This past week, Q-line asked: Do you agree with the move to make Ocean Park Boulevard a one-lane corridor or do you want the city to cancel the pilot program and restore the street to the way it was?
Here are your responses: “WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE OF TRAFFIC in Santa Monica is a total incompetent idiot. Every time they change something it makes it worse and as soon as you get used to anything the idiots change it back to something totally different again. Just put it back the way it used to be and fire the idiot in charge.”
“IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT THE city of Santa Monica has more major highways than any of the other bay area cities between the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Point Dume. To name five: Wilshire, Santa Monica and Lincoln boulevards compounded by the I-10 Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway. All are crowded with traffic congestion every day of the week due to various forms of interlopers visiting Santa Monica for work, business and pleasure. Santa Monica has chosen to restripe Ocean Park Boulevard as a partial solution in abating the horrors of bumper-to-bumper traffic congestion along this traffic corridor. Time will tell if it helps to speed up the slow flow of traffic. At the present time the entities most pleased with the restriping of city streets are those companies who supply street paint to the city.”
“I THINK THE NEW STRIPING ON OCEAN Park Boulevard is terrific. It slows down the traffic. It doesn’t give the speeders the chance to change lanes and it is safer for people parking cars because of the buffer of the bicycle zone and it encourages bicycling. I would like the city to put in more traffic signals on Ocean Park Boulevard as well.”
“I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THE restriping on Ocean Park Boulevard, bringing it down to one lane. Traffic moves slower, it is easier for drivers to see you in the crosswalk and all in all I hope they keep it that way.”
“I’M DISTRAUGHT AT WHAT THEY HAVE done to that street. A one-lane corridor is not what we need in an area with that much congestion. I oppose it and I think the city should put it back the way it was.”
“TH E EX PERIME NT ONOC EAN Park Boulevard has been interesting to say the least. I’d say that the positive is that it has allowed a couple additional parking spaces. The narrowing from Seventh Street to Lincoln Boulevard has created a queuing up scenario where you will get anything from eight to 10 cars being on a green to get across Ocean Park Boulevard and head up the hill going east. If the city is in fact treating this as an experiment it has been a failure. We’re ready to circulate a petition to ask the city to put things back the way they used to be.”
“ONE LANE, TWO LANES, ONE WAY, TWO ways — so what. It is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It is a lost cause. Without population control, everything else is just blowing in the wind.”
“I THINK THAT OCEAN PARK BOULEVARD is now awful to travel on. They should reverse course and restore it to the way it used to be so the traffic can flow again.”
“OUR OWN COUNCILMEMBER RICHARD Bloom gave a great hint to the socialist thinking on the council when he worried about too many parking spaces contaminating public driving pleasure. I didn’t get a taxpayer supported trip to Europe to view mass transit, we’ve bailed Europe out twice now. As an American we’re great because we drive in our own direction. Over development plus no infrastructure has led to an European big brother approach to mass transit. Nobody who speaks English wants to take a $51 million subsidized Blue Bus ride. Thanks to the council and its millionaire developers and jet flying rich, only they will be able to drive a car. Retarding population growth is the best way to experience American driving pleasure.”
“OCEAN PARK BOULEVARD HAS become a traffic stresser in its current configuration. Please take this bad idea and dump it. Restore Ocean Park Boulevard to the way it used to be.”
“IT IS TERRIBLE WHAT THEY HAVE done. It seems like Santa Monica has a problem with traffic so they make it even more difficult to drive through their city. It is awful and I would like it put back the way it was for years.”
“THEY RESTRIPED OCEAN PARK Boulevard so that it would affect congestion. It did affect congestion, it has gotten worse. They shouldn’t have done it.”
“I THINK OCEAN PARK BOULEVARD should be reverted back to the way it was. The new lane restriping is confusing and it is very dangerous and it is certainly slowing down traffic.” “ I HOPE THEY KEEP THE BIKE path on Ocean Park Boulevard because it is much easier to bicycle on that street up to Lincoln Boulevard. I think the birds are happier too because they have less cars going by.”
“IT NOW TAKES 20 TO 30 MINUTES to drive seven blocks until 25th street. It is a mess.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 2, 2008. Read the original PDF.