Councilmember Mike Bonin on efforts to reduce gridlock on Sunset in Brentwood
By Staff Writer
Traffic gridlock on Sunset Boulevard is one of the toughest transportation challenges commuters face on the Westside. Learn about efforts underway to address the often bumper-to-bumper state of traffic on Sunset Boulevard.
Councilmember Mike Bonin says his office is working to find solutions to tackle this problem through the dynamic ramp metering project, adding high visibility signage, lane restriping and cracking down on scofflaw road work causing unnecessary lane closures.
“Several years ago, Mike held a Sunset Solutions community charette that identified many of the above solutions. Since then, our office continues to hear good ideas from the community that we’ve explored and implemented, whenever possible. One of the top issues we continue to hear about is the need for Traffic Control Officers to help prevent gridlock at congested intersections on Sunset. Mike was successful in asking LADOT to deploy officers regularly at the Barrington Ave, Barrington Place, and Bundy intersections every afternoon,” reads Bonin’s January newsletter; =
According to Bonin,constituents have observed multiple days where officers were not deployed over the holidays and continuing into January. In response, Bonin began working with LADOT to address the staffing shortage that caused the missed shifts. A new class of officers has since joined the force and is currently being trained in the field.
“You may even see new trainees and their supervisors in the field for the next several weeks. With the additional officers now assigned to the Western office, staffing on Sunset will return to normal soon,” Bonin said.
Boni also announced that a long-awaited dynamic ramp metering project is still on-time and on-budget. This multi-agency project will connect LADOT traffic signals with Caltrans metering lights to more effectively manage traffic flow onto the freeway and reduce backups on city streets. The new system is expected to become operational later this summer.
