Officials meet with residents to gauge safety solutions
After years of complaints, concerns, accidents and even deaths, it appears that city officials are ready to improve the conditions here for pedestrians who fall victim to inattentive and speeding motorists.
A group of merchants and residents successfully convinced the City Council last year to commit $75,000 to help redesign Ocean Park Boulevard between 14th and 18th streets, where dozens of accidents and near misses involving vehicles and pedestrians have occurred in recent years. There are several shops along that stretch which draw pedestrians and hundreds of kids crossing Ocean Park Boulevard to get to John Adams Middle School.
Earlier this month, city officials met with about 30 people — residents, parents and merchants — to discuss what can be done to improve pedestrian life in the four-block stretch. While some improvements have been made over the years, including neon yellow pedestrian crossing signs and dedicated crosswalks with flashing lights embedded in the pavement, the area can still be harrowing to travel on foot.
“The city has spent a lot of time and effort in that area, but it’s a problem that’s not been solved,” said Lucy Dyke, City Hall’s transportation manager.
Now that City Hall has committed to hiring an outside firm to further study the area — which could take up to nine months — residents and merchants are feeling more satisfied with officials’ response to their concerns.
Zina Josephs, president of the neighborhood group Friends of Sunset Park, said she and her neighbors have been lobbying City Hall for more than a decade to get either a crossing guard or a traffic light at intersections near the school, particularly at 16th street and Ocean Park Boulevard.
“There’s always concern at that intersection because of the high rate of speed,” Josephs said, adding that 10 years ago a man was killed there and many subsequent accidents haven’t been enough to convince city officials to do something.
“People are getting hurt,” Josephs said. “It’s at the corner of a middle school with 1,200 students.”
From Jan. 1 to April 30, there were nine accidents in the area, with one involving a pedestrian and one involving a bicyclist, according to Santa Monica Police Lt. Frank Fabrega.
Dyke said the firm, which has yet to be hired, will come up with various alternatives that could include creating diagonal parking, eliminating a lane which is designed to slow traffic down, installing medians and reconfiguring the intersections.
At the meeting earlier this month, those who attended were able to give their input on what they think should happen — some of them suggested those alternatives, while others suggested a traffic light.
“We heard a lot of different ideas,” Dyke said. “It wasn’t a time for everyone to agree, so people had just about every point of view you could have.
“From my perspective, that area is a problem,” she added. “It’s not a place people feel comfortable, given the speed, the attentiveness and the level of pedestrian activity. It doesn’t feel like the best of the best.”
Nancy Lombardi, owner of Artful, located near 18th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard, said improvements don’t need to be as drastic as removing a lane. But city officials could at least start with making sure the flashing lights at the crosswalks actually work, which oftentimes isn’t the case, she said.
“Half of them don’t work,” Lombardi said. “People are going too fast. How about some police visibility and post the speed limit? It really doesn’t have to come down to one lane.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 19, 2006. Read the original PDF.