Editor,
Every day at rush hour, I look out my store window and see gridlock at Cliff and Broadway when vehicles coming from Cliff block Broadway, or drivers on Broadway block Cliff (and Beach).
Similarly, at Coast Highway and Broadway, you can spend two or three light changes being locked in place because of cars turning left from Coast Highway blocking Broadway, or cars turning left from Broadway blocking Coast Highway.
These two intersections being blocked can literally tie up traffic for miles on Coast Highway.
It is clear to me that by simply having some traffic cops at high traffic times placed at these intersections traffic flow would improve exponentially.
Is there some conflict between Caltrans and the city that has kept this simple solution from being enacted?
The second big obstruction to Coast Highway traffic is the pedestrian crossing at Ocean. Pedestrians crossing to and from the beach generally make it impossible for more than two cars at most to turn left from Ocean onto Coast Highway.
If you think about it, there is no urgent reason why that pedestrian crossing has to be there. There are pedestrian crossings available one block in either direction.
Is there some reason, other than pure laziness, why this crossing has to exist?
I suggest the city conduct an experiment and block the pedestrian crossing with barriers for a month or so (at least on the weekends) to see what problems there may be.
I continually hear complaints from residents and visitors alike about how impossible it is to get in or out of downtown, and it seems to me that these simple steps could vastly improve traffic flow.
Tom Williams, Laguna Beach
