Serious Inaction on Forest Lawn Drive Hazard

Utterly irresponsible.

When I was biking to work Monday morning, I rode along the highly unfavorable bike lane on Forest Lawn Drive.

It’s a dangerous option because of cars passing at freeway speeds, poor road conditions and substandard width bike lanes.

Then again, there are no favorable choices trying to get over to the Hollywood side of the hills.

My anger reached a whole new level when the bike lane was completely covered six inches deep of dirt covering the distance of a football field.

 

 

This is no minor spill.

Imagine the biggest trailer possible that hauls dirt and that’s the volume covering the ground.

There’s no place to ride except being sent out directly into traffic with no signs warning oncoming traffic of the hazard.

When I got to work, I shared this video on Facebook and one of my friends pointed out that the pile had been there since at least last weekend.

I called 311 and after about 30 minutes I explained in detail the magnitude of the spill.

You couldn’t send one person over with a broom or even a street sweeper to remove it, they’d need some form of heavy equipment.

The operator told me someone from Public Works would be over and it would be taken care of.

I had a sick sense of curiosity on Wednesday to check out progress and I was even more disturbed.

Absolutely nothing was done.

I know that no one went to check it out because at minimum, they should have put some signage up to slow down cars.

 

 

I made mention of this to the powers that be on Facebook and Twitter, but after a return trip on Thursday (why am I doing this), you guessed it.

Same crap.

I sent a message around lunchtime to Council Member David Ryu’s Field Deputy for the area and I have yet to hear anything.

Seeing how the city just settled for $3 million for not properly maintaining a bike route, who do you think is on the line if someone gets hurt now.

If you want to do something, make some noise.

Please email these people:

 

To: bss.boss@lacity.org, cd4.issues@lacity.org, kevin.james@lacity.org

Subject: Forest Lawn Drive Needs Immediate Attention

Body: A football field length pile of dirt has been covering the Forest Lawn Drive roadway in front of Mount Sinai Cemetary (5950 Forest Lawn Drive) for a week and nothing has been done to remove it.

It is a serious hazard for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers and there has been no attempt to remove the dirt, nor place signage to warn travelers of this hazard.

The city has been alerted to this issue since Monday and this threat to people’s safety needs immediate attention.

Signed,

(you)

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If you happen to ride this stretch, please tag me with your photos on Twitter or Instagram (@CiclaValley) so I can be updated.