Earlier this evening, Joe Linton left the following comment on today’s post — about LADOT’s official denial of any plans to put peak hour lanes on Reseda Boulevard — which I’ve moved up here to give it the attention it deserves:
The LADOT owes you an apology, Ted! Bicyclists were responding to an earlier document from LADOT that pretty clearly states that they intended to implement the peak hour parking restrictions, and put the bike lane project on hold. From the June report from the LADOT bikeway engineer to the LA Bicycle Advisory Committee – regarding the status of the Reseda lanes: “West Valley District does not concur with the [Reseda bike lane] project, cites peak hour lane usage in near future.”
See the original LADOT report document here: http://glatwg.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/bike_lane_projects_in_progress1.pdf
Cyclists deserve an apology from the LADOT for their lie… and the immediate implementation of the long-delayed Reseda bike lanes.
Note item #8 from the LADOT document:
And note the status report:
The question is, did LADOT intentionally lie to us? Or do they honestly not know what their various divisions are doing?
I don’t know which possibility scares me more.
Thanks, Joe. I owe you one.
But I’m not going to hold my breath on that apology.
Update: 8-14-09, 3pm:
BAC Chairperson Glenn Bailey has written a detailed rebuttal to LADOT’s denial of their plans to install a peak hour lane on Reseda Blvd. Damien Newton has put the full text of Glenn’s letter online at Streetsblog — and says he doesn’t believes that LADOT intentionally misled him.
Yay! I think this is huge… and I am grateful that you’ve given it some prominence.
It’s exasperating… I expect that LADOT will favor cars over bikes… but I don’t really expect them to lie. It’s really awful… because the story got reported around the blogosphere that “LADOT was caught in a rumor mill” (see http://laist.com/2009/08/13/ladot_caught_in_rumor_mill_about_el.php ) … like bicyclists made this up! The “rumor” came from the LADOT in writing.
Sorry to post so much here tonight… but the whole Reseda Boulevard bike lane thing is really really bugging me. I am worried that the LADOT will come down on the bikeways engineer who gave the report for being the only one in this situation who actually told the truth… who showed transparency, openess…
My gut hunch is that the DOT’s public relations people did not actually know that they were wrong… so I suspect that they weren’t technically/intentionally lying. I think someone at the DOT’s West Valley Division lied to them… either by comission or omission… then the higher-ups passed along the false story.
Do we expect the responsible person/s at West Valley Division to be identified, censured, demoted or even requested to issue an apology? DOT’s West Valley Division has strained the most valuable asset that government can have: the public trust.
Thanks Joe. After considering your comment, I’ve taken the liberty of removing the engineer’s name both my post and your comments, as well as the names of the PR people. My standard policy is to not criticize individuals directly; the point is to change behavior at the agency rather than get any one individual in trouble. And we don’t need call anyone out on the internet, where God only knows what could happen. I also corrected the date of the report. Thanks for calling my attention to that.
As for yesterday’s PR blitz, I have a feeling you’re right. I doubt the LADOT’s representatives who contacted Damien and Zach had any idea they were spreading incorrect information. It’s SOP for bureaucratic organizations to keep the truth on a need to know basis. And it’s a lot easier to cover something up if you don’t know you’re doing it.
A small correction: the Paul Meshkin report is actually from June 2009, not August 2009. Thanks to Glenn Bailey for pointing this out to me.
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Of course the mothereffers are lieing to us. The LADOT is a shiesty operation.