WEST HOLLYWOOD—Walk Score voted West Hollywood as the Most WalkableCity in California, acknowledging the city’s pedestrian-friendly policy efforts.
West Hollywood Councilmember Jeffrey Prang stated in the city’s November 22 press release, “West Hollywood once again has ranked one of the most walkable cities in CA, and we couldn’t be prouder.” Councilmember Prang added, “We scored better than San Francisco and Los Angeles, which meansWest Hollywood residents are happier, healthier and have a more sustainable lifestyle, just because we walk more.”
Walk Score, an online service that lists cities and neighborhoods based upon how easy it is for residents to navigate and reach amenities by foot, developed the rankings. According to their website, “walkable neighborhoods are one of the simplest and best solutions for the environment, our health and our economy,” and provides services “to make it easy for people to evaluate walkability and transpiration when choosing where to live.”
Walk Score ranked the City West Hollywood as the Most Walkable City inCalifornia with a score of 89, placing it above other California cities such asSan Francisco (84), Los Angeles (64) and San Diego (49).
West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land stated, “West Hollywood redefines what it means to live in Southern California. Many of our residents live without a car, and I love days when I can walk to work or to meet with friends.”MayorLand continued, “It’s what makes our City so special. We have innovative programs like car sharing, free shuttles and are improving our bike and pedestrian plan to achieve a higher index of walkability.”
The 2014 Walk Scores were calculated using the Street Smart Walk Score algorithm that graded areas based upon several criteria such as amount of walking routes, breadth of nearby amenities and pedestrian friendliness.
West Hollywood received the top score of “Walker’s Paradise” where daily errands do not require a car. According to Walk Score, pedestrians in West Hollywood “can walk to an average of 5 restaurants, bars and coffee shops in 5 minutes.”
The city credits its pedestrian-friendliness to the policies set forth in the West Hollywood General Plan 2035 that was adopted in 2011, which “placed renewed emphasis on walkability as part of a comprehensive approach to land-use and mobility.”
West Hollywood Councilmember John Heilman said, “We have installed various pedestrian improvements, added outdoor dining, installed landscaped medians and provided rotating art installations. All of these efforts have created a much better environment for pedestrians.”
The city announced that it would be adopting its upgraded Pedestrian and Bicycle Mobility Plan in spring 2014 to continue to improve transportation safety for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists. The program piloted installing rectangular rapid flash pedestrian beacons at three signalized crosswalk locations to improve visibility of pedestrians crossing the streets of WeHo.
After the beacon installations, the City stated that “the volume of pedestrian crossings has increased at these locations at an average of 23 percent, motorists yielding to pedestrians has increased to 92 percent at all locations (considered an excellent rate among traffic engineers), and motorists have increased their breaking distance from the crosswalks by 50 feet.”Pleased with these findings, the city plans to install more rapid flash pedestrian beacons at more locations.
