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# Getting around is king
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/getting-around-is-king/
- Published: 2007-12-10T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T04:21:16.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Residents mull transportation issues in updating LUCE plan*

About 100 residents and local business owners participated in a city-sponsored workshop focused on alleviating transportation woes in Santa Monica. The workshop, which was held on Thursday at the Civic Center, was part of City Hall’s efforts to update the Land Use and Circulation Element general plan.

The workshop was a follow-up to the first LUCE meeting that focused specifically on transportation issues in October, an all-day event in which residents brainstormed ideas for the different purposes transportation needs to serve in order to meet the city’s larger goals.

City staff and consultants took the results of that original workshop and formulated so-called transportation CIVIC CENTER AREA Frustrated with the ongoing transportation issues — from a lack of parking spaces to minimal transportation options — Santa Monicans appear ready to go the extra mile to remove that seemingly permanent thorn in their side. principles, which included beliefs that the transportation system in Santa Monica should be less frustrating and more enjoyable, and that transportation and parking “must be managed carefully as a limited renewable resource.” Each principle was accompanied by a set of potential programs and policies, ranging from creating a car-share program to creating residential parking benefit districts.

“We want to make sure if there is change in Santa Monica, it makes Santa Monica better,” said Jeffrey Tumlin, the city’s transportation consultant for the LUCE project.

Tumlin, the principal of Nelson/Nygaard Associates, said he wrote the principles to be intentionally challenging, controversial and progressive. He was surprised to see that the residents at the workshop seemed to support more than 90 percent of the ideas presented.

“People don’t want platitude, they want to be told the truth,” Tumlin said on Thursday.

Tumlin has worked on various general plans for municipalities across the state and expects that the updated Land Use and Circulation Element in Santa Monica will be unlike any other he’s encountered, mainly because of the unique issues facing residents in the city.

“People drive less in Santa Monica than any other place in California,” Tumlin said. “It’s not because they can’t afford to, but because they choose to.”

Part of the reason is because of the concentration of retail in the neighborhoods. Most of the neighborhoods, with perhaps the exception of northern Santa Monica, have a small to a high concentration of retail, from Main Street in Ocean Park to the Wilshire corridor in Mid-City to the Pico Boulevard business district in the Pico Neighborhood.

What also sets Santa Monica apart from other municipalities is the high volume of vehicular traffic that comes into the city — because of local workforce and tourism — compared to the smaller number of residents, said Matt Raimi, a city consultant with Raimi and Associates. Raimi will be working on the draft of the general plan.

The workshop last week raised many of the same issues that had been mentioned in previous LUCE meetings. Many residents spoke in favor of safer bike routes and more parking. Judy Abdo, the director of Child Development Services for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, said she wanted to see transportation issues around the schools carefully addressed in the LUCE, including child care centers.

Sustainability issues came up again with some residents saying they wanted to see more programs that encouraged residents and employees to use alternative means of transportation, hoping to see programs that would persuade residents to consider buying electric vehicles.

“We need to look at everything from an environmental standpoint,” said Lulu Mickelson, a Santa Monica High School student and co-president of Samohi Solar Alliance. The student club co-sponsored a Bike Day at Samohi last Wednesday with the school’s Bike Coalition.

The city planning office will hold about five more workshops pertaining to LUCE after the start of the New Year, focusing on issues related to the boulevards, neighborhoods, sustainability and open space issues.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/121007-01_01.jpg)

(Photo: Photo courtesy Matt Stanton)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 10, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/121007.pdf?ref=smdp.com)