Sign This Petition… and then go get your friends to sign it too!
To:
Bill Rosendahl, Councilman, Eleventh District
Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor, Los Angeles
PREAMBLE
Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive are extremely dangerous thoroughfares for automobiles, pedestrians and cyclists.
City law enforcement, transportation and engineering have failed to provide safe solutions on Palisades Drive and Sunset Boulevard. It is of the highest public interest to provide safe streets in all of Los Angeles. Many recent fatalities on Palisades Drive and Sunset Boulevard have reminded us that one of the primary responsibilities of the Department of Transportation is to provide safe streets.
Our community stands ready to support and work with the City toward the accomplishment of these goals.
Petition
We, the undersigned, demand that the City, and its agencies, provide safe roadways for automobile, bicycle and pedestrian traffic on and across Palisades Drive and Sunset Boulevard.
Immediate short-term measures must be implemented, including but not limited to, increased enforcement, signage, education, and all other methods necessary to eliminate preventable injury and death.
Additionally, longer term planning, engineering, education and enforcement must also commence immediately.
We cannot underscore the urgency enough, and the alarming concern surrounding this issue. Every day that these roads go unchanged, residents of the Westside continue to be at risk.
xxxxxxxx, , Pacific Palisades, 90272
xxxxxxxx, , ,
Lance Linden, 3675 Empire Dr #106, Los Angeles, 90034
xxxxxxxx, 15332 Antioch St. #814, Pacific Palisades, CA , 90272
xxxxxxxx, 1405 Hillcrest Avenue, Glendale, 91202
xxxxxxxx, 4398 Morro Drive, Woodland HIlls, 91364
Shannon Bradley, , Los Angeles , 90069
claudia calabrese, , LA, 90069
xxxxxxxx, 11952 montana ave, #403, los angeles, 90049
xxxxxxxx, , , 90049
There must be a safe, productive, legal way we can slow these streets down. We are ready to help.
this is redictulis something must be done!
What about speed bumps? Seems pretty obvious, easy and can not be that pricey!? Every street in the Riviera has them? Why can’t Palisades Drive have them too!??!
The kids race down Palisades drive for fun. Their game is that someone drives to the top and someone waits at the bottom. Text messages are exchanged about whether or not there are police nearby.If it is all clear there is a car race. That is why speed was a factor in so many of the recent deaths on Palisades Drive.
Agree we need safer streets, better design, more police enforcement, etc. but the adults in this area need to take some responsibility for this situation. They allow their kids to drive fast, and drive fast cars, and they lead by their own poor example. The adults drive as recklessly as the kids, and they flash their lights to warn speeders on that rare day when the police actually try and catch speeders and make the road safe for all of us. Nothing will change until the westside adults change and accept responsibility for their own behavior and the way they raise (or fail to raise) their own children. That is the root of this and is the real cause for all these senseless tragedies. It’s a miracle more innocent people are not killed by the speeders and the self-centered west-siders.
Kids may race down Palisades Drive but I don’t believe that was the reason for the most recent fatality. Speed bumps would certainly help. The issue with Palisades Drive is that it is such a long road that a driver’s speed can build up without him realizing it. Before he knows it, he’s no longer in control of his car. Speed bumps would force driver’s to watch their downhill speed.
I myself have followed speeding teenagers home and then gone up to the door to talk with parents. I tell them l why I followed their child home because they were speeding at ——- ( fill in the blank) on Sunset Blvd.
I ask them why they buy these young children such powerful cars that they do not know how to drive.
The parents look at me dumbfounded.
I tell them that if my son was speeding 80 mph on Sunset in a new BMW I would want them to come and tell me.
It is such a shame.
thank you for doing this.
Andra
A related traffic safety issue is the shocking number of drivers who do not slow down or stop at the crosswalks and corners near Marquez School, or fail to give the right of way to pedestrians. Living near one of these corners, my husband and I see drivers speed thru these intersections and ignore pedestrians or other cars who have the right of way, many times a day.
With the high volume of children walking to and from the school each day, it is just a matter of time before a tragic accident occurs because of one of these reckless drivers.
We believe regular enforcement of the traffic laws near the school is badly needed.
Get our message out by designing a license plate cover with a message! Here’s a few to think about:
“Slow down and save a life”
“Keep our roads safe, observe the speed limit”
“I feel the need for SAFE speed”
“I am driving the speed limit because I CARE”
This could be a fund raising effort for the Palisades!
Get our message out by designing a license plate cover with a message! Here’s a few to think about:
“Slow down Save a life”
“Keep our roads safe, observe the speed limit”
“I feel the need for SAFE speed”
“I am driving the speed limit because I CARE”
This could be a fund raising effort for the Palisades!
We live right off Sunset and was the first responders to the accident that fatally killed Dylan Henry last year. Sunset continues to be a speedway and there will be more casualties if there are no efforts placed against this problem. There needs to be a speed study done immediately.
Too many lost lives!
Debra Green
Please…let us solve this very serious preoblem. The fast drivers are NOT just the kids….but how to enforce this very tempting road on which there continues to be horrible loss of live and property. Just Feb. 10 th there was another accident here in front of the driveway where I live, appeared to be just property loss. This was at 1325 Palisades Drive…it is very diffifult to make a left turn across Palisades Drive…as the cars are comming at such fast speeds down the hill!
