Caltrans Unveils PCH Possibilities: 2-Lane Traffic Circle, Partial Parking Ban, Ocean Side 2-Way Bike Lane, Lots Of New Traffic Lights

Caltrans engineers last night unveiled possible changes for Pacific Coast Highway: 

• adding a protected two-way bike lane and removing parking or the center turn lane to accommodate it,
• five traffic circles … including a dual-lane traffic circle at Webb Way,
• and lots more traffic lights for pedestrians and traffic slowing. 

Only one alternative has been removed … and that alternative is doing nothing. 

Last night … about 40 Malibu people attended a Caltrans public hearing at Malibu City Hall. 

And there … they got a view of PCH proposals for traffic circles at Webb Way.

And the state agency reported back on the first round of opinions … from Malibu residents and from users of state highway 1 … on what they want.

At the top of the list … Bike lanes. 

70536 HEARING RESULTS RYAN SNYDER

“Bike lanes came out number one. Sidewalks or walking areas came out number two.

“Bus stop improvements number three. Full or part-time bus lanes was next. 

“Replace the center turn lane with legal U-turn bays at signalized intersections. 

“Next center medians. 

“Parking on the beach side was later on. And then maintain the same number of travel lanes … that ranked pretty low… as did parking on the mountain side. 

“Keep the center turn lane ranked almost at the bottom. 

“Dead last was ‘I want this highway to stay the same as it is now.’ “

Keeping the center turn lane was dead last. 

But those results were attacked by a vocal group of eastern Malibu residents …. dead set against any bike lanes … along PCH in the tight residential spaces east of the Malibu Pier. 

Scott Dittrich said the public hearings have been taken over by bicyclists from outside Malibu.

70535 SKEWED SCOTT DITTRICH

“When we look at your survey and the number one thing is bike lines, it’s very clear that the bike lobby has taken over the survey.

“I’ve come to two city meetings from Rambla Pacifico today on the Coast Highway, and I saw one cyclist on the highway.

“There’s a lot more on the weekends but they’re recreational. But they have skewed the results terribly.

“What do we have 50 or 60 people here, maybe 35 residents? They’re going to feel very differently than what your survey says.”

It’s been clear at the public meetings, however, is that a significant numbers of Malibu residents favor bike lanes … which get bikes out of vehicle traffic.

A show of hands last night showed that about one third of the audience of 50 last night was in favor of the bike lanes.  But that was just the people in the room. 

The Caltrans officials said Malibu residents … who live in the city … overwhelmingly favor bike lanes … to get bicyclists out of traffic lanes.   And by a 98 percent margin, they want changes. 

Some of the people who live along the beach in the Las Flores Canyon area are adamant.  They worry that bike lane would make it impossible for them to get in or out of their driveways or garages.  Many of them last night said they want PCH to be kept the way it is, and has been, since 1968.

Caltrans officials said their policy … not the law but the policy … is bike lanes.    [A proposed bill to require Caltyrans to install bike lanes and crosswalks is awaiting final passage today by the California Senate.  If passed, and signed by the governor, Senate Bill 960  would require Caltrans follow its own policies to include bicycle and pedestrian safety road design when working on state highways – and to document and publish any reason they don’t. See story, below.]

And Caltrans is not a city street … it is a state of California property.  And opinions from people outside Malibu are just as valid as those of Malibu residents … Caltrans officials said.

Last night in Malibu, Caltrans safety director Lee Haber tried to soothe the crowd … but reminded them “doing nothing is not an alternative.”  Difficult decisions are coming … he said … and no one group is going to be 100 percent happy.  

Caltrans safety director Lee Haber:

BALANCE LEE HABER 

“We have concerns … were trying to work things out .

“Trying to balance things is crucial .

“Obviously, some of these you may go’ oh, this is pie in the sky.’  OK, that may be.

“But we are trying to appeal to a broad group and let everybody vote and weigh in.

“So we really want to get input from the residents who are here.

“Please vote. …  please look at it.”

Last night … the state showed about 36 cross sections … slices across various sections of PCH in Malibu … showing what the layout could be. 

Participants were invited to rank their preferences … things like eliminating parking on the inland side of the highway … adding protected bike lanes along the beach side …. eliminating the center turn lane … or turning part of the PCH near the pier into a boulevard.

By a small plurality … the most-popular position for eastern Malibu was to eliminate parking along the mountain side …  push the two westbound traffic lanes, center turn lane and two eastbound lanes to the north … and install a two-way bicycle lane, protected from traffic somehow, along the southern, beach side of the road. 

