The Road to Traffic Safety

A computer screen in a high-security area four floors down in the bowels of City Hall East shows a flashing red box on a map of downtown Los Angeles.

The designated spot is the intersection of Adams Boulevard and Broadway, and the flashing light warns that the congestion there is severe.

The solution, says the engineer, is to increase the green light time on Adams Boulevard. A few minutes later, the flashing red turns to green.

Problem solved.

Welcome to the headquarters of the Automatic Traffic Surveillance and Control System, a high-tech system known as ATSAC that uses video cameras and computers to adjust traffic signals.

The signal system is one way that the city is trying to alleviate traffic problems. Local police departments have been doing their part in making streets safer for pedestrians by cracking down on speeding and pedestrian-unfriendly drivers.

Those efforts may be working. Transportation officials say traffic accidents statewide and in the city of Los Angeles have fallen in the last five years.

Signal System Helps Reduce Traffic Deaths

In Los Angeles, the number of people killed in traffic accidents--pedestrians, drivers and passengers--has dropped in the past five years, according to a report released by the California Highway Patrol. In 1993, the number of people killed was 364; in 1997, the latest year for which figures are available, that number fell to 297.

That may make some city officials breathe a sigh of relief, but others do not recognize much of a decline in the problem.

“L.A. is the land of cars and it really has become an unsafe place for pedestrians and drivers,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee.

Some officials attribute the decline in fatalities to stricter safety belt laws. Others say improvements in traffic signals have helped improve the flow of traffic in the city, which ultimately results in safer streets.

The ATSAC system uses video cameras and sensors embedded in the street to help engineers at the control center guide traffic.

Unlike conventional signals, traffic lights connected to the system can be adjusted within minutes to respond to extra-high traffic volumes or unusual traffic situations such as parades.

The first system of ATSAC signals was installed around the Coliseum area one month before the 1984 Olympic Games. Today, out of 4,200 signals in Los Angeles, 2,400 are connected to the system.

About 20 engineers are assigned to the control center, which has seven video screens, each with a live shot of a particular intersection.

One screen may project La Cienega and Pico boulevards, the third-most congested intersection in the city, according to the department’s statistics.

When the detectors pick up a trouble spot, cameras zoom in. Engineers then work to figure a solution. For example, if a signal malfunction is causing the congestion, a maintenance crew can be sent. Studies by the Department of Transportation have concluded that the signal system has resulted in a 30% reduction in traffic delays, said Brian Gallagher, a city transportation engineer.

Risk-Taking Drivers Invite Accidents

It’s the frustration drivers feel when sitting in traffic that leads to many accidents, experts say.

“Everyone seems to be in a hurry,” said Jack Reynolds, principal transportation engineer for the city of L.A.

According to Department of Transportation statistics, the three intersections with the highest number of traffic accidents in 1998 were Sepulveda and Victory boulevards, Roscoe and Sepulveda boulevards and Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

With more than 94,000 cars traveling through it a day, the intersection at Sepulveda and Victory in the San Fernando Valley was the site of 29 accidents in 1998.

The intersection at Roscoe and Sepulveda, also in the Valley, had 28 reported accidents in 1998. Officials attribute the accidents to a combination of a high volume of cars at the intersection and drivers who speed, make illegal turns or simply do not pay attention.

“The intersection is as safe as we can make it,” Reynolds said. “It’s a problem with the drivers themselves.”

Some community activists believe that the blame should not be placed solely on the drivers, arguing that the city does not design intersections properly and is slow to make necessary changes. “The Department of Transportation doesn’t know how to design and control intersections,” said Gordon Merly, president of the San Fernando Valley Federation. “None of their expensive signals work.”

Diana Plotkin, president of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Assn., said the area around the Beverly Center, particularly the intersections at La Cienega Boulevard and 3rd Street and La Cienega and Beverly boulevards, distresses residents.

“The community is very heavily traveled and the cars travel very fast,” she said. “It’s getting worse and worse with the development that is being allowed to come into the areas.”

Councilwoman Chick has put her weight behind several measures to improve street safety. One is the installation of high-tech surveillance cameras to catch drivers who run red lights at intersections where accidents are common. The cameras would snap photographs of drivers and their license plates. Violators would be ticketed by mail.

Chick has also urged police to crack down on traffic scofflaws, especially around schools.

But some accidents cannot be prevented, city transportation engineers said.

“Unfortunately, there’s just so much you can do to protect the drivers who aren’t obeying the rules,” Reynolds said.

