Emergency room traffic has residents concerned about crossing safety
By LAUREN BONIFACIO Special to the Daily Press
MID CITY — Fed up with out-of-control traffic and law-breaking motorists, a group of residents gathered Tuesday demanding that City Hall do something to make their neighborhood safer.
The final straw for residents who live near 23rd Street and Arizona Avenue was last month, when a senior citizen was seriously injured while he was walking through a crosswalk at the intersection.
In response, about 20 residents met at the McKinley Elementary School cafeteria a few blocks away to demand from police more patrols of the neighborhood. They said motorists regularly speed through the intersection, often times blowing through the four-way stop signs.
“We’re going to try to get some sort of solution... before something else happens, or someone else gets hit, or a child going to school,” said Yvonne Ulrich, an eight-year resident who organized the meeting.
Residents say traffic on the mostly residential streets has grown because motorists use Arizona Avenue instead of Wilshire Boulevard, where the recent installation of islands have served as a deterrent to drive on the busy street. Patrons leaving bars on Wilshire Boulevard have caused many of the problems, as well as motorists who use the secondary road to get to the freeway.
“They’re cruising through the four-way stop sign because they see the green light on Wilshire,” said John Keefer, who has lived near the intersection for three years.
Casually seated on child-sized lunch tables in the school cafeteria, the residents exchanged horror stories of hit-and-runs, sideswipes and near-misses as cars zoom past pedestrians walking through the intersection.
“I swear they’re going 70,” said Keefer, adding that he can barely back out of his driveway without nearly being hit. “I’ve had people come back and slash my tires because I’ve yelled at them to slow down.”
In the past year-and-a-half, Maria Perez’s car has been hit three times by hit-and-run drivers.
And Ulrich, whose sons’ school is only three blocks away, drives them the short distance every day.
“I won’t let them walk to school, they think I’m crazy,” Ulrich said. “The minute they take a step off the curb, I’m wondering if they’re going to make it to school.”
The residents suggested City Hall install speed bumps, dips, additional stop signs or a traffic light at the intersection to slow drivers down.
Making those changes is not in the Santa Monica Police Department’s jurisdiction, said Lt. Carolin Shepard, who attended Tuesday’s meeting and is the representative for the area as part of the SMPD’s neighborhood policing program. “We are limited because we can conduct education, we can do enforcement, but we can only offer input to the city.”
The SMPD has a program designed specifically to address residents’ concerns about traffic safety, which is called the “Problem Solving Safety Team,” or PSST, said Lt. Frank Fabrega. The SMPD’s traffic enforcement division identifies problem areas based on citizen complaints, and areas with a high amount of accidents and violations. The SMPD will then take measures to educate the public and enforce the laws in those areas. In the past three years, there have been four accidents at the intersection — one in 2002; two in 2003 and one so far this year, police said. “I promise you, you will see increased enforcement in that area,” SMPD Sgt. Jay Trisler told the group, adding that a specific day this week an officer would be at the intersection ticketing violators.
Trisler said he would station a decoy squad car at the intersection, as well as a radar trailer and message board that tell drivers how fast they are going and to slow down. More sobriety checkpoints will be scheduled near the bars on Wilshire Boulevard, he said.
The residents said they would plan another meeting with a representative of City Hall’s transportation management division, which authorizes engineering changes to streets, such as the speed bumps the residents suggested.
But even without city traffic officials at the meeting, the group may already have encountered a roadblock.
Saint John’s Health Center is on the same block, and emergency response vehicles need to be able to travel down adjacent streets as quickly as possible.
“Of all places you don’t want people slowing down,” said Councilman Kevin McKeown, who sat in the back of the cafeteria, unnoticed for most of the meeting, as some residents lambasted City Hall for its failure to listen to their needs.
“There’s probably not much we can do about increasing traffic, it’s increasing all over Southern California,” McKeown said. “How much more can you do besides stop signs and crosswalks?”
With Saint John’s slated to open its emergency room on Arizona Avenue soon, bringing even more traffic to the area, residents planned to continue meeting until they found a solution.
“You think it’s bad now … but wait until they open the emergency room,” Keefer said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2004. Read the original PDF.