Community weighs in on city’s traffic snarls
DOWNTOWN — More than 50 local residents gathered around a large map of Santa Monica on Saturday and brainstormed ways to solve the city’s traffic problems.
The city-sponsored workshop, part of the “Motion by the Ocean: Getting Around in Santa Monica” effort, was held at the civic auditorium and designed to solicit public comments for a new circulation element within the general plan that will dictate traffic policy here for the next 20 years.
“The idea is to be able to get people to start thinking about the traffic problem, and start thinking about new ways to fix it,” said Richard Fleener, a consultant with Fleener Associates, which helped organize the event.
During the workshop, participants prioritized the city’s traffic problems and then developed suggestions for how to tackle them.
Commonly cited concerns of residents included congestion near the Santa Monica Freeway and along major arterial streets, a lack of parking, speeding in residential areas, and bicycle and pedestrian mobility. But opinions as to how the city should fix these problems varied among participants.
Resident Barbara Filet, who uses her bicycle as her chief mode of transportation, said she would like to see more roundabouts, such as the ones the city placed on 26th Street.
“Anytime we can provide intersections where bicyclists don’t have to stop, it’s a big advantage, because it takes a lot of energy for bicyclists to come to a stop and start up again,” Filet said. “Roundabouts are a great idea because they keep traffic moving.”
Not everyone shared Filet’s opinion. “People who are in a hurry get off (at 26th Street) in order to avoid the roundabouts,” said Peggy Marx, who lives on Stanford. “They speed past in their cars where there are lots of children. It’s a big safety concern.”
Voicing similar concerns, some participants suggested solving the problem with better speed-limit enforcement.
“Anyone driving faster than 25 miles per hour on a residential street is driving too fast,” said Phil Harnage, who lives near Santa Monica College. “If you’re driving faster than 25, you can’t stop for children.”
Santa Monica’s current circulation element was created in 1984, and many who attended the workshop said it is out-dated.
“The freeway on-and off-ramps were designed for a period in history long past,” said resident Grady Daugherty. “This is supposedly the computer age, but you wouldn’t know it by the traffic system we have.”
Daugherty said Santa Monica should explore a signal system that adapts to traffic flow along major thoroughfares. He said such a system, with better freeway on-and off-ramps, would go far to relieve traffic on residential streets because commuters would not feel the need to try to beat traffic.
“Part of the reason people are cutting through the neighborhoods is because you have a corridor that is designed for 100 cattle, say, and 500 cattle are being forced though it,” Daugherty said. “Of course you are going to have a problem. People aren’t mean, but traffic hotspots make them mean.”
Joe Gershen, who lives near 11th Street and Michigan, said he is disturbed by commuters driving through his neighborhood to avoid traffic elsewhere in the city.
“A lot of times I’m just trying to back out of my garage, and I have cars whizzing past, honking,” Gershen said.
Gershen said he is also concerned about the decreasing parking availability in his neighborhood.
“Santa Monica High School students are starting to park on the street, making it difficult for those of us who live in the neighborhood to find a place,” Gershen said. “I could apply for a parking permit with the city, but that’s such a pain. It costs money, and it’s an inconvenience. If I had a friend visit, I’d have to go get him a permit, too, just so he could stay at my place.”
Harnage said Santa Monica College students are also using the parking spaces available in his neighborhood.
“I’m right on the path of the infinite expansion,” Harnage said. “But the city cannot control the growth of the college because it is run by the state.”
Some residents said the city should pay more attention to resident concerns than regional concerns, and that the amount of available parking should determine development in the future, not the other way around.
The city will be considering public comments on traffic through spring for the development of the new circulation element. Residents can also submit their input by filling out a survey online at http://motion.santa-monica.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 7, 2005. Read the original PDF.