When an accident occurs, the Department of Transportation sends engineers to the scene to determine if it was caused by a problem with the intersection.

An accident does not necessarily indicate that there is a problem with the intersection itself, Reynolds said, but changes can be made if a pattern is detected. Improving an intersection can involve anything from cutting down a tree that obstructs the driver’s view of cross traffic to installing an advanced traffic signal, which can cost $60,000 to more than $100,000.

The number of signals that can be installed is limited by budget constraints, Reynolds said.

Accidents involving pedestrians also pose a challenge for the city.

Al Labrada, a senior lead officer for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division, has received complaints about Baring Cross and 98th streets. Cars tend to speed through the intersection.

Labrada said he worries because the intersection is in a residential neighborhood where children ride their bicycles. He has requested that the city install either a stop sign or speed bumps. So far, the city has refused, he said, because engineers believe that the street is not congested enough.

“There isn’t going to be a lot of traffic there because it’s residential,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem.”

Labrada has asked motorcycle units to patrol the area around the intersection more frequently to crack down on speeders. “Unfortunately we can’t do that 24 hours a day,” he said.

A recent addition to street technology is the “Smart Crosswalk” sign, which uses a microwave sensor to detect pedestrians waiting to cross the street. The sensor triggers a flashing yellow light to warn drivers that pedestrians are about to cross.

Three of these Smart Crosswalks have already been installed in the San Fernando Valley. Another is at Figueroa Street and Buena Vista Terrace, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, and more will be installed in downtown Los Angeles.

A Department of Transportation study showed that 15% more drivers yield the right of way to pedestrians with Smart Crosswalk.

“We want to put pedestrians on par with bus riders and automobile riders,” said Pat Hines, executive director of Safe Moves, a nonprofit organization that conducts workshops for children on crossing intersections. “We need to teach motorists to respect rights of pedestrians.”

Some people have taken their own initiative to improve the roads for pedestrians.

Sgt. Lewie Guay of the Glendale Police Department’s Traffic Division said he became alarmed in 1996 when a California Highway Patrol study determined that the city had eight pedestrian fatalities, an all-time high.

As a result, Guay launched a program that has become a model for police departments throughout California.

Every month, a plainclothes officer poses as a pedestrian and crosses a street. Several motorcycle officers wait nearby to see if motorists yield to the undercover officer as required by California law. Those that do not yield receive a warning or a ticket. The last time the officers carried out the sting operation, they wrote 89 tickets over a five-hour period.

“I find that there’s a problem because people don’t pay attention while driving,” Guay said. “They’re thinking about the appointment they have to keep or about picking up their kids versus paying attention to their driving.”

The department has also handed out 15,000 fliers explaining how to cross intersections. The strategy has been working, Guay said. In 1997, the CHP reported only one pedestrian fatality in Glendale.

Officer John Montelongo of the Montebello Police Department’s Traffic Division said his department has been using a similar approach for six months. The department even places an advertisement in a local newspaper to warn drivers of an imminent operation before officers go out to the undisclosed location.

Conversely, police departments have been cracking down on jaywalkers.

Officer Michael Shea of the Hollywood Division of the LAPD observes pedestrians while he’s on foot patrol. Hollywood is especially troublesome because there are so many pedestrian tourists, he said. “We are there to stop them from getting killed,” Shea said.

Students at Hollywood High School are fully aware of the dangers of crossing the intersection at Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. The intersection had 26 reported accidents in 1998 and is one of the busiest in the city.

Brandon Velasquez, a 15-year-old sophomore, crossed the busy intersection one day after school. When the light turned green, he grabbed his backpack, looked left and right and dashed to the other side.

“Cars get angry at kids,” he said. “They get impatient and almost run over kids.”

His friend, Karen Martinez, a 17-year-old junior, called the intersection “dangerous”.

Martinez said that in class she often hears the shriek of brakes outside.

“Sometimes you’re even scared to step off the block,” she said.

*

Times staff writer Julie Ha contributed to this story.

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Eyes on the Streets

The nerve center for Los Angeles’ traffic is in the basement of City Hall East. A sophisticated system keeps track of congestion and helps keep traffic moving. Officials say it is one reason that traffic deaths in the city have fallen.

How the System Works

Computer-aided traffic controls are installed at selected intersections thoughout the city. Of 4,200 signals, 2,400 are connected to ATSAC, the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control System.

Dangeerous Crossroads