By Debra Buteyn Santa Monica
(This letter was originally addressed to the Santa Monica City Council). Fifty years ago when my parents lived near the intersection of 14th Street and San Vicente Boulevard, my mother and her neighbors tried to get the city to install a traffic signal at that intersection after witnessing a number of bad accidents there. The city did nothing about it. A few years ago, one of our neighbors on Woodacres also asked the city to install a signal after her son was badly injured in an accident at this same intersection. Again, nothing was done about it. My family still lives near 11th Street and San Vicente Boulevard and we have heard or witnessed many bad accidents along this part of San Vicente, including the death of four Palisades High School students in the late 1980s who were killed right in front of our street in a terrible two-car accident.
There have been several letters published in the Santa Monica Daily Press recently about the accidents and near misses occurring at the intersection of Fourth Street and San Vicente Boulevard. All these accidents have one root cause — the uninterrupted flow of traffic between 26th Street and Ocean Avenue. Drivers treat this stretch of San Vicente as if it were a freeway. Periodically, the city will send out motorcycle police to hide in people’s driveways and ticket speeders, but this only slows traffic on the days they are out there. The only solution to this problem is to install a traffic signal at 14th Street to permanently slow traffic. On Tuesday, the Daily Press reported yet another bad accident had occurred at 14th Street and San Vicente. How many more people have to be killed or injured before the city does something about this? The City Council has found millions of dollars in the budget for their traffic calming projects and spent a lot of taxpayers’ money on making 26th Street even more dangerous with their confusing traffic circle. Yet for 50 years they have done nothing to remedy a truly dangerous situation on San Vicente Boulevard.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 12, 2004. Read the original PDF.