We remember it like it was yesterday – March 5, 2024, the day Angelenos voted to make our streets safer and more multimodal, by passing Measure HLA with a nearly two thirds majority.
But it wasn’t yesterday, it was exactly a year ago, and we wanted to reflect on what has (and hasn’t) happened since that day.
A year later, our streets are still some of the most dangerous in the nation. LAPD data shows more than 260 people have been killed in traffic violence since HLA passed, with many more thousands injured. LA continues to have the most pedestrian deaths in the nation with fatality rates higher than our peer cities. Commuters still waste hours in traffic, bus riders face delays and unreliable service, bike riders continue to get around on close to zero infrastructure, and Angelenos across the City struggle to navigate broken sidewalks.
So what has the City been up to?
First, HLA didn’t become law right away; it went into effect when votes were finalized on April 11, 2024.
But the City’s Transportation Committee – led by HLA-ally Councilmember Hutt – didn’t wait for it to take effect; they took up HLA on March 20, just 15 days after the election, and approved a broad set of recommendations and report backs to get City departments aligned for implementation.
The respective motions were also referred to the Public Works committee, and unfortunately, under former committee chair John Lee, street safety and multimodal transportation were not much of a priority. His committee didn’t schedule the item until June 26 – a delay of more than three months.
After that, it took another month for the Budget, Finance, and Innovation Committee to waive consideration of the item, before City Council finally adopted it on July 30 – nearly five months after the election.
Note, this was just a set of instructions to City departments to report back on how the City could implement HLA, not actual implementation (yet).
It then took the City attorney another nearly four months to deliver a draft implementation ordinance on November 15 (note: the City didn’t have to adopt an implementation ordinance to implement HLA, but we were in favor of the approach as it codifies HLA even more, and makes it have even more legal standing).
Now with the draft implementation ordinance in our hands, it was time to determine what was in line with our intent with HLA, and with what the voters passed.
These were the major issues:
The City Attorney was trying to claim that HLA didn’t apply to Metro projects on City streets; our backers’ attorneys disagree.
The City was attempting to just give up on implementing HLA with projects funded by grants awarded before HLA passed but not yet under construction.
There were too many cooks in the kitchen, with multiple lead agencies, and no clarity as to who was actually in charge of HLA implementation.
The City (thanks to Traci Park’s amendments) was trying to add negative information to the dashboard, such as the number of parking spaces or travel lanes lost.
The City was trying to implement a mandatory appeals process that would be required to be used before a lawsuit could be filed.
After the draft ordinance was delivered, as a result of the November elections, committee structures changed, and Councilmember Hernandez (a Streets For All ally and endorser of HLA) became the Chair of Public Works. With Councilmember Hutt (another Streets For All ally and endorser of HLA) still the Chair of Transportation, we all of a sudden had a favorable committee structure in both the Public Works and Transportation Committees, with majorities on each having endorsed Measure HLA.
Because two of the three members of each committee were on each the Transportation and Public Works committee, the Brown Act required that the committees hold a special joint meeting to jointly consider the HLA implementation ordinance. This meeting was scheduled for February 12, 2025, but because of Traci Park’s attempt to kill affordable housing in Venice (the Venice Dell project), the committee meeting ran over time and HLA was continued until February 26.
On February 26, 2025, the committees jointly considered the City attorney’s draft ordinance. We worked closely with our allies to make needed changes to address the issues above. The Transportation Committee Chair’s recommendations incorporated most of our asks, and we are grateful to Councilmembers Hutt and Hernandez for their continued support of HLA and safe streets.
Specifically, the draft ordinance was amended to:
Request a report back from LADOT on how HLA can apply to Metro projects.
Require that the City implement HLA with grant funded projects not yet under construction, unless doing so jeopardizes the funding.
Makes LADOT the lead agency for HLA implementation.
Adds the positive aspects to HLA projects to the dashboard, such as the reduction in crashes, traffic, and greenhouse gas emissions expected from a project, and the increased throughput on a street as a result of a project.
Makes the appeals process optional, in line with what is legally possible.
What’s next?
The City Council will likely pass this item on its consent calendar at a meeting in the near future, and then the ball is back in the City Attorney’s court. It’s anyone’s guess as to how long they will take to turn the draft around, but given that more than 260 people have been killed since HLA passed, and thousands injured, we hope the office acts with a sense of urgency.
Once the City Attorney responds with their next (and hopefully final) draft, it will again go back to a special joint Transportation/Public Works committee meeting. Once it’s approved there (assuming no other major changes), it will go to full council, and once passed by full council, City departments will finally have specific guidance on how to implement HLA.
While all this is happening, the City is almost entirely avoiding repavings on Mobility Plan streets. But we are continuing to track the City’s work schedule to identify potential HLA violations. We prefer to resolve violations directly with the City, but in the future may have to go to court to force compliance. For now, we will continue to work with our allies.
In addition to the implementation ordinance, City Planning is also drafting “standard elements” for HLA. This document, in some ways, is even more important than the ordinance, as it sets the minimum the City must do to implement HLA depending on the network of the Mobility Plan.
In February, we sent out a call to action asking people to let City Planning know that they must correct these things:
In the event a street has both a Class II bike lane and a bus lane planned, a bus lane that bikes can also use is not acceptable in lieu of a separate Class II bike lane.
Provide specifics on how Bicycle Enhanced Network streets on the Neighborhood Enhanced Network should achieve speed, volume, and crossing controls. Suggestions include making speed humps, painted curb extensions, neighborhood traffic circles, and other such elements standard.
Add some improvements to Transit Enhanced Network Moderate streets, such as bus shelters, digital signage stating when the bus will come, lighting, or other simple improvements to help transit riders.
Not give an out to the City to not implement bus lanes based on a transit operators’ “current or planned service” – a slippery slope we think could delete bus lanes that would otherwise benefit transit riders.
These issues will likely be taken up and approved at a Street Standards Committee meeting on April 3. This little-known committee that rarely meets has three members: it’s chaired by Keith Mozee, the head of the Bureau of Street Services, with Ted Allen, the City Engineer, and Laura Cornejo, the head of LADOT, also on it. We will be working with our allies in the Mayor’s office and on council to make sure the standard elements are good enough for basic safety improvements and HLA’s intent.
Lastly, there is the budget. As everyone likely knows, the City of Los Angeles is in dire budget straits, and yet the World Cup and Olympics are coming whether or not we get our house in order. Pedestrians continue to be injured every five hours and killed every two days on LA streets. This budget cycle is the last one that can provide funding for Olympics projects that have a chance of getting in the ground before the Olympics.
We were also excited to see StreetsLA’s CTIEP, which is the first time we’ve seen real money being requested in the budget by a department for HLA implementation.
This week we will be sending a coalition letter to the Mayor’s office and Councilmember Yaroslavsky (who chairs the Budget Committee) asking for funding for HLA and Olympics projects, support for StreetsLA’s CTIEP, and also changes in City policies that wouldn’t cost anything but would help speed things up. It’s vital that when the Mayor’s budget comes out in April, and when Council goes through its budget season in May and June, that these suggestions are incorporated.
So in short, a year after HLA was adopted, the City still isn’t really implementing it, but tangible steps have been taken to work towards implementation. If the standard elements are improved, the implementation ordinance is adopted with the changes from last month’s meeting, and the budget requests are honored, we see this coming summer as the period that the City will finally begin to implement the will of the voters, and make our streets safer.
Stay tuned, we’ll keep you posted!