Streets, traffic in a jam

The streets of our city have been on my mind a lot lately, especially

as I drive along East 17th Street -- or what’s left of it.

As hard as it seems to have tried, the city just has not kept up

the maintenance of some of our major thoroughfares over the last

decade or so.

Seventeenth Street is only the latest in a long list of major

streets that have, for one reason or another, been allowed to decay

beyond the capability of simple maintenance to restore their

surfaces.

What brings this to mind, and prompts me to write, is the biennial

review of the Eastside Traffic Plan, reviewed by the City Council at

its meeting on July 19. Part of that presentation included an

exhibit, which is called “Eastside Costa Mesa Historical Traffic

Volumes” -- quite an illuminating collection of numbers. It reflects

average daily trips, or ADTs, as measured on the streets of the

Eastside for this year and shows the numbers recorded in 2003,

2000-01, 1997, 1995, 1991 and 1985. I’m not a big “numbers” guy, but

I found the information reflected in this chart to be fascinating.

For example, did you know that the traffic on Newport Boulevard north

of 19th Street was measured at 103,900 ADTs?

That number is almost equal to the entire population of Costa

Mesa. And that’s just one block. It must be all those Newport Beach

folks heading for work, or the Inland Empire folks heading for the

beach. As interesting as these numbers are, the City Council --

spurred on by Mayor Gary Monahan’s statement that he’s tired of

hearing about cut-through traffic -- decided to cease any further

automatic Eastside traffic studies. Henceforth, any such studies in

the future will be only on an “as-needed” basis. I suspect I’m not

the only Eastside resident disappointed to hear that our lame-duck

mayor is tired of hearing about cut-through traffic in our

neighborhoods.

Perhaps he wouldn’t hear about cut-through traffic if the arteries

intended to move that traffic were in better shape. Coincidentally,

the city recently unveiled its plan for the refurbishing of East 17th

Street, which turns out to be a partial improvement, at best. As any

frequent driver on this street can tell you, it has become a real

adventure to try to maneuver around the pot holes and deteriorating

pavement over the past couple of years. If there had been anything

like a normal rainfall during that time period the water would have

further loosened the cracked pavement, and you would need an

all-terrain vehicle to move from Irvine Avenue to Orange Avenue.

The plan presented by the city calls for installation of turn

pockets, bus pockets, a signal at Westminster and signaled left-turn

lanes at major intersections between Orange and Raymond. It also

includes installation of landscaped medians and re-landscaping of the

sidewalks. Amazingly, what it does not include is the desperately

needed rehabilitation of the surface of that street. Neither does it

take the planned improvements to any logical terminus -- Santa Ana

Avenue, at least, or Irvine Avenue preferably -- but instead stops at

Raymond, across the street from the Marie Callender’s parking lot.

After attending the workshop presented by the city a couple months

ago, I’ve thought about this a lot and still cannot come to grips

with a plan that so completely disrupts this major artery -- one that

handles well over 30,000 average daily trips between Irvine and

Orange -- and yet does only half the job. How does this make any

sense? I’ve been in touch with representatives of the city regarding

some much-needed adjustment of the landscape palette, which they

studied and modified. However, tinkering with the plants isn’t really

what’s needed on East 17th Street.

Yes, the “improvements” included in this plan are necessary. Yes,

they will probably improve traffic flow, although I suspect the

landscaped medians and left turn pockets into shopping centers, while

certainly an effort at beautification, will likely result in traffic

backing up into the traffic lanes as the turn pockets prove

inadequate for the number of cars using them. This plan will

significantly disrupt business along this thriving corridor for

months, at least. Then, at some point in the future, it will be done

all over again when the funds are identified to repave the surface.

Exactly how much inconvenience does the city expect the business

owners and their customers to endure while they chip away at this

problem? Do they have any idea of the negative economic impact this

piecemeal plan will have on the merchants on this stretch of street?

Just as the property owners are beginning to put a new face on their

buildings and generally spruce up the area, the city will effectively

kick them in the teeth -- and the wallet.

My suggestion is to forget the landscaped medians -- the existing

left turn lane gives the drivers much more flexibility and has worked

just fine for years. Instead, move forward with the signal at

Westminster, bus pockets, signaled left-turn lanes, right-turn

pockets where appropriate and, above all, do the whole thing at one

time, including repaving the entire surface from Irvine to Orange. At

this time of fiscal uncertainty, we don’t really have time or money

for frills, but we desperately need an infrastructure that works.

Representatives from the city tell me they don’t have enough money

to do it all at once and, even worse, don’t know when there will be

money available to repave the surface of 17th Street. This sure does

sound like reason enough for our city leaders to consider new revenue

sources -- like the transient occupancy tax, for example. Of course,

there might be enough money in the city coffers to do this work in a

logical manner right now if our council members had not gotten in the

habit of frittering away our money with “developer giveaways” and

paying off lawsuit settlements precipitated by their ineptitude.

In the meantime, every time you dodge a pothole on 17th Street or

anywhere else in this city, think about our leaders and remind

yourself that there is an election a little over 100 days away.

* GEOFF WEST is a resident of Costa Mesa.