By Melody Hanatani
Daily Press Staff Writer

SUNSET PARK — City officials are in the final phase of a traffic study to improve a deadly stretch of Ocean Park Boulevard that has been the subject of neighborhood outrage for years.

Still, their progress has been agonizingly slow for residents worried that another accident lurks around the corner.

Business owners and residents around Ocean Park Boulevard have complained to City Council about the accident-prone area for years because of the high number of near-miss accidents that they say occur every day. Last month, a vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk at 25th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard.

Planning and Community Development officials updated the City Council last week on the progress of an estimated $75,000 study on measures to improve Ocean Park Boulevard between 16th and 18th streets.

Planning and Community Development Director Eileen Fogarty expects to report back to the community in January, after a series of long-term solutions have been fully studied.

Zina Josephs, president of the Friends of Sunset Park, said she was not satisfied with the news that the public would have to wait until January to hear about the traffic study results, as the association has complained for years.

“It’s been a while and we’ve had four accidents that I know of,” Josephs said. “It’s frustrating to have to keep waiting.”

The city kicked off a four-phase traffic analysis in May 2006 at a community meeting at the Fairview Branch Library, where approximately 45 concerned participants vented their frustration over the dangers of an area that is home to John Adams Middle School, Will Rogers Elementary School and New Roads Elementary School. Santa Monica College is also nearby.

Some of the suggestions for Ocean Park Boulevard that emerged from the meeting included adding a crossing guard and a traffic light at 16th Street, installing a signal at 18th Street and adding a left turn signal at 14th Street.

The study has identified speed as one of the main problems on Ocean Park, which has posted speed limits of 25 mph when children are present, and 30-35 mph at other times. Residents contend the limits are rarely adhered to by motorists.

In response to neighborhood concerns, the city is planning to implement short-term measures to alleviate speeding through increased police presence and a scale that informs the driver at which speed they are traveling.

In the meantime, the Planning and Community Development department is analyzing three long-term suggestions to install full signals at 16th and 18th streets, reconfigure Ocean Park Boulevard to include angled parking, and change the street to include a through lane and turn lane.

“Some of those long-term measures would also be a deterrent for speed,” Fogarty said on Monday.

Transportation Planning Manager Lucy Dyke said Ocean Park Boulevard is designed in a standard configuration, but is wide and flexible enough to accommodate change.

Ocean Park Boulevard, which is used by an estimated 23,000 vehicles per day, currently includes some safety measures that were implemented in the past few years, including two marked crosswalks with embedded flashing lights at 16th and 18th streets, and a traffic signal at 17th Street.

However, business owners have complained that the embedded lights in the crosswalks, which are pedestrian-activated, do not work all the time.

At the City Council meeting, department heads said the company that maintains the crossing lights recently went bankrupt.

“The city is looking at alternative methods to get the light fixed,” Fogarty said on Monday.

The city has used three different brands of flashing light systems at the intersection, Dyke said. She said the issue with the malfunctioned lights cannot be pinpointed to one company since none of the products are as effective and reliable as traffic signals.

The flashing lights at 16th Street were replaced in the past few months.

Dyke said several other cities that have used the flashing light crosswalks have experienced problems, including Glendale.

Josephs, meanwhile, said the city should disconnect the entire flashing light system because it endangers pedestrians with a false sense of security.