California legislators added targeted language to Senate Bill 194 on Friday that would require Los Angeles to obtain City Council and mayoral approval, along with holding a public hearing, before cutting vehicle lanes on any street that serves as the sole access route to two or more cemeteries, according to LAist.
The provision directly affects a one-mile segment of Forest Lawn Drive where the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and Councilmember Nithya Raman had planned to reduce lanes. That stretch recorded more than 95 collisions, four of them fatal, between 2013 and the present.
The project had been scheduled to begin construction earlier this summer but was placed on hold in the spring by Mayor Karen Bass, who pointed to community concerns raised by two cemeteries along the corridor.
Bass administration officials have indicated that city agencies are examining other options, such as adding protected bike lanes while keeping the existing number of travel lanes and incorporating further safety features. Details on those additional measures have not been released.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has not provided information on how safety concerns would be addressed if the lane reduction cannot proceed under the new requirements in the bill.
This report is based on coverage by LAist: https://laist.com/news/transportation/forest-lawn-drive-bass-raman