Bicyclists pushing for better connected bike lanes
DOWNTOWN — Roundabouts, speed bumps and angled parking spots were expected to be among the key points of discussion this weekend at a workshop on neighborhood traffic in Santa Monica.
A study of Seattle, Wash., showed that urban roundabouts were more popular among residents than were four-way stop signs, according to Beth Rolandson, a senior transportation planner for Santa Monica City Hall.
“More and more neighborhoods have been requesting them,” she said. “They’ve been well received. Some preliminary There is an existing roundabout in Santa Monica on 26th Street and another miniature roundabout on Fourth Street in Ocean Park. Both have been met with mixed reactions from residents — some praise the circles for slowing traffic, others contend the roundabouts are out of place on relatively busy roads.
Mayor Pam O’Connor acknowledged adding new roundabouts to Santa Monica roadways would be controversial, but said the debate had a familiar ring.
“If you look at newspapers from the early part of the 20th century, when traffic signals were proposed... it was a controversial subject,” she said Friday. “Any time you’re talking about any kind of traffic engineering and traffic control, you’re going to have some folks who want the open road and nothing in their way. Sometimes the same people, when they’re on their feet though, when they’re walking with their kids, they want to be safe and be sure cars don’t run them down.”
No decision on whether to add new roundabouts will be made at the Saturday morning meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. and is expected to draw 50 people to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Main Street. The input received will be considered as part of an ambitious project to update the city’s circulation element and general plan, documents that will control development throughout Santa Monica for the next two decades.
Another topic expected to be discussed at the workshop is whether streets in Santa Monica’s residential neighborhoods should add more speed bumps to slow down traffic. Proponents argue what once were quiet streets are now being overwhelmed by motorists attempting to avoid increasingly clogged traffic arteries. Opponents say the bumps add critical seconds to emergency response times.
According to Rolandson, the city was researching “speed cushions,” or specially designed speed bumps with a cutout specifically tailored for emergency vehicles, which can drive through the bumps rather than over them.
O’Connor said she was interested in the new technology, but added some things are more important than emergency response times.
“There are many things we could do to make it easier for public safety vehicles to get through, but then that detracts from the whole quality environment that people want to live in,” she said, making an analogy that City Hall could cut down all the trees in Santa Monica to increase visibility.
Different ways of organizing street parking spaces also was expected to come up during this weekend’s workshop. Rolandson said residents will be asked their opinions on angled parking and other options.
“On a wider street, you might be able to put in angled parking,” she said. “On a narrower street, it’s a decision of maybe you want to have parallel parking on just one side of the street, or on both sides of the street.”
The traffic workshop is the second in a series of meetings where transportation officials solicit input to help draft a new traffic plan. The first meeting was for bicyclists, and Rolandson said the key piece of feedback received was bicyclists wanted a more integrated network of bike lanes. The current series of bike lanes in Santa Monica are sporadic and often end abruptly, without warning.
Transportation officials were scheduled to hold a joint meeting March 15 with the City Council and Planning Commission on what methodology to use for measuring and quantifying traffic. In the meantime, Rolandson said she hoped the Saturday workshop would solicit broad input.
“Traffic tends to be the area of greatest concern of development in Santa Monica,” Rolandson said. “We want to hear their (residents’) concerns in their own neighborhoods, but we also want to hear about their thoughts citywide... what they want to encounter when they travel throughout Santa Monica.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 5, 2005. Read the original PDF.