Ask anyone in Hollywood, if there’s one thing that disrupts traffic more than anything else in this city, it’s the tour buses in this city. They stop along the main boulevards to solicit patrons, they drive into our neighborhoods with vans loaded full of tourists with speakers blaring, and the drivers always go against the flow of traffic and without consideration for the rest of the community.
That being said, they are a vital part of our city’s economy and they serve the tourists that visit Los Angeles, but at what cost? Why should the rest of the city have to suffer for these businesses to earn a few dollars?
The Facts
The Community Impact Team – a project led by Mitch O’Farrell in Council President Eric Garcetti’s office – and committee members recently met to try and figure out who is in charge of tour bus regulation. And, what they found is not surprising.
Based on a report in the latest HEDline News – the official newspaper of the Hollywood Entertainment District – the Community Impact Team found that there are six key agencies involved in regulating the tour buses, mainly the Public Utilities Commission, the California Highway Patrol, the city’s Department of Finance, the Department of Transportation Parking Enforcement, the Bureau of Street Services and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Each plays a specific role when it comes to managing, supervising and patrolling the tour buses.
For example, the Public Utilities Commission issues the tour bus license and establishes the insurance requirements and inspects the vehicles and driver logs. The Department of Finance makes sure that the tour companies have a business license and that taxes are paid. The Department of Transportation Parking Enforcement establishes the loading zones and bus staging areas. The Bureau of Street Services ensures that there are no kiosks on sidewalks as all sidewalk kiosks are prohibited. And finally the Department of Motor Vehicles issues two types of licenses for the drivers: one for buses with less than 24 passengers and a second for more than 24 passengers.
With no one in charge of making sure these tour buses are following the rules, the Community Impact Team is on the case. Their focus is to decipher the interplay between all the agencies and departments involved in regulating these tour buses and to help facilitate a more successful and efficient way to manage this much needed business for our city.
Recently, the Community Impact Team added the California Highway Patrol and over the July 30th weekend, the CHP conducted a task force to inspect all buses in the Hollywood Entertainment District. Out of 75 buses inspected, 27 citations were issued and six were impounded.
Possible Solutions
According to the HED report, the committee meets again in September and will begin to explore possible solutions to some of the many problems the tour buses may cause. Including, but not limited to, off-site staging areas off the main boulevards to clear the way for metered parking and loading zones, moving buses out of public right-of-ways, and enforcing no sidewalk kiosk law(s).
Whatever the Community Impact Team does to help the tour bus situation in Hollywood coexist with the community and other businesses is greatly appreciated. In reality, we need the tour buses to serve the millions of visitors that come to our city every year and the revenue they bring to other businesses, but there must be a better way to manage the chaos...right?
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