Westwood Village Car Ban to Become Permanent

Teen-age cruisers, along with other motorists, have apparently taken their last spin through Westwood Village on a Friday or Saturday night.

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said Thursday that the city will soon make permanent a ban on weekend night automobile traffic in the crowded commercial area. The trial traffic ban has been in effect for the last year.

“Today we are here to say that we are never going to go back to the way it was,” Yaroslavsky said. “We have returned Westwood Village to pedestrians.”

Yaroslavsky’s plan, supported by the Westwood Village Merchant’s Assn., the Department of Transportation and the Police Department, is expected to easily clear the City Council. Yaroslavsky said the idea may be duplicated in other popular shopping areas with heavy traffic congestion.

“This is not just a local neighborhood experiment,” said Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westwood area. “It proves (Los Angeles residents) will use an alternative to the automobile.”

The Westwood Village traffic ban lasts from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and covers a 10-block area of movie theaters, restaurants and shops bounded by Gayley, Le Conte and Glendon avenues and Lindbrook Drive. Visitors may park their cars on private lots on the periphery of the village or park free at the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue and ride a shuttle bus to the auto-free area for 25 cents.

Yaroslavsky said calm has been restored to the village since the car ban was enacted. The area used to attract bumper-to-bumper traffic on weekend nights. Police said pedestrians were often bothered by honking horns and roaring engines as teen-agers cruised the streets.

Capt. Maurice Moore of the Police Department’s West Los Angeles Division said the Westwood Village crime rate has dropped 11% since the traffic ban began. Donald Howery, general manager of the Transportation Department, said the village is also safer for pedestrians crossing streets.