The circle of bumps and reflective lights at one of Koreatown’s busiest intersections does not tell the full story of residents’ years of frustration and one deadly night over the summer.
New Hampshire Avenue and 4th Street’s temporary traffic circle does little to slow down passing vehicles. Cars, cyclists, pedestrians with children, neighbors with grocery carts, an encampment, spillover traffic from Vermont Avenue and a nearby church all converge at the intersection. The community is always on the move.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation installed the temporary traffic circle on Nov. 13 only after a suspected drunk driver killed 9-year-old Nadir Gavarrete and frustrated residents painted their own crosswalk. Though city officials revealed plans to make the intersection safer more than five years ago, construction on the permanent traffic circle will not begin until 2026.
Koreatown neighbors say even with the interim measures, the intersection is far from safe.
“The traffic circle is fine, but I think a traffic light should be added as well,” said resident Miguel Contreras, 78. “There’s a lot of traffic here in the morning and afternoon. Drivers who usually use Vermont Avenue come through here because there’s so much congestion over there.”
Spending even a short time at the intersection shows the interim traffic circle and crosswalks are not working as intended. Drivers routinely speed through the intersection, with some cutting straight over the traffic circle instead of circling around the roundabout.
Contreras, who has lived in the neighborhood for about two years, witnessed the aftermath of Nadir’s death. On July 31, Contreras was coming home from work and saw the boy’s body covered with a blanket. He later saw the memorial that neighbors set up. “All of us here in the neighborhood felt the pain of losing that little boy,” Contreras said.
Prosecutors charged Jimmy Pittman, 46, with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence, with a special allegation of causing great bodily harm. He remains in custody and pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to court records.
In a statement to The LA Local, the LA Department of Transportation said the department “shares the community’s urgency to improve safety on our streets, particularly for its most vulnerable users such as children walking and biking.”
Crashes are fairly common at this intersection, according to neighbors. According to the Department of Transportation, the intersection lies in a “high-injury network” — the small share of streets that account for a disproportionate number of traffic injuries and fatalities. That status is part of why it was selected in 2011 for improvements under the local safety and traffic-calming program.
The intersection has also been designated as a “bike-friendly” or “mobility” street in city planning, meaning it is prioritized for safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians.
But over the years, the project to make the intersection safer faced delays despite community meetings dating back to 2011, secured funding, concept renderings and even a DIY roundabout demonstration by activists in 2019.
Bianca Cockrell, a traffic safety advocate with the advocacy group Crosswalk Collective, lives near the intersection and organized volunteers to paint a temporary crosswalk after she heard about Nadir’s death.
The group painted the temporary crosswalk, with a memorial to Nadir, on Aug. 2, but the city scraped away the DIY crosswalk in early November, according to reporting from Streetsblog LA.
The city then installed new crosswalks abruptly, without the memorial.
“I can only imagine how Nadir’s father must have felt walking down the street the next day and seeing that the memorial we painted was erased, and all the crosswalks were also erased like that, even though that was a temporary thing, that’s still like a very simple gesture,” Cockrell said.
In 2011, the city received funding from a Metro program for a Bicycle Friendly Streets project, which included safety improvements at four intersections along Fourth Street, including New Hampshire. In 2015, a federal grant under a broader safety and bicycle-friendly funding program was awarded specifically for this intersection, funding a mini-traffic circle and enhanced crosswalks. But construction has not begun.
“This is a site that the city has studied. The city knew something was wrong. But the city didn’t do anything,” Cockrell said. “A kid literally died, and then now they’re doing stuff, although they’ve even talked about how the plans they have, they will install next year.”
Construction plans for next year for the intersection include installing improved street lighting, clearer signage, a permanent traffic circle and four crosswalks.
But for now, residents are still facing the risks of a dangerous intersection. Victoria Toscano works in maintenance at an apartment building nearby and sometimes walks in the area with her 4-year-old son. She said she was nearly hit by a car while walking past the intersection in October, and she doesn’t think the new interim traffic circle will slow drivers down anytime soon.
“As a mom, it does worry me. I see people drive right over the traffic circle — speeding, cutting through it, not even stopping sometimes. It really didn’t make a difference at all, in my opinion,” she said. “I don’t think people know how the traffic circle works. They seem confused about what they’re supposed to do because there aren’t many roundabouts in this area.”
