LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:
Those big tour buses rolling all over Hollywood will soon be banned from driving, stopping and parking on certain residential streets in Los Angeles.
The L.A. City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday calling on its Department of Transportation to create a set of guidelines for tour bus operators, including listing streets deemed unsafe for them to use. The ordinance also includes a system of increasing criminal and civil fines for operators that violate the new rules.
Hollywood Hills residents have long complained about the daily onslaught of tour buses driving through their neighborhoods. City Councilman David Ryu, who represents L.A.’s 4th Council District and authored the original motion calling for a crackdown on tour buses, said the law has been a long time coming. He said in a statement:
“For far too long, unscrupulous tour bus operators have been putting their passengers and the public at risk by driving up narrow hillside roads that weren’t built for heavy vehicles, making illegal U-turns, and allowing passengers to hop on and off behind blind curves. We had no way to stop them and keep people safe. After years of working with the State and working with the City, we are finally bringing some common sense safety to this industry.”
“If we are prevented from being able to go anywhere in the Hollywood Hills at any time, it's not so much a loss for us – we're gonna go to other streets,” said Jeff Napshin, president and CEO of Star Track Tours, speaking to KPCC/LAist media partner NBC4 last week.. “What's gonna happen is that view, that experience that visitors from all over the world want and want to experience of L.A., they're not gonna have that opportunity.”
The new rules were made possible after a 2017 state Assembly bill gave cities more power to regulate tour companies.