Caltrans Officials Talking Bike Lanes And Center Dividers on PCH, As They Listen To Malibu

State surveyors are measuring the property lines along PCH in eastern Malibu … as Caltrans is asking the public how to squeeze in pedestrian and bicycle accommodations onto the limited width of the highway.

The question … where exactly does the state property end … in front of houses and next to the highway.

There are suggestions that walls … gates … and in some cases structures have been built on highway right of way. 

Some of those houses were wedged onto the oceanfront when they were first built 60 70 or 80 years ago.

Back then … the state may have been  pretty lackadaisical about houses edging up to the road. 

Every inch of public property is under scrutiny as the state comes up with a plan to add reserved spaces for pedestrian and bikes. 

Marlon Regisford … a state highway engineer … tells KBUU News that surveyors are at work now … determining where private walls or gates have been placed on public space. 

70417 ENCROACH MARLON REGISFORD 

“We’re going to need to discuss. 

“That’s a difficult conversation to have, but we’re gonna work with the city and determine what what the course of action will be if there is an event, and there’s folks encroaching into the state right away. 

“That’s that’s a critical need and we’re gonna have to determine what the process is.”

Last night at Malibu City Hall was the first of three Caltrans listening sessions in Malibu.

And what the community said was a mixed bag along somewhat predictable lines.

The road is 55 feet wide in most places … that’s seven lanes ..,. including the parking and center left turn lanes. 

Some people want some of that slice of highway to be devoted to bicycles.

Ryan Embree was one of the participants. 

70416 2WAY BIKE LANE

“In the eastern end of Malibu, we decided that a two-way bike lane over here instead of a bike lane on both sides might be a most efficient use of space. And most people would want to be over here on the ocean side anyway.

“So to accommodate parking, we made it diagonal and prohibited on the side here, on the mountain side, so people wouldn’t be running across the road and we would get more spaces.

“And they would be on a diagonal. This is how you would pull out straight into traffic, you would back into it diagonally.”

Others want the left turn lane converted into a boulevard like divider, with trees.

A center divider would allow Caltrans to declare a change of use of the roadway… And thus allow a 35 mile an hour speed limit. The way Caltrans engineers put it was, no center divider, no reduced speed limit.

But some city officials say they are looking into a way to change the speed limit to 35 from 45 and leave the street architecture alone for the time being.

Many residents in eastern Malibu … who live on the sliver of property between the highway and the ocean … are adamantly against bike lanes, or center lane medians. 

“A bloody, bloody mistake,” proclaimed one.  They say bike lanes promote a false sense of security amongst bicyclists, and said the only way to have safe bicyclists on PCH is to have no bicyclists on PCH. 

Those residents are also the people who would lose their street parking spaces … and lose the continuous center left turn lane they have used since 1968 to access their properties .

The center left turn lane … they say … is essential for fire trucks and police to use.  There are many places in Malibu where the center left turn lane was never installed, such as the curves near Big Rock and in Pacific Palisades. 

But others last night said they want the center left turn lane to be sacrificed to make way for bike lanes.  And they said traffic medians calm traffic … slowing it … and making a wide open highway appear more like a busy city street.

70418 MEDIANS 

“The main points for our group were landscaped medians, which were really popular in our group. Beginning to control where left turns happen. 

“Right now we have this continuous center left her lane that has been used right now for people to blow by people during rush-hour, it’s been used by firetrucks obviously. 

“And we would place these strategically close enough together so that the wait time could be long enough to accommodate left turns and also not to inconvenience people who have to make you turns to double back to their house.”

Two and a half hours last night .. of ideas being tossed around.

One bike lane advocate got politely drowned out when he said he lives in Venice but uses the highway daily.

PCH is a state highway … owned by all the people of California … who have a constitutional right to access the beach.

PCH is not a Malibu-controlled street.

And the top ranking Caltrans engineer at the meeting last night made it clear .. bike lanes and pedestrian sidewalks at the top of testate agency’s list.  Many Malibu residents also say, the time has come to get safe bike lanes installed, and get bicyclists out if traffic lanes,   And may other Malibu residents are very opposed. 

Again, the Caltrans official, Marlon Regisford:

70419 RIGHT OF WAY

“We want to make sure that the public, the community is aware of all the options that are possible. 

“We do as part of this plan want to introduce the possibility of a multimodal connected facility, talking bicycle lanes, pedestrian facilities, sidewalks, through the city of Malibu.

“We do understand, especially in the stretch of PCH,. that there are properties that may not have their right of way lines aligned correctly as they could be, and that is something we will have to evaluate as part of the master plan process. We don’t have the answers today, but that is part of coming up with a project.”

