City Of Los Angeles Looking into a Ban on Tour Buses In Hollywood

Tensions between tour companies and the city of Los Angeles grew this week following the LA City Council passing a motion that will have the city’s transportation department look into a ban of tour buses in areas of Hollywood around the Hollywood sign.

In the past several years, a number of issues surrounding the sign have had tourism backers, local residents, and city at odds with each. A possible development on the side of the hill in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s had actually brought tourism groups and local residents together to raise funds to buy the land so that developments, which were on track to be approved by the city, would not be built. Enough money was eventually raised, with the land being added to Griffith Park.

More recently, in 2022, plans to light the sign at night pitted residents against the city and tourism groups. While the sign was successfully lit for the first time since 2000 last year during pride week, plans to light the sign full time, the last order given by outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti, was struck down by new Mayor Karen Bass. She cited both resident concerns as well as legality issues with the order.

However, the bigger issue that residents in several Hollywood neighborhoods have been trying to fight for years has been tour bus operators. While the buses are not a problem in central Hollywood or in other areas with regular sized streets, the older neighborhoods closer to the sign have two-lane roads often made into one-lane roads because of street parking, tight curves caused by the terrain, and general elevation changes that causes larger vehicles to go much slower. Residents have said that these issues can cause major issues.

Sarajane Schwartz, a Hollywoodland neighborhood resident, wrote to the LA City Council that “We are one of the most fragile and threatened neighborhoods in all of Los Angeles. We have extremely limited egress and ingress and our main artery dead ends at both ends. ALL of our winding narrow streets — many dead-ending — with blind curves and hairpin turns are substandard. EVERY parked car prevents two-way traffic. Our streets just barely handle the needs of residents.”

Meanwhile, tourism companies have said that the route up is needed not only to get a decent view of the Hollywood sign, but to bring tourists on an easy circular route. They argue that, without buses being allowed to go up, many tourists would instead walk or take Ubers to go up, potentially making the situation even more dangerous.

“With buses, all the eggs are in one basket,” said Roberto Blythe, a tour buses operator in Los Angeles. “Buses can have a hard time navigating sometimes. But without us, the situation would be so much worse. Tourists would walk up on these streets more than they already do, or increase car traffic many times fold. And to add to that point, if anything, street parking should be banned in many of these neighborhoods. It’s not safe to park if half the road is suddenly gone on these areas. Buses aren’t the problem. Careless, entitled residents are who don’t want to park in, you know, their garage or driveway.”

A motion that would ban buses in many Hollywood neighborhoods

With the situation reaching a head this year, Councilwoman Nithya Raman sided with residents and introduced a motion that would prohibit tour buses from operating in the area. Specifically, buses would not be allowed to enter parts of the Hollywood Knolls, Hollywood Dell, Lake Hollywood, Hollywoodland, Beachwood Canyon and the Oaks neighborhoods. Under the motion, the LA Department of Transportation would have 120 days to report back on where specifically the ban should be in these neighborhoods before a final vote.

In her motion, Rahman said that “The narrow, winding streets of these neighborhoods are not suitable for large vehicles, and over the years residents have cited persistent moving violations and other infractions by Tour Bus operators.” She also added that additional areas could see bans during holiday weekends.

The motion was passed on Wednesday in an 11-0 City Council vote, with the Department of Transportation is to report back by the end of the year. This could mean a new law will be in place likely sometime next year, barring any legal challenges.

While many residents were happy with the vote on Wednesday, tour bus operators, now with the motion, told the Globe that they want to fight it.

“It’s something I’ve talked to lawyers about,” said Blythe. “We’re not going to go down quietly. These are public streets remember. These are for everyone, not just local residents. We’ll also look for new routes just in case, and that would only condense traffic in other areas. So there needs to be a solution here. This motion is not a solution, Period. It is just going to cause more problems.”

The LA Department of Transportation is due to come back with their report by late December.