One of the things I dislike most about the City of Santa Monica is the way we mismanage traffic. Proposed “pedestrian” islands the length of Wilshire Boulevard is a sure guarantee of gridlock and inane traffic planning.
Between the Santa Monicans for Renters Rights and the Green Party crowd that runs our city government, there is a lot of energy expended to force you out of your gas-guzzling cars or SUVs and on to environmentally benign city busses or, better yet, bicycles.
Most cities try to keep traffic moving. People drive to get to work, school and shop. But in Santa Monica, politicians love traffic calming or, as I call it, traffic impeding.
Here, slowing traffic isn’t limited to synchronizing red lights so that you hit ‘em all and have to wait at lightly traveled cross streets with 40-second green cycles. Even the massive air pollution generated by thousands of vehicles stalled on “traffic calmed” streets is inexplicably ignored by the Greens on city council.
Although traffic increases in Santa Monica at the rate of 2 to 3 percent annually, the city’s response is to reduce the number of traffic lanes, narrow them and install curb extensions, roundabouts, circles and speed bumps to slow you down and make it more difficult, frustrating and dangerous to drive.
One of the best places to see the city’s traffic calming efforts is Pico Boulevard. Although politicians, staff and hired traffic consultants point to this project with pride, it’s still an unattractive and breath-takingly dangerous slalom course for cars and pedestrians alike.
Councilman Kevin McKeown, who is seeking re-election, said at a Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce candidates forum this week that he was proud of his traffic calming advocacy, especially on Montana Avenue.
McKeown supported a plan to narrow the street from two lanes to one lane in each direction, as well as installing a series of curb extensions and flashing pedestrian crosswalks on Montana Avenue. Before the concrete was barely dry on one curb extension, a pedestrian stepped directly into traffic lane and was seriously injured by an oncoming car. So much for pedestrian safety.
The city council on Tuesday night is poised to award a $4,650,135 contract to traffic impede most of our major east-west streets. Among the “Phase Two” proposals are landscaped “safety” islands at every unsignalized intersection the length of Wilshire Boulevard. To accommodate this, traffic lanes will be reduced to 10 feet — barely the width of a city bus.
Wilshire Boulevard is one of our heaviest traveled thoroughfares. This proposal will substantially increase travel time and congestion, which appears to be what our city traffic geniuses want. Think of it as the “transit mall” for 33 blocks. Just imagine what it will be like during construction — scheduled to start AFTER the election.
Curb extensions, “flashing” crosswalks and other similar installations will appear on Santa Monica Boulevard, Broadway, Pearl and Ocean Park boulevards, too.
Also part of the plan is 26th Street. Here, residents just wanted a pedestrian signal light at Washington Avenue so school kids could cross 26th Street safely. A simple request became a $1 million traffic mitigation scheme for the entire street — including a “nonstop” traffic roundabout at 26th and Washington.
The roundabout looks to be a boon for local personal injury attorneys because many people believe accidents there will dramatically increase as motorists try to navigate in circles around each other.
Another result of slowing and grid-locking traffic on major arteries is that it encourages motorists looking for short cuts to divert into residential neighborhoods. This increases through-traffic exactly where you don’t want it: on quiet residential streets.
If you don’t want to spend a lot more time in your vehicle gridlocked in traffic on Wilshire Boulevard, and if you don’t want mad-as-hell motorists speeding down your residential street and using it as a short cut, you’ll get hold of a city council member before 5:45 p.m. Tuesday night and say, “Stop this madness. Please, don’t award that contract.”
But then you might like the way our mean, Green and extreme city government handles ever-increasing traffic problems. If you do, you either don't drive, you don't know good from bad or you’re Amish.
Bill Bauer is a 25-year Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 4, 2002. Read the original PDF.