictions on Fountain Avenue would impact already congested traffic at the intersection of Holloway Drive and La Cienega Boulevard. Councilman John Erickson called on Lt. Fanny Lapkin, of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, to answer questions on Fountain Avenue traffic enforcement.

Lapkin said the sheriff’s department increased traffic enforcement since January and that 46 traffic citations were issued on Fountain Avenue the day that Ackerman was struck and killed. However, she said that ticketing alone would not solve Fountain Avenue’s problems.

“Enforcement is a way of educating, and we say sometimes the only way people learn is through their pocketbook. But no. That’s not something I can say that ‘yes, ticketing is going to get our way out of this,’” she said.

Lapkin also said despite increasing enforcement and tripling citations on Fountain Avenue, the sheriff’s department is too short staffed to deploy more deputies to the corridor, especially with public safety concerns in other parts of the city.

“Even if I put a deputy 24/7, we’re not going to be able to fix everything,” she said. “It has to do with individual drivers, it has to do with people taking responsibility.”

West Hollywood does not currently have red light cameras and separate speed cameras are not allowed for local cities by state law, Lapkin said.

The West Hollywood City Council will discuss redesigns to Fountain Avenue and provide direction at the Sept. 15 City Council meeting.

West Hollywood will host a Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project community meeting on Aug. 19 at the Plummer Park Community Center, where residents can view updated streetscape plans and share their views on the street. The city will also host a Transportation and Mobility Commission meeting on Aug. 20 and a Public Facilities, Recreation and Infrastructure Commission meeting on Aug. 26 for the public to learn more about the project and provide feedback.