Rosendahl to MTA: No Bus Lanes on Our Boulevard

advocates a downtown-to-the-ocean bus lane initiative if the route is continuous and includes the city of Santa Monica.

Rosendahl opposes the current Wilshire Boulevard rush-hour-only bus lanes proposal because it includes Brentwood but exempts Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and the "condo canyon" in Westwood.

The project's upbeat , released Friday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), hasn't changed his mind.

Dedicated rush-hour-only bus lanes within Los Angeles boundaries need the approval of the City Council, and MTA won't get it.

Brentwood Patch spoke with Rosendahl Monday evening.

Brentwood Patch: Did you download all three dozen EIR files from the MTA?

Bill Rosendahl: Paul Backstrom, who is my transportation guy, is taking a better look at it, but my position is pretty clear.

I want to do it in two phases. Phase One is from the border of Beverly Hills on the east side to downtown; see how that works and then look at Phase Two.

I have a problem with the section in my district, from Centinela to the 405; Santa Monica is not participating and it becomes very problematic for the gridlock moments from about 3:30 on about how they squeeze in to two left lanes to get onto the 405.

My constituents on the showed me how their iPhones check  the traffic; it's solidly red until you hit the 405, and then if you stay on Wilshire, on the other side, doesn't have much traffic on it at all.

Obviously the reality that we have is that piece of Wilshire feeds the 405 which feeds the 10, the Valley, the South Bay to East LA. It becomes really a problem if Santa Monica isn't participating in it.

Some people think it's going to make it even slower to go from Santa Monica to that Patch—1.2 miles of that is my stretch. The question I have is can we get a valid traffic study there to prove it's more effective or less effective? Every anecdotal story I get is that is less effective if we don't have Santa Monica participating with us.

And for the entire bus-only lanes to be effective it has to go from the ocean all the way to downtown and that means Beverly Hills has to participate. That's where I'm at.

Patch: The traffic estimates in the EIR are all based on two 30-minute surveys of midweek evening peak traffic at Wilshire at Federal and Wilshire and Barrington in 2008. Did you know that? [See photo.]

Rosendahl: Well, there ya go. 

Patch: Also in the EIR: "The city of Santa Monica was not included as part of this project because it includes the tail end of the corridor (approximately 2.5 miles), where passenger demand drops off."

Rosendahl: When Prop. 13 was passed [limiting real estate tax increases], Santa Monica changed their laws and became extremely interested in attracting businesses so they could get sales tax revenues. They went from property tax to sales tax. They changed zoning.

We have roughly 200,000 cars that come through my district every morning to get to work in Santa Monica. In the afternoon my congestion peaks roughly from Centinela to the 405, which is purely traffic coming from Santa Monica. Unfortunately there are not enough buses, and vehicular traffic–coming from everywhere–is going to Santa Monica.

I just wish their cooperation on traffic flow could be more meaningful, and this is part of the reality I'm dealing with.

Patch: Now that the EIR is out the next move belongs to the City Council.  When do you think you'll be taking that up?

Rosendahl: I can't give you an exact date but we'll be pretty clear that we'd like to deal with phases–Phase One going from downtown to the border of Beverly Hills and Phase Two going through Beverly Hills and all the way to Santa Monica.

When the "condo canyon" area was taken out, it become a political problem for me.

"How an they have that [an exception from the bus lanes] and we can't?" people said.

But for me it's more of a traffic issue. Is this going to relieve traffic or make it more congested? Frankly there is no compelling story that it's going to be easier with a bus-only lane—it's going to be worse.

Patch: How do you judge the best solution?

Rosendahl: That's exactly why we need a new traffic study. All of the anecdotal stories from my constituents including the merchants along Wilshire say it would make things more problematic.

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