Gaps would allow access to driveways.  On street parking might be eliminated westbound, but preserved next to the eastbound traffic lanes,

Other proposals for other parts of PCH: maybe making PCH one lane in each direction …  instead of two … west of Trancas.

Traffic circles … at Decker Canyon Road … El Matador Beach … Trancas Canyon Road … at the offset intersection of Westward Beach and Bonsall Drive … and the big one: a two lane traffic circle on PCH at Webb Way.

The state says traffic circles that can move 30 percent more traffic than a traffic signal … with a big decrease in crashes.  They said PCH at Webb would be a likely success story, cutting traffic delays, functioning during power outages, slowing through traffic and reducing both serious crashes and rear-enders. 

Another proposal: putting full-scale, red-green traffic lights at every pedestrian crosswalk and every bus stop in Malibu. That would be an addition of about 8 signals. 

And, adding speed radar to detect speeding cars and make signals turn red as speeding cars approach. 

The summary: by an overwhelming majority… Malibu has said they want changes on Pacific Coast Highway.

Now comes the difficult decisions … just how far should the changes go???

The state has made it clear that it will accommodate bicycles and pedestrians … and install roadway changes … to slow cars down … on PCH.

Choosing preferences is still open on all of those alternatives.  Caltrans engineer Ryan Snyder:

70534 CHANGES RYAN SNYDER

“I invite you to think big, to think different, cause we need to make some changes out there. It is unacceptable the way it is now, we need to make some changes. And you are input is going to be very important as to what those changes look like.”

The public can go to the PC website website and cast their ballots for preferences.  Search for PCH Feasabillity Study.  Or go to https://engage.dot.ca.gov/f1336

The state will hold an online listening session in about two weeks. And the public’s opinions are important.

Caltrans engineer Ryan Snyder said it will take years to implement whatever is chosen.

And then… A final list of recommendations and alternatives will be presented before the end of the year.

The Malibu city council will offer its opinions.

But the final decision will be made by there Caltrans district director … in Los Angeles.

It is … remember … a state highway.

Person Killed On Las Posas Road In Fields Just North Of PCH

There was a deadly crash in Las Posas Road just north of Pacific Coast Highway this morning.

At least one person was killed when a car went into the ditch … next to Las Posas Road about 1-1/2 miles north of PCH. 

The crash was reported at about 6:55.

Malibu Speed Bill In Last Minute Sacramento Cliffhanger

It’s a last minute cliffhanger for the Malibu speed camera bill. 

The California State Assembly adjourns tomorrow at midnight for the year … and it has yet to decide on the proposed Malibu law. 

If passed in the Assembly … and signed by the governor … it would give the City of Malibu permission to hang five automatic radar cameras on poles along PCH.

They would issue 10 dollar tickets … 50 dollar tickets for people with higher incomes. 

The automatic tickets would go to car owners whose cars are clocked going 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. 

Even with the paltry fines … city officials hope the speed cameras will provide a deterrent to rampant speeding on Malibu’s main street.

Another proposed state law change that would drastically affect Malibu is also awaiting a last minute decision. 

This is a bill that would drastically scale back the ability of police in California to tow away cars that have racked up parking tickets.

If approved, AB 1082 would prevent cities like Malibu from towing vehicles with more than five parking citations.

That would essentially end the city’s authority to tow away campers or RVs that set up on PCH.

Two Los Angeles city council members say that would be a terrible mistake.

Traci Park and John Lee say the ability to two away repeat parking offenders is a critical tool for managing health and safety in neighborhoods …. and fairness at the the City’s curb spaces.

Park told the Westside Current that the proposed bill may be well intentioned … b

But the west LA city council member says removing the City’s ability to tow vehicles will turn back the progress L-A has made toward addressing health and safety on our streets.

Another city council member … representing the northern San Fernando Valley … said RV encampments are proliferating. 

The controversial bills are is up for consideration in the state legislature, with a deadline of 12 o’clock midnight …late tomorrow night. 

Caltrans Would Be Forced To Add Bike Lanes And Crosswalks Under Bill About To Go To Gov

[This article published by California Streetsblog.]

Senator Scott Wiener’s S.B. 960 passed the Assembly floor yesterday, and is now headed to the Senate for a final vote to approve amendments made in the Assembly. Quite a few amendments were made to the bill, particularly in the Assembly Transportation Committee. 

The end result is a bill that gives Caltrans some flexibility but still requires the department to follow its own policies to include bicycle and pedestrian safety road design when working on state highways – and to document and publish any reason they don’t.

Senator Wiener’s last attempt at a Complete Streets bill, S.B. 127, was vetoed in 2019 by Governor Newsom, saying it was too costly and too prescriptive, and that Caltrans already had plans to incorporate bike and pedestrian safety where it could.