I have read all of the comments posted here. I don’t personally know anyone who has been killed on Palisades Drive, but the loss of their lives has touched me nevertheless. Lots of people I do love drive up and down that road each and every day. It freaks me out to know that they are putting their lives at risk just by being there. Palisades Drive is not a race track. If you are speeding even just a little bit because you are running late you will not necessarily get you to your destination any faster. In fact you may only be ‘saving’ a minute or two. Is it worth that minute to put your life and the lives of others in jeopardy??? I will more often than not catch up with you at the bottom of the hill where you are waiting for the light to change. So was it really worth it?
As for teenage drivers it is important to be brave enough to talk with them about the responsibilities of driving a car. Remember always that getting behind the wheel of a car is a privilege and not a right. And with a privilege comes accountability. In fact there are probably some adults who may have forgotten this fact, so remind them too.
S-L-O-W D-O-W-N people. Shout it from the rooftops, put a message to those you love on their facebook page, put in your blog, just let the people you care about know of the dangers of speeding. Go to an emergency room and speak with a doctor who sees the injuries bodies sustain when involved in high speed crashes – it’s not glamorous, pretty or cool. It is just sad and tragic.
Spread love and caring to those you love, those you might love and those you may never love but would never wish for them to die in a car accident.
From a letter that I had sent to our congressman in 2005 with no response:
Sunset Blvd between the San Diego Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway
through Brentwood and Pacific Palisades is dangerous to navigate. I
regularly observe vehicles crossing over the center double line.
It seems that it would be worthwhile placing flexible rubber road
dividers at various dangerous sections of this stretch.
The placement of these road dividers should slow the traffic and
create a safer drive.
Thank you for your consideration.
yes its the drivers…
no S***!
this road i drive all the time, becuase i have to. seeing cops everywhere all the time is freaky and i guess thats how it is now. but think about it people, what happened was life. humans happened. people have urges people have feelings and compulse its just how the world is. death is a part of life the more begin to realize that the easier youll lives will be…
p.s. people flashing others for going to the speed limit and your going 35? seriously , your retarded i was driving home and 2 cars like nice Xenon lights blinked at me …. for going 50!.. im sorry people but THIS IS BULLSHIT, i was astonished and actually got very angry and wanted to pull over and follow this imbicile(s) about this becuase i could crash just for you blinding me which actually almost happened…. so everyone please relax and think about the real reason. its ashame all these people come on here complaining about other things that are rediculous
well anyways DONT BLIND PEOPLE DRIVING EVEN IF THEY WANT TO MAKE THE MISTAKE OF SPEEDING
No one has died on Palisades Drive driving the speedlimit or anything close to the speedlimit.
Please do not make it worse by entertaining thoughts of making the road straighter or speed bumps,etc. These only improve the challenge for those determined to get a thrill from driving fast.
Even the mounds that have been created by loved ones leaving flowers, etc. do not seem to slow them down. Do you really think a sign will?
In principle Palisades Drive is a very safe road if drivers do what they are supposed to do: respect the speed limit and focus attention on driving (that includes no talking on the cell phone, not even hands free as serious studies have shown).
Ideally, an effective, targeted measure to improve safety on Palisades Drive should affect those who pose the danger to others (and themselves). An effective, targeted measure should not impact the driving of the entire driving population along this road (like speed bumps or additional stop signs would). Permanent speed cameras (multiple ones whose location might change periodically) would catch the the speeders, even at night when police is around less often. If the speed cameras were set to catch anyone going faster than, say, 52 mph then the speeders would be caught and smaller variations around the speed limit — that can easily occur when going downhill — would go unpunished.
I would like to add Entrada Dr. to the list of streets needing to be policed. There is an accident almost everyday on the U curve. And the people speeding UP it form PCH go faster than those going down!! I have helped two bikers and a moped who were hit. I sincerely hope it does not take a fatality to realize how dangerous that curve is.
maybe a more precisely worded petition would be a good place to start.
As someone with four sons living in the Highlands, I am very concerned with safety on Palisades Drive. However, I am very much concerned by some of our neighbor’s attempts to turn this wonderful road into a police state. Given the accidents that have occurred here, I would say the key to safety is not to punish everyone living in the Highlands, but keeping an eye on your teenager’s keys. If your child drives 80 MPH on the wrong side of the road, they will eventually hurt themselves, as happened last month. Monitor your child, not the rest of us. Imposing police, cameras and other elements to harass your neighbors is a horrible ideas and undermines the community spirit of the Highlands.
I agree that drivers should slow down, but honestly- this happened to me the other day- when another driver feels that you are speeding so he shoves his front bumper so close that if you tapped your brakes he wold have rear-ended you, starts honking, flashing his brights, and chasing you- even weaving through traffic to get at you- then pulls out a camera to take a picture of your car, its feaky, and increases the likelihood of an accident. This “vigilante” bull**** does not help, and the other adult drivers in the palisades have to get that simple fact into their heads. No amount of angry DMV letters, threats, tailgaiting, honking, flashing lights, or pictures are going to stop people from speeding. and to those supporters of speed bumps – just think- do you really want 3 miles worth of speed bumps that you will need to travel over every day on your daily commute?
Ricky Bobby, I do not believe that anywhere have any of us asserted that vigilante actions are appropriate. The actions you’ve described only add to the danger of an already dangerous situation. Along that line, note that Speed Watch (citizen radar program) operates under the purview of the Los Angeles Police Department with strict regulations on its participants — they cannot and do not pursue or attempt to stunt the actions of dangerous drivers except through the warning letters issued by the LAPD. Those letters do in fact help, especially in the case of a kid whose parent receives the letter when otherwise they might not be aware of their child’s dangerous actions.