By Lindsay Heyman Santa Monica
“Oh my goodness, I’m never going to get to work on time with this traffic.” That’s probably what most citizens who travel on Pico and Olympic boulevards say on their commute to work in the morning. Well, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a plan to help decrease the amount of time you are on the road during those hectic rush hours. This would be a fantastic plan to follow up with because it can decrease the time you are in the car commuting on Pico and Olympic, during rush hour there will be wider streets, and there won’t be such long waits at red lights.
The plan that the mayor has come up with is great if you like to be in your car for a short period of time and get to your jobs in a reasonable time. City officials say, “Time travel can be cut up to as much as 45 percent.” That’s amazing isn’t it? This will cut almost half of your travel time. So, if you were before in the car for one hour you would now probably be in the car for half an hour. Mary Cohen a parent at Lincoln says, “I no longer travel on Pico or Olympic because of the terrible traffic.” Now that’s just part of the fantastic plan to speed up the traffic, up to almost 45 percent.
Also this plan will help with the traffic during rush hour. Mayor Antonio had another idea about not allowing cars to park on the streets on either side of Pico and Olympic during rush hour. This will allow cars to move quickly using that extra lane. The extra lane will speed up traffic in each lane so they move more efficiently. So during rush hour there will be an extra lane because there will be no parked cars on the streets.
Guess what else is going to contribute to the amount of time you are on the road and what is going to help you cut your road travel time to about 45 percent, the traffic lights. At the start of next year, the mayor will have the traffic lights re-timed so there will be longer lasting green lights for people traveling east and westbound but longer red lights for those traveling north and southbound. This is mainly for the benefits of people traveling east and westbound. That is also another great way to speed up traffic.
Now I know that you are probably thinking this is never going to work and it’s a waste of time, but if Pico and Olympic commuters participate by doing their part by following the signs and laws then that should help keep traffic moving smoothly. Commuters response will be “wow that was fast, definitely much faster than before.” This would be a great idea to continue forward with. There will be faster commuting times, longer lasting green lights and no parking on the streets during rush hour.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 7, 2008. Read the original PDF.