Dreaming of Roads, Cars, Bridges an’ Things

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Editor,

Let’s start with the premise that we want to keep the Canyon Road as a rural road and the neighborhood as a rural enclave. On that premise, we would envision the road as a meandering, bucolic transit through wildflowers, pedestrian paths with benches, a stream running through it, and with bicycles and trolleys on it. We might even want to slow down automobile traffic!

How can we even imagine such a scenario? What of the commuter already burdened with the travails of the Canyon Road morning and evening traffic? Read on and dream with me.

Dream of Newport Coast Highway to the north and Crown Valley Parkway to the south. If we could get commuters quickly to these major thoroughfares, they might take Coast Highway to them, and then take those roads to the freeways. But the Coast Highway traffic comes to a standstill right here in Laguna!

So we have to dream some more. I direct your dream master to the intersection of Coast Highway and Broadway. If we could have little or no pedestrians crossing at that intersection, either across Coast Highway to the beach or across Broadway from gas station to gas station, traffic on Coast Highway would move quickly to the north toward Newport Coast Highway and south toward Crown Valley Parkway.

The final act of the dream shows a two part pedestrian bridge, connecting the three points on Coast Highway. Upon awakening, I found photos and descriptions of all sizes and shapes– a veritable playground of pedestrian bridges. I guesstimate a price tag of $5 to 10 million would do it. Adding a beautiful sign “Welcome to Laguna Beach”, might qualify the project to receive unspent village entrance funds.

Dream of a rural, bucolic canyon and a free moving Coast Highway, and a beautiful doublet pedestrian bridge at the base of Broadway.

A man can dream, can’t he?

Allan Simon, Laguna Beach

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