Editor,
We’ve got a long way to go. Drive through east side Costa Mesa or downtown Long Beach and there are dedicated and even buffered biking zones. Here we must jostle along parked cars on Coast Highway while tremendous metal beasts going 40-50 mph bear down upon us. Dropping the deplorable designation as one of the most dangerous roadways for pedestrians and cyclists should be top on the list for improving Laguna Beach. We have millions of visitors each year! Laguna is about the people, the green belt and blue belt, not the cars!
I wonder what the $3.5 million to be used to re-design the (Festival of Arts) facade could do to assist our community to be dropped from the death list…..? More money for art? More money for larger hotels? It will be futile if no one visits due to our dubious distinction of unsafe roads.
Dedicated safe biking and walking paths in handout of the canyon, neighborhoods and coast highway should not take such a mammoth effort. Endless studies, bargaining with Caltrans and the state of California and setting up meetings to ‘talk’ about it seems to take so long and offers no clear path to life.
What can we, the city of Laguna Beach, do now? What is the city’s jurisdiction? We must work to slow down motorists, educate the public and increase peacekeeper’s (Laguna police) role in enforcement.
Take a stroll down Coast Highway, or ride up the canyon and feel the tingling sensation caused by a heightened alert for survival. Carve a space for life, not another tragic memorial for a senseless death.
Theodore Schraff, Laguna Beach
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