Finally, safer streets in the Tri-School Area

For over a decade, parents and students have talked about improving safety and access to our schools along Elenda and Farragut. With thousands of students converging on the site daily, managing traffic and ensuring the safe arrival to school of every student is challenging. But the opportunity to recommend improvements to Culver City officials is finally here, starting on Nov 13.

Public input opens with an in-person meeting at Farragut Elementary on Nov. 13 along with online input. That event will be followed by additional in-person meetings. A Traffic Safety Study for this area was ordered by Culver City Council after Culver High students from the Green New Deal club requested improvements.

Students developed a set of recommendations in 2023 and presented them to numerous City and School District bodies, eventually working their way all the way up to the Culver City Council. Recommendations included crosswalk improvements, bike lanes, stop signs and dedicated drop off zones.

Our students took the lead, but our whole community stands to benefit from changes in how we get to school. Commuting is tough on its own, and navigating kids to school is much harder than it needs to be. With every new option we create for getting kids safely to school, we return precious time and energy to overstressed parents. What parent couldn’t use an extra 20 or 30 minutes in the morning or evening? If we create options to walk to school, even just the last 3 blocks, it will make our kids healthier, happier and better prepared to learn. And it makes parents' lives easier.

After years of delays, now is the time for change. Just this year, a 2-vehicle rollover crash near Elenda and Barman sent one adult to the hospital, and a child was also reported present. Cars hitting pedestrians at any speed can be deadly, even on slower streets like Elenda.

Share your ideas on what’s working and what could be improved for navigating through this part of Culver City. Join an in person meeting on Nov 13 at Farragut Elementary or provide online comments starting Nov 13.

Once recommendations are developed from community input, funding for improvements is available. Culver City gets dedicated mobility dollars for projects that can reduce “vehicle miles traveled.” These funds are allocated during the City’s regular budget process; some of the dollars available are currently being used to pay for projects in Fox Hills, on Overland Ave, and in other parts of our City. Having an available pool of money for mobility and safety improvements provides Culver City with a huge opportunity to implement valuable community recommendations.

City and School District collaboration is important for any project in the area. Fortunately, CCUSD is developing complementary safety improvements on school property at Elenda and Farragut. Clear pedestrian and bike routes will be placed across the parking lots from the exit of the Ballona Creek pathway and pedestrian bridge to the entrances to schools and local streets. These improvements will create a safety corridor for students and commuters who want to travel from the Ballona Creek Bike Path to schools, or to Culver Blvd and Downtown Culver City.

While improving safety for our kids seems like a “no-brainer,” prior efforts have been blocked by a few area residents. For example, the addition of stop signs was discussed and approved in 2023 by the City’s traffic engineers. But these stop signs were never installed. The decision was overruled by the previous City Council majority, who found the complaints of opponents more compelling than the professionals in our Public Works Department.

Over the years, critics have voiced objections such as: “safety improvements will destroy our local trees” or “kids are in danger for only a small part of each day.” But the real aim of opponents of needed safety measures is to maintain things exactly as they are, for as long as possible, no matter how harmful the the status quo is.

It's time for change! Support students, parents, commuters, environmentalists, and the rest of our community who wants to see needed safety improvements.