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# Shopping cart lane promises loads of fun
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/shopping-cart-lane-promises-loads-of-fun/
- Published: 2005-04-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:31:43.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*By RIDIN’ HIGH Daily Planet Slave*

A brand-spanking new shopping cart lane that opened yesterday is expected to pave the way for higher retail sales, eliminate congestion and reduce cars versus transient accidents.

The four-foot wide shopping cart lane will run east and west along Wilshire Boulevard between the bus and bike lane, city officials said. Costing a paltry $1 million for the city to construct, the new lane is intended to spurn a shopping bonanza for Santa Monica businesses located on the Wilshire corridor.

The new lane also help the homeless transport their belongings to and fro from the beach to Seedy Park, on Lincoln Boulevard.

“Area shoppers will now have the chance to flaunt their newly-purchased wares, as we help the homeless get around, too,” said Councilman Devon McMeat, a proponent of expanded opportunities for people of all socio-economic classes.

To encourage use of the new shopping cart lane, the Federal Government has given an additional $20 million to give users the chance to customize their own carts.

“Confidence only comes with style,” said city mass-transit director Jerry Incline. “By decorating their own carts, Santa Monicans, housed and unhoused alike, will be more inclined to make full use of this opportunity.”

Cart themes are already available and include the “Big Pimpin’ Deals on Wheels,” a gold-guilded cart with a lavender child’s seat strewn with Mardis Gras beads, and the “Holiday Hummer,” a motorized shopping cart that has monster wheels, travels 50 miles per hour and is decorated with Christmas lights and tinsel. A Fourth of July customized cart and a Veteran’s Day cart is in the works, for those who relish in all that America has to offer and to symbolize what they fought for — the ability to be a country that has treated them so well.

“At least we can do for them,” said President Georgie W. Shrub. “I might not be able to fund that 10-year plan to end homelessness, but I can sure help the residentially-challenged get around safer. A safer America is why you picked me to serve this fine country.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/040105-22_01.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/040105-22_02.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/040105-22_03.jpg)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/040105.pdf?ref=smdp.com)