Eyes On the Street: Dept Of DIY Intersection Cameras

SBLA wasn’t planning to reveal the location of the Department of Do-It-Yourself’s latest street improvements: intersection surveilance cameras. But The Eastsider already broke the news that they are at the intersection of Reservoir Street and Coronado Street in Silver Lake, and that the city Transportation Department (LADOT) already has plans to remove them.

As readers can see from the photos, there are cameras (that have wires that do not appear to go anywhere) and signage that states “STOP – TRAFFIC CAMERA ON.”

As shown by testimony at the recent Rowena Avenue town hall, lots of places throughout these Silver Lake neighborhoods, along with many others throughout the city and the country and probably much of the known universe, are plagued by serious cut-through traffic. Perhaps apps like Waze are making it worse. Perhaps many drivers were discourteous before advent of smart phones. Hard to tell.

Many cut-through drivers seem to have missed the latest round of memos about Obeying the Rules of the Road. Shockingly many of these drivers actually do not respect stop signs. With LADOT and LAPD unable to curtail all the cut-through scofflaw traffic, neighbors are taking things into their own hands. When city departments allow neighborhood quality of life to erode, the Department of DIY gets involved.

And on the subject of video enforcement: at the city’s Vision Zero town hall last month LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds called for the return of camera enforcement, especially to curb speeding, as a relatively quick and low cost way to make streets safer.

What do you think, wise readers? Should L.A. bring back real cameras for speed enforcement? How can we overcome the political resistance in reining in law-breaking unsafe drivers? What should Silver Lake residents, and others, do to combat scofflaw cut-through drivers?