Dear Editor,
A recent Daily Press article (“Santa Monica Council Sends Back Boulevard Safety Plan, Demands Stronger Protections,” March 9), as well as other published information, make clear that City Council members do not want or deserve future election support from the roughly 60% of Santa Monicans who commute to work by car. Or from the thousands more who drive their children to school, or drive to a Medical appointment here (for themselves or a loved one) or to a Santa Monica business establishment.
What informs this opinion? The ongoing campaign, led by Dan Hall, Caroline Torosis, Jesse Zwick, and Natalya Zernitskaya, that puts drivers and their passengers at risk for serious injuries, increases dangerous traffic congestion, and blames all drivers for Santa Monica’s historically abysmal traffic safety failures.
As recent City data show, motorists and their passengers suffered severe injuries in 2025 (at least 23) more than pedestrians (22) and nearly 5x more than bicyclists (5).
Yet shortly after revealing this, the City announced a crackdown on “dangerous driving” for the safety of people “biking or walking.” Not a peep of concern for the safety of Santa Monica drivers and their passengers.
But aren’t drivers generally responsible for dangerous traffic safety conditions? Digging into City-supplied data says “no.”
Specifically, while the city reported motorists “at fault” in 40 of 52 Fatal and Severe Injury collisions in 2025, 23 of those involved only motor vehicles, so nobody except a motorist could be at fault. And nobody except a motorist and/or passenger could be injured.
I did not see any City-supplied “at fault” data for anyone except motorists in that 2025 FSI data, but 15 years of City statistics (2010-2024) are instructive, showing bicyclists at fault about half the time in FSI collisions involving/injuring them. (Pedestrians are almost never at fault, while vulnerable to injury from cars, bicycles, and scooters.)
Yet, despite bicyclist safety violations causing nearly half of all FSIs, the rare times in which the City “targets” safety violations that include bicyclists (or pedestrians), they simply do not issue bicycle citations nearly as often as motor vehicle citations.
Indeed, bicyclists cause nearly as many FSI collisions as drivers, but are ticketed about half as often as drivers in traffic safety crackdowns. They habitually ignore safety laws, including running through stop signs and red lights, making unsafe turns, traveling against traffic, and even endangering pedestrians by traveling on sidewalks and in crosswalks.
Do anything that stupid in your car and see how quickly you are arrested for reckless driving.
Despite hard data showing motorists suffer more injuries than bicyclists or pedestrians, certain Council Members continue to serve up nonsense, rejecting staff-recommended safety plans for Santa Monica Boulevard and demanding changes to prioritize bicyclist and pedestrian safety, but ignoring protecting drivers.
Meanwhile, the same City Council crew is moving ahead with more bike lane construction and anti-automobile “traffic calming” (i.e., “congestion creating”) infrastructure on Broadway.
So for those Santa Monicans unlucky enough to commute, drive school-aged children, attend Medical appointments, or shop via Santa Monica Boulevard or Broadway, (or anywhere else in the city for that matter) watch out for your safety because the City Council doesn’t.
And don’t forget to vote for the candidate(s) of your choice in all future elections.
Sincerely,
Peter DiChellis
Santa Monica