Q-Line: Road work

Beginning this week, the eastbound portion of Colorado Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets will close permanently to make way for the final stop of the coming Expo Light Rail Line.

So this week, Q-Line asked:

What sort of impact do you think closing that portion of Colorado Avenue will have on Downtown traffic?

Here are your responses:

“Yes I think it’s a wonderful idea that the Expo Rail is coming to San Malicious. However, it’s really going to create problems for the people that have to travel. But so bloody what? We need to have an Expo Rail. And I think that good is going to outdo the negative factors tremendously.”

“I think closing Colorado eastbound is going to really make Downtown traffic very bad. I think what they should do is actually close Colorado from Ocean Avenue to Fifth Street. That way, it’s not going to back up Ocean, especially during the summertime when traffic is much worse … . People going westbound will be able to go down to Ocean, be able to go to the hotel, go to McDonald’s. But the other way, if it’s just closed between Fourth and Fifth, it’s going to make traffic terrible. They ought to think about closing it from Ocean.”

“We know what it’s going to do to traffic. It’s going to really mess it up badly. I just hope and pray that the city has enough sense to put up signs that would say, maybe, ‘local traffic only’ or ‘not a through street’ — that should help with the traffic a little bit. And the street that comes down from City Hall going north that ends up at Colorado — maybe no right turn at that particular location. Or else it’s going to really mess up traffic. I think if the city plans it properly, everything will be OK. But if not, it’s going to  be a big mess.”

“One more major traffic inconvenience in this already way overburdened city will just be absorbed by all the other horrors. Those who have had the ability and good sense to leave this city will have another reason to rejoice that they have left. Those who are stuck here, for one reason or another, will moan all the louder. But wait until this horror of the light rail finally gets here and armies of L.A. lowlife descend upon this city. You think it’s bad now? Try to envision that time.”

“Traffic is going to be terrible on Colorado. I was taking a walk yesterday on Ocean to Colorado. Traffic was bad yesterday, and it’s not even prime season, it’s not even a weekend. What we need to do is make Colorado a one-way street going eastbound to Lincoln Boulevard. Make Broadway one way, westbound from Lincoln. That way it doesn’t mess up the bus schedules or the bus routes, and make Fifth Street one way like it used to be: northbound. Make Fourth Street to Wilshire one way southbound. That will help and straighten out the traffic. If not, come the summertime forget about it.”

“First let’s understand the light rail boondoggle is nothing more than another progressive, European, socialist intrusive idea into the freedom of American car driving. The former Sears automotive building and before that a Mayfair Market is a perfect spot for a Target store, but no. The public salvation needs to be an unwanted and unneeded light rail. Closing Colorado Avenue is just the beginning phase of massive street closures or one-lane avenues. Bringing the unwashed, and unwanted masses from L.A. is the Utopian dream of urban planners with their doctorates and Marxist thought. The more you build, the more you can tax, the more you can spend, the more congestion of buildings, the more noise, more crime, negative quality of life. The automobile represents freedom; the council has done everything to curtail that freedom. Parking meters, zone parking, curb extensions, bicycle importance, reducing lanes, street closures. Light rail is a pitiful example of a City Hall that hates you and has failed you.”

“This past Sunday on Presidents Day weekend, an emphasis is placed before the closure of Colorado Avenue. We were trying to be good citizens. We were on the No. 3 bus going southbound from Wilshire Boulevard down to Marina Del Rey. Traffic on Fourth Street was at a complete standstill. We had to wait through many, many traffic cycles at Arizona, Santa Monica Boulevard, Broadway, Colorado until we got down to the Olympic Boulevard on-ramp to the freeway. It took us 18 minutes from Wilshire down to Olympic Boulevard freeway access. Fourth Street is impassable under the best of circumstances on weekends, and particularly in summer when everyone descends upon Santa Monica. When you have a bus fall behind schedule by 18 minutes, it means it will never recover its schedule when it returns back to Santa Monica. Most people don’t realize that the Big Blue Bus people have plans to put a street car line down Fourth Street which will permanently remove two lanes of traffic feed. People with business interests in Downtown obviously want to replicate The Grove experience. Except people go to The Grove and park. In Santa Monica people can’t even reach Downtown anymore.”