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# One-way plan irks local residents
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/one-way-plan-irks-local-residents/
- Published: 2007-07-14T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:18:01.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Downtown, #archive-import

*By EMILY SKEHAN Special to the Daily Press*

DOWNTOWN While most Santa Monicans can agree that traffic congestion is a major quality-of-life issue, a new proposal to reconfigure Pico and Olympic boulevards into one-way streets may not get the green light from residents.

Many questioned the viability of a clockwise, one-way traffic flow on the major thoroughfares on Thursday during a public discussion held by the city’s Planning and Community Development Department.

“It seems like this plan is a huge benefit for commuters going between Downtown (LA) and Santa Monica,” said one attendee. “But it’s of no benefit to Santa Monica residents.”

With prior proposals of the one-way traffic movement stopping short of the Santa Monica city line, current talks have centered around maintaining five lanes of traffic heading in the “main” direction and two lanes of “contra-flow” direction on each street throughout Downtown LA and Beverly Hills, heading towards Santa Monica.

The “main” lanes would be open to all traffic, with left-turns prohibited during peak hours. In the “contra-flow” lanes, left turns would be banned at all times, and local traffic would be allowed only during non-peak hours. During weekday peak hours, such lanes would be designated exclusively for buses and van-pools, and no parking would be allowed along either Pico or Olympic boulevards.

On weekends and non-peak hours, parking on both sides of the arterials would be allowed. Emergency vehicles would have access to all lanes at all times under the proposal.

A one-way loop, with Olympic Boulevard heading exclusively east and Pico Boulevard moving only west, might be the best solution, said Allyn Rifkin, the transportation planner commissioned by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to create a proposal to reduce congestion between Santa Monica and Downtown LA.

Still, he placed emphasis on local support for the project.

“The whole idea of this proposal is that we’re presenting a study with an initial idea,” said Rifkin, “and now we’re taking it to the communities and asking what parts of the idea you like and what parts you don’t like. This cannot just be implemented next week by one of the city councils.

“I think that all three city councils need to work together to solve the traffic problem on the Westside.”

Those affected by the change, however, don’t seem quite as enthusiastic as Rifkin may have hoped.

“We have so many problems as it is with our north and south traffic that we anticipate the plan will just create a larger area of cut-through traffic...and more of it”said Lorraine Sanchez, a board member of the Friends of Sunset Park neighborhood coalition. “In general, there’s no solid support for the project, there are just a lot of questions and a lot of potential problems that are feared.”

Attendees of Thursday’s discussion at the Ken Edwards Center raised numerous concerns, most of which revolved around the technicalities of the proposal. Some wondered how Santa Monica would accommodate the overflow created by the five lanes of one-way traffic being reduced to one lane, as Pico Boulevard funnels from Downtown Los Angeles to narrower areas in Santa Monica.

Other objections included the possibility of major cut-through traffic in residential areas and the potential to cripple local businesses.

“Getting traffic moving is a great idea,” said Louis Galper, who manages sales at McCabes Guitar Shop, located at Pico Boulevard and 31st Street, “but people would just go through residential areas, and eliminating parking is a horrible idea.”

Galper pointed out that the residential side streets in the corridor have permit-only parking, and that customers would have no place to park during peak hours.

“We would have no business during those hours,”he said.“It would be a ghost town.”

Up the block, Joker’s Lounge bartender Keith Davies agreed.

“It could help,” he said, pointing out that it can take him an hour to get to his home in West Los Angeles. “Obviously, they want to make traffic flow much better than it is now, but parking is what they need to work on first. Our parking lot is so congested it’s off the board, and if they got rid of parking along Pico, there’s no place for customers to park because of the permits.”

Joker’s owner Marvin Machmueller wasn’t so optimistic.

“I think it sounds like a ridiculous idea,” he said.“It’s better to leave it just like it is.”

While businesses and residents might be peeved by parking shortages and cut-through traffic,Rifkin says the proposal aims to encourage use of public transit and van pools — an efficient way to reduce traffic problems.

“Subways and light rail lines might be needed,” said Rifkin, “but those sorts of improvements are 10 years or more away. This is a faster, cheaper solution that could significantly increase corridor capacity while putting an emphasis on public transport.”

During the initial phases of the project, many Angelenos recommended using reversible lanes such as those employed during the 1984 Olympics. This kind of system — where the boulevards would convert to one-way traffic during certain hours — is impractical, argues Rifkin.

“The surveys we conducted during peak hours really reflected a diversity of destinations” he said. “It’s much more difficult to do that sort of improvement because you can’t predict a predominant, sustainable flow in one direction.”

The proposal is still under much consideration and apt to change before it is implemented. However, those involved hope residents won’t force the project to make a total U-turn.

“We need to think about something that will work for the whole corridor,” said Lucy Dyke, head of Transportation Management for Santa Monica.

Some residents fear the solution is only temporary, and the costs might outweigh the benefits.

“This was a problem that could have been taken care of a long time ago,” said Sanchez, noting that MTA subways don’t extend to Santa Monica, and the lack of incentives for carpooling, “We’ve screwed ourselves.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 14, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)