One-Way Plan Has Merit, but--

In an effort to relieve increasing traffic gridlock in downtown Los Angeles, city officials have proposed converting six major north-south streets into one-way thoroughfares. The idea has merit, but careful consideration should be given to making an exception to the plan for the busy Broadway shopping district.

The City Council’s Transportation and Traffic Committee began to study the new traffic plan last week, and ordered up an ordinance that would begin the first phase of the changeover--the conversion of Figueroa Street, between 2nd and 10th streets, to carry only northbound traffic, and of Flower Street, between 3rd Street and Washington Boulevard, for southbound traffic. This is the least controversial phase of the plan--not surprising, since the construction of high-rise office towers that have helped bring heavier traffic to downtown has been centered on those two streets. Still under study are the conversion of Hill Street and Grand Avenue into southbound streets, and of Olive Street and Broadway into northbound streets.

In the case of Broadway, the change would affect traffic from Washington all the way to Bernard Street in Chinatown. But the most vociferous objections to the one-way plan have come from Broadway merchants between 2nd and 9th streets. They fear that changing Broadway to a one-way street would speed up automobile traffic and reduce the number of bus stops along the way, making the area less hospitable to the many pedestrian shoppers who currently use it.

Traffic engineers and the city’s redevelopment agency argue that such fears are unfounded. Officials of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, however, are also concerned about a reduction in bus stops and the need for rerouting bus lines that the changeover would entail. The Broadway merchants have hired their own traffic expert to draw up an alternative one-way street plan. There are enough questions about the effect that a one-way changeover would have on Broadway to delay that street’s conversion until alternative plans can be studied.

The seven-block stretch of retail stores and theaters along Broadway, most of which cater to the city’s large Latino population, is one of the busiest shopping areas not just locally but in the nation as well. It is also one of the few non-enclosed centers of street life left downtown. It would be shortsighted to alter its unique ambiance for the sake of more cars without a serious and thorough study of possible alternatives.