City Council Grumbling About Cost To Bring CHP to PCH, One Proposes Self-Driving Blockades
Written by 991KBU on November 28, 2023
Malibu’s will do anything to get more cops onto Pacific Coast Highway … except maybe pay for it.
Last night … the city council unanimously said they supported spending 50 thousand dollar.. a check written to pay for four CHP officers per day on PCH … starting January First.
But that is just a temporary measure … while negotiations between the city and thew CHP continue for a longterm contract after the city blows through the first 50 thousand dollar check.
That will only cover about 80 days.
And some council members say … the long-term expense should be borne by the state.
Bruce Silverstein.
CHPPCH BS
“I think it’s absurd that we are being forced to pay to get the police protection here that were that we should be entitled to, and we not only have to pay them to come here but we have to indemnify them for what ever they may do that’s wrong, that might incur liability.
“That’s crazy. “
Silverstein argues that … since PCH gets so much traffic from outside Malibu … outside police agencies should pay for it.
Council member Marianne Riggins
CHPPCH MR
“Given that the amount of money that the state and the county take from our property taxes in addition to the amount of people that use our local areas that are not residents here it … it would be nice to explore ways that we can get some sort of reimbursement or a change in the tax allocation from our property taxes,”
Good luck in Sacramento. A tax bailout bill for wealthy Malibu, swimming in property tax revenue, has scant chance.
Cities in California do not get CHP patrols within city limits … except on freeways.
Under state law … CHP officers are only assigned to streets outside cities … and on freeways.
Silverstein suggests threatening to withhold money for the summer beach patrol teams … based at Zuma Beach … unless the state pays for the CHP.
Silverstein Proposes City Run Robot Cars Up And Down PCH At 35 MPH To Slow Traffic. Really.
City council member Bruce Silverstein is trying to reduce speeds on Pacific Coast Highway one way or the other.
At last night;’s city council meeting … he tried to convince his fellow council memewbrs to use a state of emergency to simply declare the speed limit to be lower…. He suggested 35 miles per hour in eastern Malibu.
Silly ersteoin was also unable to convince his fellow council members that the current state of emergency over highway safety justifies a unilateral reduction in the speed limit.
The problem is that LA County sheriffs deputies, and the CHP can write all the tickets that they want… But unless those tickets are substantiated by a traffic survey, using radar… Those tickets are worthless paper.
A city that unilaterally sets up a low speed limit … unsupported by traffic studies … is guilty of setting a speed trap.
And the California speed trap law says a judge cannot consider evidence of speeding of a vehicle upon a highway to be admitted in any court … when the evidence is based on a speed trap.
Caltrans has promised to do a new speed study … and radar study … with the goal of reducing speed limits on PCH.
But the state agency has refused to say exactly when that will happen.
But Silverstein has a unique idea to slow down traffic on PCH.
How about …. self driving cars owned by the city of Malibu … driving in tandem … next to each other … 35 miles an hour … up and down the coast?
No … really.
Brice Silverstein … last night.
SELF DRIVING
“We could put self driving cars on PCH in tandem. They could drive on both lanes … they could drive 35 miles an hour or 40 miles an hour … and you could not get past them. If it’s legal, I would like to explore the city council doing that.”
