Skip to Content
Streetsblog California home
Log In
Streetsblog LA

Temple Street Slow Jams Celebrate Improvements, Though No Road Diet

10:45 AM PDT on September 26, 2018

This morning, community stakeholders performed Temple Street Slow Jams to bring attention to needed safety improvements for Temple Street. The city of Los Angeles is implementing "complete streets" improvements on Temple between Beadry Avenue (in downtown L.A.) and Beverly Boulevard (in Koreatown.) This 2.3-mile stretch of Temple has been hard hit by car crashes which have killed or seriously injurred 34 people in eight years.

Parents and students - from VISTA Charter Middle School and Camino Nuevo Charter Acadamy - along with community nonprofit representatives, marched multilingual signage along Temple urging drivers to slow down. Signs announced that "safety changes are coming to Temple Street."

Temple Street Slow Jams at the 5-way intersection of Temple St, Silver Lake Blvd, and Beverly Blvd
Temple Street Slow Jams at the 5-way intersection of Temple St, Silver Lake Blvd, and Beverly Blvd
VISTA school students slow jamming
VISTA school students slow jamming

The "Temple Street - Beverly To Beaudry Project" includes extensive resurfacing, curb and sidewalk repair, painted curb extensions ("intersection tightening"), flashing beacon crosswalks, pedestrian head-start signals ("leading pedestrian intervals"), and new traffic signals.

What's missing from the project is the road diet that was initially part of city plans shared in 2017. A road diet would be cheaper and more effective than the project underway. Unfortunately, city leaders, including Mayor Eric Garcetti, and councilmembers Mitch O'Farrell and Gil Cedillo, backed away from lane reconfiguration based on a backlash largely from outside the community, including interference from the litigious "Keep L.A. Moving" (KLAM) based in Manhattan Beach. KLAM sent Manhattan Beach traffic safety denier Karla Medelsohn to speak at the Rampart Village Neighborhood Council's forum on the Temple Street project. The city's failure to reconfigure Temple Street is now cited in the international press as an example of L.A.'s failure to address its traffic violence epidemic which kills an Angeleno every 40 hours.

Bureau of Engineering construction is anticipated to last from October through June 2019, with Department of Transportation implemented safety upgrades from November through June 2019.

Some safety changes are coming to Temple Street. Some aren't.
Some safety changes are coming to Temple Street. Some aren't.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog California

Tuesday’s Headlines

Newsom vetoes bill to require a human operator in driverless truck testing on public roads; Santa Crux goes all-on for hydrogen; Why CA is taking Big Oil to court; More

September 26, 2023

Caltrans Explains Why VMT – Vehicle Miles Traveled – Is Such a Concern

And then turns around and says: oh, but new freight truck traffic induced by new highway capacity doesn't count! Really, Caltrans?

September 22, 2023

Input Meetings Starting This Weekend for Ballona Creek “Finish the Creek” Extension Study

Learn more and give your ideas for extending the Ballona Creek bike/walk path upstream through Culver City and into Mid-City Los Angeles

September 22, 2023

Motorist Kills Pedestrian on Valencia

While distracted/inattentive driving was a primary factor, the non-intuitive and dangerous center-running design almost certainly contributed

September 22, 2023
See all posts