The next meeting is next Thursday … that one will be on line. 

Allstate Lines Up Next To State Farm To Seek Giant Fire Insurance Rate Hikes

Last week we told you that the largest home insurance company in California was asking for a 30 percent rate hike.

State Farm indicates it is in financial trouble … and needs the massive rate hike to avoid running out of money,

State Farm raised its rates by 20% in March, in addition to the 30% rate increase it requested late last month.

Now … State Farm has company.

Allstate is asking to raise its homeowners insurance rates by an average of 34.1% later this year.

And State Farm’s rate hikes would be uneven .. some parts of the state would get even higher rate hikes,.

If regulators approve the filing without changes …it would be the largest rate increase by a major insurer in the past three years. 

It’s not certain … however … that the state Insurance Department will grant it.

Allstate is the sixth largest insurance company on the state … with about 5.5 percent of the market.

This year, Travelers Insurance aised their average home insurance rates by 15.3% and and Safeco raised theirs 10.5%, 

The story is baed on reporting in the Los Angeles Times.

SMPD Out In Extra Force Today Looking For Motorcyclists Speeding During Lane Splitting

Santa Monica cops will be out in extra force today … in a crackdown on motorcyclists and car drivers endangering motorcyclists.

They include “unsafe speed, improper turning, right-of-way violations, driving under the influence and unsafe lane changes,” officials said.

Lane splitting is legal in California.

Speeding and improper lane changing is not. 

The department says speeding is the most common factor in crashes … accounting for nearly a third of all crashes in the state.”

Motorcyclists are 28 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a crash per vehicle mile traveled.

And they are five times more likely to be injured, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports.

The traffic crackdown is today.

Year-Round Fire Season Roasts California: Not More Fires, More Big Fires 

Fire season began … well … it never really ends anymore.

That’s the message from sate fire officials … who say California is now in a year round fore season.

So far this year …  more than 3,500 wildfires have broken out in California ,… 

The number of fires is only slightly higher than this time last year … but the amount of land being burned is much greater … moe than 20 times greater.

They have eaten up at least 219,247 acres across the state, according to California fire officials.

“We are not just in a fire season, but we are in a fire year,” Joe Tyler, the head of Cal Fire, told reporters this week at a news conference.

The biggest fire in the state right now is in rugged backcountry north of Solvang … 110 miles northwest of Malibu.   The Lake Fire is now just shy of 29,000 acres.

It’s the biggest fire in Santa Barbara County since 2018’s Thomas Fire. 

Roughly 450 people have been ordered to evacuate since the fire started on July 5, and another 1,200 residents have been warned to be ready to leave. 

New evacuation warnings were added along Cachuma Creek, Alisos Canyon, and Armour Ranch Road.

The fire was backing down the foothills and was about eight miles from the town of Los Olivos at the western end of the Santa Ynez Valley.

2 Major Fires Break Out In Ventura County Thursday

Two major fires in Ventura County have generated lots of smoke in the area

A brushfire broke out in the oak Park area north of the 101 freeway just before sunset last night.

Called the Rockfield fire. It burned about 1.7 acres before being brought to a stop by the Ventura county fire department.

This fire was just at the LA Copuntu-Ventura County line … about 5 miles north of the 101 Freeway at Lindero Canyon Road.

At the same time… A major industrial fire broke out in an auto wrecking yard and recycling center just off the 126 freeway north of Oxnard.

Crushed burning cars put up a heavy column of thick, black smoke, as they burned into the night

65 firefighters battled that fire all night … about 25 miles from Malibu.

Work was concentrating on digging into the gigantic pile of twisted metal… 30 feet deep… At the recycling yard.

Artificial Grass May Be Banned In LA Due To Forever Chemicals

Artificial turf may be good for conserving water … but it is a terrible chemical pollution source.

This week … a Los Angeles City Council committee approved a motion calling for a feasibility study into a potential ban on artificial grass in L.A., 

The health impacts of artificial turf is a question because the fake grrass can contain synthetic chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

PFAS are “forever chemicals” and putting it on playgrounds may be a terrible idea. 

Two Los Angeles city council members want to know if the health impacts of artificial turf outweigh the potential benefits.

Malibu Deals At The Chili Cookoff End Soon

Think of this, as the ultimate Malibu insider privilege:

This weekend is the deadline to buy 20 dollar entry tickets to the Malibu Chili Cook Off this Labor Day weekend.

Prices go up on Monday.  And entry tickers are -NOT- sold at the door.

The idea is to make it cheap for locals in the know … but more expensive for those not in the know.

So now you know.

Go online and search for Malibu Chili Cook Off. 

Or go here: https://malibuchilicookoff.org/buytix