Just today, Los Angeles City Council approved a "road diet" implemented to keep the streets of Silver lake safe for those transporting. City leaders have decided to keep the narrowed lanes on Rowena Avenue, between Glendale Boulevard and Hyperion Avenue. In 2013, after the death of a pedestrian, the street was reduced from a four lane set-up to just two with bike lanes on either side.
However, some neighbors have taken issue with the fact that they believe the project has pushed more cars onto side streets.
"I know a lot of Uber and Lyft drivers have been driving through," one neighbor told KFI News.
Another neighbor says that it's tough to tell the benefit.
"We definitely have people driving like crazy up the neighborhood so I don't know if it's a win-win or how it's going to work either way."
Others told KFI's Andrew Mollenbeck that the lane squeeze with new bike paths has done it's job to slow down traffic.
"People are going pretty fast down Rowena right now, but before that it was like another extension of the freeway." Some neighbors feel the buffer is a lot safer for pedestrians.
"I like having the buffer of cars either parked or a bicycle lane between myself and cars that are speeding by."
In a statement, Councilmember Ryu said that the decision to keep the road diet was made with fully supported data and community backing.
“The Rowena road diet has undoubtedly made Silver Lake safer,” he said.
“But it’s critical that we back our decisions with data and with community support–that’s the only way to build solutions that last. I’m proud to say we achieved both, and that the road diet is here to stay.”
After implementation without appropriate backing study, in 2017, Ryu decided to conduct his own independent study of the traffic on Rowena Ave.
Since then, both the independent study and another by LADOT ( Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation) has confirmed that the road diet configuration on Rowena Avenue reduced traffic accidents in the area, according to Los Feliz Ledger.