Five years on and it’s clear now that what Caltrans says and what Caltrans does are not always the same thing. Caltrans claims that almost half of its SHOPP projects include bicycle and pedestrian facilities, but tracking whether that is true has been a challenge.

S.B. 960 is an attempt to close some giant loopholes by requiring Caltrans to adopt clear targets and then ensure its investments are making progress towards those targets (rather than putting them off to the end of a ten-year cycle). It would give responsibility for approving exceptions to Caltrans’ own complete streets guidance to the head of Caltrans, and require the justification for any exception to be documented and posted publicly.

The bill would require better transparency – in addition to the public documentation of exceptions, Caltrans would have to include a description of every complete streets project in its “plain language” SHOPP report. It would also require Caltrans to reach out to communities impacted by complete streets projects, and consult with public agencies and representatives from local bicycle, pedestrian, and transit advisory committees, community-based organizations, and the like.

But there’s more. S.B. 960 also, for the first time, would require Caltrans to take seriously its role in providing safe facilities for transit and transit riders. It calls on Caltrans to develop and adopt a transit priority policy that defines transit performance measures, provides design guidance for transit facilities, and identifies Caltrans’ responsibilities in “supporting the reliable, predictable, and fast movement of transit vehicles on the state highway system.”

That by itself is a big change, as Caltrans has in the past focused on building facilities for private vehicles and freight, and let local and regional transit agencies figure out for themselves how to use them. For the first time, the state department of transportation will have to clearly define its own role in facilitating public transportation.

Another provision in the bill would require Caltrans to improve and shorten its process to evaluate and approve “encroachment permits” for complete streets facilities. These are permits that local jurisdictions must apply for in order to work on local streets that cross or touch state highways. The current process can be onerous enough that cities won’t even bother with it, thus condemning even simple projects like crosswalks before they get beyond the idea stage.

The final language of S.B. 960 is not as prescriptive as it started out, but it still requires Caltrans to make a good faith effort to meet complete streets requirements already in existing law and policy while allowing the department some flexibility about how to do so. The original bill would have mandated all eligible projects funded by the SHOPP to include complete streets elements; this version calls on Caltrans to set targets for doing so – and to meet them.

And that set of amendments may have muted opposition, from Caltrans as well as Transportation California, the highway industry representatives who have strongly opposed any move they see as a threat to highway funding.

Alleged PCH Murderer’s Trial Will Be In Early January

Trial for the Malibu man accused of four counts of murder for killing for Pepperdine University students will be held in three mohths. 

Fraser Michael Bohm will see his preliminary heaing in L.A. County Superior Court on Oct. 9 at the Van Nuys Courthouse.

Bohm was not in the courtroom yesterday …  he’s out on 4 million dollars bail. 

But Judge Diego H. Edber is requiring Fraser Michael Bohm to be present for the October 9th court date.

And the judge says Bohm’s trial will be held in early January of next year. 

Bohm is charged with four counts of murder and four counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence after his car hit and killed four Pepperdine students.

The victims were Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams .

Niamh’s mother Tracy Rolston sat inside the courtroom Wednesday morning alongside recent Pepperdine graduate Bridget Thompson … a close friend and roommate to three of the four Pepperdine women.

MRCA Renames Ocean Accessway With Street Name Used By Malibu Residents For 60 Years

The Mountains Resource and Conservation Authority is now taking it on itself to bestowing names on public property in the City of Malibu ….

Usually … it’s up to a city to vote on names within a city limits.

But the Mountains Resource and Conservation Authority is acting on its own. 

First … it added little signs … naming beaches in eastern Malibu.

Now … it has named two beach walkways in the eastern part of the city … and has announced  plans to put up signs on Pacific Coast Highway to mark the names. 

The coastal access sidewalk next to the former David Geffen house on Billionaire’s Beach has been named Via Linda … in honor of Linda Locklin … the Coastal Commission’s Coastal Access Program Manager since 1990.

That may add to confusion for fire dispatchers … as there has been a Via Linda street in the Escondido Canyon area of Malibu for decades. 

In other words … a duplicate public agency has now named a duplicate street in Malibu.

Just west of there … another access way to the beach has been named  Via Jamee.

That one is in honor of an assistant state attorney general who has worked for the MRCA since 1990.

The MRCA quietly announced the dedications in May … it did not send a news release to Malibu news media. 

But it posted it online. … and it features a grinning Joe Edmiston in his Smoky Bear ranger uniform … congratulating the longtime bureaucrats. 

The MRCA press release promises that the agency will put up signs commemorating the honorees on PCH.