LA’s darkest hour

Memorial on Pershing Drive for Regan Cole-Graham. Photo by Jonathan Hale.

Last Saturday around 6pm, Regan Cole-Graham, a mother of two and pregnant with her third, was out on a bike ride with her husband and two young boys. A driver hit her from behind and killed her, and her unborn baby died at the hospital despite an emergency c-section. This wasn’t an accident. In 2017, L.A. installed bike lanes on Pershing Drive, exactly where she was hit, and removed them after backlash by the neighborhood council, and a lawsuit by Keep LA Moving.

If the bike lanes the city had installed in 2017 had remained in place, Regan likely would be alive today.

99 Ranch Market in Westwood, with the drivers’ Toyota Prius still inside. Photo: Los Angeles Times

In 2015, as L.A. was passing its Mobility Plan 2035, then-Councilman Paul Koretz was busy watering down its safety improvements. Thanks to a letter from the Westwood Homeowner’s Association and other NIMBY forces in the area, Koretz succeeded in his quest to remove bike lanes from Westwood Bl in Westwood Village from the plan; he also killed bus lanes on Wilshire Bl west of Selby Ave to the 405 — just where they are needed the most. Today, just a few hours ago, an elderly driver was turning onto Westwood Blvd from Rochester when they hit a cyclist, and then continued across the street to crash into the 99 Ranch Market, killing three people and injuring scores of others.

If “leaders” like Paul Koretz hadn’t caved to NIMBYs and taken out the safety improvements on Westwood Blvd, today’s crash may have not happened.

2024’s crash on Vista Del Mar. Photo: KTLA

In 2015, a woman was killed crossing Vista Del Mar. The city paid out a $9.5M wrongful death lawsuit, and in 2017 made safety improvements on the street. Later that year, the city reversed course and, just like on Pershing Drive, removed them after a NIMBY backlash. In 2021, a mother was killed and her child was injured on the same street. In 2024, two teens were killed on the same road. Last year, a car crash led one car to falling onto the beach path, killing someone taking a stroll by the ocean.

If the city hadn’t removed safety improvements on Vista Del Mar, multiple people would still be alive today.

All of this is in the context of the city being beyond broke. Part of the reason is a record number of liability payouts due to people getting hurt on city infrastructure that the city knows is dangerous but hasn’t fixed or won’t fix. Additionally, the city continues to slow walk Measure HLA implementation — the exact kind of implementation that would make streets safer.

As a safe streets advocate, it’s hard not to take it personally when someone dies while walking or biking in the city, because I often walk or bike around the city, often with my kids. Living in a city where a pedestrian is injured every 5 hours and killed every 2 days is deeply painful. To have two horrific crashes claim lives on streets that the city was supposed to make safer — but hasn’t yet, or even worse, backtracked after installing safety improvements — is beyond the pale.

This is a black or white issue. Anyone running for Mayor or city council that doesn’t talk about this issue and come with political will to redesign our streets is part of the problem. I plan on devoting every fiber of my being to defeating NIMBYism and political cowards. Enough is enough.