First of a two-part series. 

At last summer’s Strategic Retreat for City Council members, Göran Eriksson drew one of the thorniest, oldest and most exasperating challenges:

Identifying effective methods for resolving widespread traffic congestion.

Early news from City Hall is encouraging.

“The city is looking at implementing automatic traffic control systems and to start synchronizing (signal lights) all major thoroughfares in the city,” Mr. Eriksson said.

The latter is of interest because Culver City’s reputation holds that it has perhaps the longest wait time for lights in Los Angeles County.

“As we move forward,” Mr. Eriksson said, “we already have allocated some money for this project.”

The timeline is clouded.  Is next summer a reasonable implementation target?

“There is some low-hanging fruit we should test,” said the Councilman, “and other parts will take much longer.”

Where is the worst traffic centered in Culver City?

Mr. Eriksson did not need to pause. “Between 4 o’clock and 7,” he said succinctly, “all over.

“It doesn’t really matter where you are. Culver is clogged up in Downtown, Sepulveda is stop-and-go the whole way. Jefferson is also stop-and-go. All the major thoroughfares are really bad.”

(To be continued)