The two controversial, arguably dangerous, newly opened light rail crossings enveloping nearby Dorsey High School and perhaps imperiling thousands of students, cannot happen in Culver City when the train arrives sometime this summer, a former City Councilman said this morning.
Scott Malsin served three years as head of the Culver City delegation on the Expo Construction Authority.
“Absolutely not,” he answered to the question of whether there could be linkage between Expo’s much-criticized ground-level crossings elsewhere and Culver City’s elevated terminus.
“We fought hard to insure, as part of Phase 1, we would not have an at-grade crossing,” Mr. Malsin, well aware of inherent dense human and motorized traffic problems, told the newspaper. “There are no at-grade (ground-level) crossings in Culver City, and that safety concern is not one we should worry about.”
The latest in an unbroken string of complaints about the perils of the Foshay Learning Center-adjacent crossings was sparked this morning when the Los Angeles Times splashed a hefty safety warning and critique from a traffic expert, USC Prof. Najmedin Meshkrati, who has studied the oft-delayed, decision-plagued Expo project from its earliest days.
He cited the crossings at Western Avenue, Denker Avenue and the x-shaped crossing of Rodeo Road and Exposition Boulevard. The professor urged that signage be promptly incorporated.
Why Community Is Rail-Safe
Returning to Culver City, Mr. Malsin recalled that much earlier in the marathon light rail project from downtown Los Angeles, “the first iteration had the train crossing Washington Boulevard and National Boulevard. That was dispensed with.”
He said that “whether a crossing is to be at-grade is determined by the amount of traffic that flows through the street.
“Originally, Expo had treated Washington and National as separate street crossings. They did this even though the track, essentially, was cutting across both of them within a very short distance.
“When they got down to it,” Mr. Malsin said, “it was not likely they would be able to engineer a grade-separated crossing at Venice Boulevard without also building one at Washington and National.
“We pushed hard so (Expo officials) would recognize those facts.
Forth-and-Back
“When there was a thought to have a temporary station south of Washington Boulevard while we waited for Phase 2 construction to commence, we rejected that as well.”
In that configuration, said Mr. Malsin, “almost all of the parking would have been across Washington Boulevard and National Boulevard from the station. We felt that would create an unsafe condition, thousands of people walking back and forth across two busy thoroughfares.”
