We are all about the "people first" concept, which is planning for people, not cars when developing a new building or road. However, pedestrians still need to follow the law. Saturday night's traffic in Santa Monica for the Glow Festival was only worsened by the fact that pedestrians would cross streets against the walk signal's "don't cross" hand. Witnessed at just about every intersection, this left vehicles in all directions backed up and clogged at......

A sign near the intersection of Riverside Dr. and Fulton Ave. in Sherman Oaks. | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Further investigation into reasons why a few spots around the city have signs prohibiting bicycle sidewalk riding shows that both Sherman Oaks locations were due to troubles caused by skateboarders. After pedestrians getting hit by boards, cars nearly hitting skaters falling into the street and customers being intimidated, Van Nuys Division LAPD officers requested a......

Photo by carlosfpardo via Flickr Last night, one of Los Angeles' best locally focused radio programs, Which Way, L.A.? focused in on the Mandeville Canyon "road rage" motorist vs. bicyclist incident among other bicycle issues around Los Angeles. LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Patrick Brady of Felt Bicycles and the LA County Bike Coalition Planning and Policy Director, Dorothy Kieu Le joined Warren Olney to talk perspectives, laws and LA culture of cars and......

View Larger Map The LAPD has released a break down of events that occurred last night in Hollywood that occurred around 8:45 p.m. where two pedestrians were killed during a short police pursuit. Here, in their own words, is their version of what happened accompanied by a handy LAist map: "A West Traffic Division Officer was in the area of Highland Avenue near Camrose Avenue when he observed a 2005 Honda Civic travelling on the......

Shortly before 9:00 p.m., an LAPD West Traffic Division officer attempted to pull over a car for reckless driving on Hollywood Blvd. The suspect did not stop, prompting a short pursuit before hitting two pedestrians between Wilcox and Cahuenga and then crashing the vehicle. Both pedestrians, a male and a female between the ages of 35 and 40, were pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the vehicle was treated for wounds and......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist "I looked to make sure. I wasn't being unsafe," Porcia London told the LA Times in a report about red-light enforcement cameras that questions if they are for revenue or safety. The issue at hand is that in Los Angeles, it is estimated that 80% of the photo-enforced tickets go to "california stop" right turns. "As London realized that day in court, her turn was illegal because she did not......

Photo submitted by LAist reader Tom Godfrey Here's an interesting tidbit from Sherman Oaks. At the Valley's busiest intersection, Sepulveda and Ventura, you need to cross 17 lanes of traffic to get from one corner to its catty corner. Oy vey! Would this be one of those intersections slated for a diagonal crosswalk the Mayor spoke about last week? And for those who use public transportation and end up walking many of these large......

Then you might have some information for police. At around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, 31-year-old Vicky Noh was crossing Wilshire Blvd. in a marked crosswalk at New Hampshire Avenue when she was struck and killed by a yellow school bus that drove away. The 40 foot long bus is described as a "newer model with a flat front end" and was actually a charter bus, not one that transports children on a daily basis. The......

Photo by striatic via Flickr Unfortunately, in a city (and country) where the motto should be "pedestrians first," things are just the opposite of that. The law states that vehicles must yield to pedestrians at marked and unmarked crossings throughout the state. But the culture is not that and one can prove that to themselves by trying to cross any busy street at an unmarked crosswalk (or even a marked one in some areas).......

Sometime in the middle of last year, the Bank of America opened a branch on the SW corner of Hillhurst and Franklin in Los Feliz. The building was built on the corner with a driveway entrance on the Franklin side and an exit on the Hillhurst side. To say that the intersection is busy is an understatement. Curiously, the lot was developed, the building was built, the B of A opened shop and yet no......

It seems the Bush's appointed Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, has something in common with Mayor Villaraigosa's appointed Department of Transportation head, Gloria Jeff: both are for goods movement, but not always for the people. Luckily, Jeff has not started any major wars with bicyclists like Peters' has, according to an article in Salon, with her current political rhetoric:In an Aug. 15 appearance on PBS's "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," Peters spoke against a proposal to......