Editor:
(This letter was also addressed to city representatives.)
Which is to have thousands and thousands of other commuters wait while Emerald Bay casually exits its growing hordes of house-servants, builders, contractors, party-planners and other vendors via a new traffic light on PCH. Do not allow this.
I have driven north past the EB gate for over 17 years and have watched as the wait to get in (and likely the wait to get out) of EB gets longer and longer. I am sure that county planning records will show that the EB development didn’t allow for the daily trips which EB residents now impose on our roads and on others. Can you prove that that is not the case?
EB drivers have at least four if not five other exit options, but since this is a matter of their convenience (they don’t like waiting for others to make a responsible left turn out of their main gate) and time (they can’t possibly assign 60 seconds of their own time to access a different exit-way), they are making it a “safety” issue.
This is not a safety issue, it is a “can you drive responsibly” issue. I have seen a couple of accidents at the EB main gate over the years, but no more than at any other hilly, curvy and sometimes slick section of PCH, and I see more accidents at traffic light intersections. Putting in a traffic light won’t stop impatient drivers from gunning through a yellow onto south bound Coast Highway, so the potential for the same accident EB residents are crowing about is not diminished nor at all eliminated. Evidently CalTrans feels the same.
EB wants everyone else to slam on the brakes on a designated highway for their own convenience. EB residents purchased their homes in their community fully, originally aware of their entry and exit options. You have no right to allow this special interest convenience project to be foisted on others, no matter who’s paying for it.
Do what is right and make people responsible for their own decisions and behavior, since there is no material safety issue here.
And otherwise, when will irresponsibility stop?
Rick Putnam, Laguna Beach
