Traffic Officials Seek to Ban Skaters From Sepulveda Basin Bridges
Los Angeles traffic officials want to put the brakes on roller skaters and skateboarders who use two bridges in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area.
City transportation officials have concluded that the two bridges, though safe for bicyclists and joggers, are unsafe for roller skaters and skateboarders, and have urged the City Council to prohibit such use.
In response, the council’s Transportation and Traffic Committee recommended Thursday that the council give the Department of Transportation authority to regulate bicycling, roller-skating and skateboarding when it considers such uses to be unsafe.
The bridges over the Los Angeles River--one on Balboa Boulevard and the other on Burbank Boulevard--contain metal plates designed to slide as the bridges expand and contract because of temperature changes, according to a Department of Transportation report to the committee.
Transportation officials were unaware of any serious injuries to roller skaters or skateboarders on the bridges.
Though barred from riding across the bridge, roller skaters and skateboarders can use the sidewalk in the rest of the basin, officials said.
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