Council approves funding for Olympic-Pico environmental study

Little Israel had left turn signals at every intersection, and two of Tel Aviv's main streets had special lanes, running in the opposite direction of the rest of the traffic on the streets, reserved for buses and cabs.
Why does LA, and the US in general, insist on reinventing the wheel as opposed to looking to other countries, or even cities within the US, to see what works and what doesn't?

"Why does LA, and the US in general, insist on reinventing the wheel" Because its a way the councilmen get to pay their friends back for "helping them".$5ooK and they still dont know which way to go!

This expenditure was totally unnecessary, but Bill Rosendahl didn't have the gumption to back the Mayor on just going ahead with the provisional plan and then making modifications as needed -- he supported the oppose-everything groups suing, in his capacity on the Transportation Committee (where, as he said, he was one of two people who showed up there that day, AFTER he'd publicly supported the plan earlier), who've also fought every single development and change in that area, and are now actively fighting the expansion of the Expo II line unless it includes underpasses costing tens of millions more -- and unless it goes so far south of Pico-Olympic that it won't carry the bulk of the ridership that the line was designed for. In fact, they could end up costing the MTA $400 million extra, and years of delays.

AND they're doing the same with the subway, like they did for decades under Zev and Waxman; if not for them, the subway would already be built and operational, the cost would have been a fraction, the feds had by TRYING to give L A money for it -- now, we're fighting for any scraps of funding and the delay has created problems like this Pico- Olympic traffic jam. These groups suing are on overage well over 60, and live in Mayberry times in their minds -- listening to them, just mires one in never-ending quagmires of details that they INTEND to prevent the subway and Expo getting built, and many proudly admit it. The judge who ruled in favor of this wasteful cost and delay is like the ones in the 70's who ruled AGAINST carpool lanes, accepting arguments that they would make traffic move slower because change is bad.

The Damien someone who wants to tie the city up even further studying bus-only lanes (which have been studied and generally rejected, as slowing traffic), wider sidewalks (which would mean tearing out all the meters, and eliminating street parking, which the opponents are already objecting to insofar as they might lose a few meters and an extra hour a day during rush-hour), bike lanes (which on the face of it, would take away a car lane and make the whole plan moot -- and commuters who make up 85% of the through-traffic in question come from long distances and aren't going to bike. Dealing with bikes vs. cars is another, separately contentious issue that needs to be addressed city- wide, however.) This Damien person came out of nowhere and is NOT a major factor in the debate.