The city uses traffic calming measures such as speed limit indicators on Fountain Avenue. (Beverly Press/Park Labrea News file photo)

The West Hollywood City Council brought the conversation, once again, back to speed limits at its May 4 meeting, this time by lowering the speed limit adjacent to West Hollywood Elementary on Harratt Street. Now, a 20-mph maximum speed will be implemented.

The move was part of the city’s Target Vision Zero Dashboard initiatives, which looks to evaluate reducing speed limits in cul-de-sacs, one-way or differently designed streets.

The Vision Zero Dashboard is a web tool which is used by cities to track traffic injuries and fatalities. West Hollywood is just one of many municipalities to utilize the tool. The dashboard has been used by staff to determine potential changes to streets within the city limits.

City staff asked that the Harratt Street speed reduction be made after other changes have gone into effect, since staff also obtained approval from council on the early implementation of Assembly Bill 382, a California state law that allows for reduced speed limits in school zones. This could mean more streets would have speed limit changes within West Hollywood.

“We’d recommend waiting for it to go into effect until other changes are made, given the administrative burden of making one single speed limit change at time, given the municipal code changes and everything that go along with that,” West Hollywood senior planner David Fenn said.

Fenn later expanded on the “fairly extensive process” for changing a speed limit within the city, which comes down to much more than a simple sign.

“It’s two-part municipal code change that would have to come to the council,” Fenn said. “There’s a notice of exemption that has to be filed with the county so and, you know, a new a new sign order with a contractor, etc. It’s really a lot of work to go into for one individual street.”

The council discussed other measures that might further deter speeders on neighborhood streets throughout the city, specifically targeting the efficacy of speed bumps and humps.

“After visiting Fountain Day School a couple of weeks ago, they were kind of telling me that there are speed humps now that people can just easily go over and not have to have any issues with their cars,” Councilman John Erickson said to city staff. “And so is there a certain type … of speed hump that will just completely mess up someone’s car that we can use? I mean, that teaches them a lesson.”

Staff did not have any further information on “intensive” speed humps. West Hollywood transpiration and mobility manager Tamar Fuhrer said that the components of speed limits and bumps work together so to keep drivers in line.

“That’s where the traffic calming plays a role, and it goes beyond – speed humps are one of the solutions – but that’s where all of these pieces work together,” Fuhrer said.

“I’m grateful for the demonstration of the dashboard,” Councilwoman Chelsea Byers said. “We know that these abilities to lower the speeds, especially as it’s around school zones, is a critical way that we can promote safety. And I’m remembering the last time you brought this opportunity to sort of comprehensively lower a bunch of speed limits, the media made hay of it. There were stories all up throughout the news, ‘West Hollywood’s lowering speed limits.’ And I think we benefit from a big city wide, holistic approach. Because we get the benefit of that promotion, which acts, as … our big mouthpiece. While we don’t always have the ability to have enforcement on every single street, 24/7, that promotion and marketing, I think, helps tell the story of what we’re looking to achieve in the city.”

Several residents commented on the item, expressing support for the use of the dashboard, as well as the lowering of the speed limit on Harratt Street.

“Looking at our Vision Zero data, we see that speed is a factor in a lot of collisions in West Hollywood,” resident Helen Krieger said. “And looking at that same Vision Zero data, we see that pedestrians are some of the most vulnerable groups. Well, kids are our most vulnerable pedestrians in the United States. Up until 2020, traffic collisions were the number one killer of children between the ages of one and 19, and in some areas, like the L.A. County area, traffic collisions are still the number one killer of children between the ages of 2 and 14. So that’s our school aged kids. So, I want to really encourage us to look at making it safer around our schools and lowering those speed limits all at once.”

“I think it’s very important that we’re continuing to protect the streets around our children and the students,” Public Safety Commissioner Stephen Post said. “But I think it would be helpful to include layers like bike lanes, no-turn-on-red additions and bus stops into the dashboard, as that would help us, especially on the Public Safety Commission, to give a little bit more understanding and context to where some of these incidents are happening.”

“I would hope that our council will use this dashboard, use the data to inform policies that balance needs for mobility and parking within our community, while still prioritizing things that will actually have the greatest impact for improving street safety,” resident Kyle Brazeal said.

Krieger, Post and Brazael are all running for West Hollywood City Council in the November election.