By Bill Bauer, December 7, 2014
MY WRITE — Santa Monica has some of the worst traffic in
Southern California – and the nation. Think that relief is in sight?
Forgeddabout it! Our City Hall deals with the situation by implementing
policies and programs to make congestion and gridlock even more heinous.
The latest manifestation of City Hall’s upraised middle
finger to residents is the unveiling of a reconfigured Second Street
between Colorado and California Avenues. Traffic engineers have removed
one traffic lane in each direction and replaced them with bright green
“bicycle only” lanes.
The traffic carrying capacity of one of Santa Monica’s
most critical thoroughfares has been halved for, at most, less than five
percent of its users on bicycles who could ride in the old traffic
lanes to begin with. What’s next? Dedicated skateboard lanes? Pogo stick
pockets? Special Segway runs?
It’s all part of the city’s Bicycle Action Plan which
calls for infrastructure alterations citywide to create more visible,
safer, dedicated bikeways on a number of city streets to encourage more
bicycling.
There are major flaws in the strategy. Facilitating the
ability for the vast majority of people get around should be the primary
goal. Instead, we get the usual and tiresome social engineering
experiments, designed to get more of us on bicycles.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to emphasize “sharrows” or
shared traffic lanes with painted bicycle logos on them to remind
everyone to share the road instead of reducing street capacity and
exacerbating congestion?
How about installing bicycle lanes on an “as needed” basis
such as when street usage reaches 25 percent bicycles? What about
putting bicycle-friendly amenities on less congested streets that are
more lightly traveled by motorists and inherently safer?
Work is underway on the Colorado Esplanade, which will
result in only one motor lane, wider sidewalks and new, dedicated bike
lanes on four blocks of Colorado adjacent to Santa Monica Place and
Sears just west of the future Fourth Street Expo Light Rail Terminal.
Head shake.
Many of my friends and associates already avoid going west
of Lincoln Boulevard because of the hideous traffic and expensive,
inconvenient parking associated with the area. The throttling of Second
Street is just one more reason to avoid crowded, congested and touristy
Downtown.
Last month, City Council approved $10,405,580 for a bike
share program that will utilize 500 high tech, rentable “smart” bikes
for 60 to 75 projected rental “hubs” located throughout Santa Monica.
I’ve seen bike sharing in operation in London, England and
I think it’s a great concept. The blue “Boris” bikes with their
prominent Barclay’s logo are everywhere. Remember, this is Santa Monica.
Things will get screwed up – like the new Big Blue Bus stops.
CycleHop LLC was unanimously awarded the contract to
provide the hubs and bikes that will come with an eight-speed drive
shaft (chainless) system, integrated lighting and locking systems,
mobile connectivity, GPS/security tracking and adjustability features.
These proposed rent-a-bikes are overly-complicated and costly.
500 bikes for over $10M? Prorated, that’s $20,000 per
bike! And, that’s just the start. Watch this balloon into $15M to $20M
before City Hall’s social engineers get a handle on it.
Tariffs will include hourly, daily, monthly and combo Blue
Bus/bike rates. For the casual rider, it’ll cost $2 for every 20
minutes of rental time. $6 per hour is also way too expensive.
Metro is working on its own bike-share system for Los
Angeles County raising the issue of compatibility (or lack thereof) with
systems in other communities. And, a corporate sponsor has not been
signed to subsidize our operation.
There’s more bad news. City Hall’s “Pedestrian Action
Plan” is in the works. If it turns out anything like the Bicycle Action
Plan, expect even more mobility problems as street traffic capacity will
continue to be sacrificed on the altar of unwanted behavioral
modification.
Who da Mayor?
With Kevin McKeown again being the top City Council
vote-getter in the November election, you’d think he’d get some respect
from his colleagues on the dais. McKeown has never been Mayor in his 16
years on the council. The closest he’s come was Mayor Pro Tem from
December 2001 to November 2004.
Over the years, he’s been shut out by pro-development
faction on the council spearheaded by his arch-nemesis and current
Mayor, Pam O’Connor. “Teflon Pam” is on record as saying that he’d never
become Mayor as long as she was on the dais.
But, with the retirement of Bob Holbrook and the election
of slow-growth Sue Himmelrich, the balance of power on council has
shifted. Himmelrich joins Ted Winterer, Tony Vazquez and McKeown on the
anti-development side leaving O’Connor, Terry O’Day and Gleam Davis on
the side that favors more development.
You’d think that McKeown would garner at least four votes
from his colleagues at tomorrow evening’s council meeting, become Mayor
and be able to finally thumb his nose at “Teflon” Pam.
There’s a lot of posturing and political maneuvering
behind the scenes. Neither O’Day, Davis or “Teflon Pam” have enough
votes necessary to become Mayor. I’m hearing rumors that one slow-growth
councilperson may not back McKeown.
That means a compromise may be in the cards with Winterer
then most likely to become Mayor if McKeown can’t muster the fourth and
winning vote. Of course, all of this is speculation. Anything could
happen.
As for me, I say Kevin’s paid enough dues that he should
be appointed Mayor. His time is overdue and “Mayor McKeown” just sounds
good.