For more than a year, the city of Los Angeles has been planning safety upgrades on Forest Lawn Drive. The city intends to make the street calmer and safer, but the adjacent cemeteries are campaigning against improvements.
Most of Forest Lawn Drive is located just inside the boundaries of Griffith Park. It runs through the northwest part of the park, south of the L.A. River and the 134 Freeway.
The eastern two miles of road front just a handful of destinations, including two cemeteries, the back of Warner Brothers Studios lot, the Headworks, and Griffith Park itself.
Quite a few cyclists use Forest Lawn to get to car-free roads inside Griffith Park. It's one of the flattest routes from the East San Fernando Valley to central parts of Los Angeles. Some cyclists avoid Forest Lawn because of speeding car traffic there.
Many drivers use Forest Lawn Drive to cut through the park to get on and off the 134 Freeway. Though the posted speed limits are 40-45 mph, drivers often exceed 50 mph on a road with limited visibility due to curves. Predictably, this situation results in crashes, injuries, and deaths.
According to the city Transportation Department (LADOT), from 2013 to 2023 Forest Lawn Drive saw 83 crashes, including three deaths/serious injuries. In December 2022, a driver was crushed to death (and another hospitalized) in a two-car crash in front of Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
In 2023 the city announced plans to make Forest Lawn Drive safety improvements during planned resurfacing, then scheduled for early 2024. At that time, with the support of District 4 City Councilmember Nithya Raman, LADOT was planning to install 1.6 miles of protected bike lanes (upgrading existing basic bike lanes) and reducing the number of car lanes. The project area currently has four car lanes (two in each direction); these would be converted to three lanes (one in each direction with a center turn lane). At the time, the cemeteries - Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mount Sinai - opposed the improvements.
Responding to the cemeteries' concerns, LADOT did additional traffic data collection and modeling, and modified their plans to better facilitate turns into the memorial parks. LADOT also jettisoned the western end of the project, cutting its overall length from 1.6 miles to just shy of one mile.
In November LADOT announced a project open house meeting to take place December 4.
The cemeteries then ramped up their campaign against the safety project. They created a website, knocked on doors to deliver fliers, and used their social media to encourage people to "Join us in saying NO to crippling traffic!"
The meeting was reportedly attended by about a hundred people, with opinions split between project supporters and critics.
The project was aired again this week at a virtual public meeting of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council.
LADOT and Council District 4 Transportation Director Mehmet Berker presented the city's revised plans for Forest Lawn Drive. City representatives repeatedly emphasized that the purpose of the project is to improve safety for all road users. Berker noted that the goal is "to engineer a safer, calmer roadway." "This project is not meant to benefit a few," Berker explained, "it's meant to benefit all... across the board: people walking, bicycling, and driving."
Per LADOT Transportation Planner Charlie Oh, at the urging of the cemeteries, the city performed additional traffic studies. What the city found was that even with one lane in each direction, Forest Lawn Drive would be capable of accommodating car traffic with minimal delays.
After the city presentation, Forest Lawn Memorial Parks CEO Darin Drabing delivered a presentation, followed by remarks from Randy Schwab, the General Manager of Mount Sinai Memorial Parks.
Drabing prefaced his remarks noting, "I ride a bike myself." He claimed, of Forest Lawn Drive: "we are the main thoroughfare to the Hollywood Bowl" and "anybody who lives in the San Gabriel Valley that tries to get to Hollywood in any way oftentimes will use this as the passage."
He expressed concerns over adverse impacts on funeral processions and on emergency response times.
Drabing termed the city's safety improvements "unbelievable," "unfathomable," "unnecessary," and "punishing." "I just find it unfathomable that we would have to take away fifty percent of the traffic flow in order to... make [bike lanes] more prominent and more secure." (Note the LADOT does not anticipate taking away any of the traffic flow, but expects that reducing four lanes to three will easily accommodate existing and anticipated traffic.)
Mount Sinai's Randy Schwab noted that he was in "total agreement" with Drabing. He spoke of "traffic accidents" occurring there "on a blind curve" but then reiterated his opposition to planned safety measures. "Bicycle activity is relatively low" on Forest Lawn Drive and, according to Schwab, "to reduce the traffic by cars by fifty percent" would be "catastrophic" and result in "back up throughout the area."
"I don't think this is a road diet" Schwab stated, "I think this is road starvation and this is a mistake."
From there, the neighborhood council debated the project.
Various critics made the regular facetious assertions that include: "I'm all for bike safety," "we love our bike riders," and "nobody is against biking."
Many of the neighborhood council representatives claimed that the city process had been inadequate, that the project was a done deal, and that the city (which had just presented its data) had "no data" or inadequate data.
Several council members questioned if Forest Lawn traffic violence is really serious enough to be worth addressing. One asked, "is this wildly high, or is 95 [sic] accidents over a ten-year period what can be expected for this kind of road?" Another stated that three fatalities or serious injuries in a decade "sounds like a pretty safe road."
Ultimately, after public comment and deliberation, the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council voted 14-3 to oppose the planned Forest Lawn Drive safety project.
The HHWNC vote is advisory. Generally the City Councilmember, in this case Nithya Raman, has the final say on whether the project proceeds.
The city is currently taking public comment on the Forest Lawn Drive project. Submit comments via LADOT's survey form now through January 10 .
