Editor,
See “No Silver Bullet for Congestion” by Rita Robinson (May 20 edition). Back in 1999 a steering committee drafted a vision plan for Laguna, The Laguna Beach 2030: A Framework for Strategic Planning. Therein are seven vision concepts that define our village planning strategy. This is one of them: resident and visitor mobility. “We will be a safe and enjoyable community to walk and bicycle with convenient transit and smooth traffic flow.”
Since 1999 the Laguna Beach traffic management exercise goes like this. Somebody says “we need to reduce traffic congestion.” A councilperson says “we need to study it first.” Another says “let’s hire another expert”. The Council approves the agenda item and instructs the city manager to hire the consultant. The city manager says, “You consultants, give me a solution to our traffic congestion problem.” The consultants say, “sure Mr. City Manager, how do we get the job?” City manager says, “Laguna will build bike-lanes, pedestrian paths, transit stops and trolley hops, but to win this contract you must move cars as fast as possible.” The consultant says, “sure Mr. City Manager. We’ll give you a parking lot and a rainbow, everyone in Laguna will be happy! Hire us!” City manager says, “you’re hired.”
And that’s how Laguna got its downtown parking and management plan, its village entrance plan, its Laguna Canyon burn site, it’s Laguna Canyon Road downtown parking analysis and its Downtown Specific Plan.
None of these plans solve our auto-saturation problem because the devil is in the details. The vehicles counted do not include light rail, buses, trolleys, Ubers, ride-share bicycles or pedestrians. The solution method only includes cars. Next a grading system measures the success of the plan; the only measure is how fast the cars move (vehicle delay). That is why no matter the congestion management plan drafted by the city of Laguna Beach, our traffic congestion becomes worse and worse.
Our Laguna Beach city manager continues to make the same mistake over and over again. State and national transportation institutions offer us modern solutions while he embraces implementations from 1929. In the traffic and congestion town hall, the city manager showed no future vision and his presentation no substance. This city manager is visibly challenged by a knowledgeable audience; car-centric solutions are no silver bullet for Laguna Beach no matter how often repeated.
Les Miklosy, Laguna Beach
