The iconic intersection of Hollywood and Highland is now in the 10th month of an amazing streak.
Where 13 injury traffic accidents a year were average, there has not been a single one since a change was made last November to the traffic signal cycle, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.
Hollywood and Highland became what's called a "scramble" intersection, which adds a pedestrian only phase during which all vehicle traffic is stopped, and those on foot may cross either direction or diagonally.
Scrambles have become a favored tool of traffic engineers for not only smoothing flow, but increasing safety.
In recent months, Santa Monica has converted a dozen of its downtown intersections to operate in scramble mode. Besides Hollywood and Highland, Los Angeles has another half a dozen.
Both cities have committed to the Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic fatalities by 2025. LA Mayor Garcetti did so by signing an executive order in August 2015.
Los Angeles has a ways to go, annually averaging some 200 traffic fatalities in recent years.
News
Top news of the day
"We have a huge problem with pedestrian safety here in the city of Los Angeles," said Mike Bonin, chair of the City Council's transportation committee. "And so we're determined to fix that with ... Vision Zero."
Los Angeles has also been adjusting the timing of the signals at some 22 intersections to give pedestrians a head start of about four seconds before the light changes for vehicles.
"It gives more awareness to the drivers that pedestrians are in the intersection," said Tim Fremaux, a transportation engineer who focuses on safety projects for the LA Department of Transportation. "It's mostly to address right turn and left turn vehicles."
In engineer speak, it's called Leading Pedestrial Interval, or LPI. LA's first was installed on Broadway in 2014.
It's too soon for definitive figures on safety impact, but Fremaux said there is sufficient evidence of benefits to expand LPI use.
The era of renewed focus on pedestrian safety may be traced to 2012, when then mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a plan to begin re-striping the city's crosswalks, which traditionally have been denoted with two parallel white lines. More favored is the "continental," also know as zebra striping, with a ladder of broad swaths of paint, white or yellow, to make the pedestrian zone more visible to drivers.
In the four years since then, the city has prioritized re-striping intersections nears schools and where there have been accidents. With some 5,000 city intersections with traffic signals, and another 15,000 without, officials acknowledge it will be a matter of several more years before the re-striping is finished. The protocol now is to re-stripe when the road is repaved, Fremaux said.
As part of developing its Vision Zero Plan, LA's task force has gathered data on injury accidents and updated a map showing what is called the High Injury Network.
"We know that 3 percent of the street segments and intersections in our city are responsible for two-thirds of the deaths and severe injuries," said Bonin. "So if we can impact at 3 percent of the roadways, we're making a huge impact right away on safety."
Fremaux said re-engineering improvements will begin appearing more quickly after Vision Zero moves beyond the planning stage.
"The scrambles and the LPIs, that's just scratching the surface," Fremaux said. "In the next months and years, you're going to see a lot more physical changes to the roadway as we take our plan ... to actual physical implementation."
