2.5 Hour Delays On PCH: Why? All Signs Point To LAPD, Coastal Commission

Yesterday’s traffic jam in Malibu …  2 and a half hour trips into Santa Monica … why???

And it appears … although it cannot be verified … that the massive traffic blockade was caused by one of those old broken down Winnebago campers … parked for weeks on the side of Pacific Coast Highway east of town.

Photos of the R V taken by KBUU News show it to match the appearance of an RV that had been parked on the side of PCH in that same area … for weeks.

This is where the California Coastal Commission has prohibited the county of Los Angeles from enforcing an overnight parking ban.

A little history.

For decades … signs had banned parking along P C H between Malibu and the  cioty of Los Angeles … no parking … midnight to 5.

The signs fell down from rust … or were stolen … or simply fell down.

To replace them … the coastal Commission required L A County to get a coastal development permit.

And coastal staff refuses to issue one.

They told sheriffs deputies that banning overnight parking would illegally restrict coastal access.

And predictably … a ragtag collection of RVs … campers and other vehicles has staked out primo oceanside resort space.

The latest plan from L A county sheriffs deputies was to put up signs allowing overnight parking … but only for one night per vehicle per 48 hour period.

Even that modest plan was shot down by coastal staff … according to sheriffs deputies speaking off the record with KBUU.

So .. that leads to PCH east of Malibu becoming a shelter for homeless persons and their RVs,

And that led to yesterday’s stalled R-V on traffic lanes at Getty Center.

Yesterday’s traffic jam happened just inside the city limits of the city of Los Angeles.

And LAPD apparently was confused about the extent of the problem … and whether the broken down RV was blocking traffic or not.

LAPD traditionally has just not given much priority to Pacific Coast Highway.

LAPD has jurisdiction over about 2 miles of PCH between Malibu and Santa Monica … but it’s rare to see and LAPD cop on the road.

Communication logs from the CHP show that the Los Angeles police dispatchers were confused as to where the RV was … even at 11 in the morning.

In addition … a heavy duty tow truck was needed to clear the RV.

Those are hard to find on the Westside of LA …

We did some quick math … came up with about 12 thousand 500 cumulative hours spent in stopped traffic by motorists yesterday.

It is not provable that the broken down RV is one of the ones that has been parked for days – weeks – months along PCH.  The photo we have of it sure looks like it.

But beyond question, a policy of allowing and encouraging Pacific Coast Highway to be a repository of old RVs and persons living in beachfront squalor has been perpetuated by the Coastal Commission.

And yesterday’s mess was likely caused by that.