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# Santa Monica What a traffic tale
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-what-a-traffic-tale-editor/
- Published: 2008-01-22T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T18:05:56.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Ocean Park, #archive-import

*By Carla Barrett Santa Monica*

I was opposed to the $150,000 restriping “experiment” of Ocean Park Boulevard that the head of the traffic planning division wanted to do, and I still find that it was an ill-conceived plan and a waste of taxpayers money. Most of the time I travel east and west on Ocean Park in the middle of the day and have found that while traffic moves slower it still moves. Making a left hand turn onto any street is more difficult due to the constant flow of traffic which only allows one car to make the turn when the light turns yellow. (You know the second car is going to try and sneak through on the red) Over the last week I have traveled on Ocean Park Blvd late in the afternoon and early in the morning. I found the flow of traffic between 17th and 25th streets to be at a stand still heading east at 4 p.m. It took almost five minutes to travel from 17th to 20th Street because of the heavy traffic, and there were no pedestrians trying to cross in the lighted cross walk. Actually, traffic was backed up all the way to 25th street. The other morning I decided to return a library book to the branch at 21st and Ocean Park Blvd. I took Hill street to 21st and planned to cross 21st, park and drop off the book. When I started to approach O.P. Blvd there were numerous cars waiting for the red light to change, and when it did, only a couple could actually get through the intersection. Why? Because cars traveling east were backed up and trying to sneak through the intersection. They entered at the end of the green or beginning of the yellow light and had no place to go (except into the bike lane) because the traffic was backed up from 23rd Street to 20th Street. Cars heading north or south on 21st Street could not turn to head east and those trying to go west or north were blocked.

I am in favor of pedestrian safety and understand that the people who live on O.P. Blvd between 11th and 14th will be reluctant to give up there new found street parking, but I am not in favor of traffic backed up for 10 blocks with all the toxins that they spew as they sit in traffic waiting to creep forward a foot at a time.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 22, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)