Traffic Conditions Around Laguna

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San Diego City Adopts VISION ZERO

Today the city of San Diego adopted Vision Zero (video), a zero tolerance plan to reduce the number of traffic related fatalities to zero by 2025.  Like New York, San Francisco and Seattle before it, San Diego is taking steps to reduce traffic fatalities caused by collisions between motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to zero in 10 years. 

The zero tolerance measure was requested as a budget measure in a memo to the mayor and Council members in January.  In a state of the city address Mayor Kevin Faulconer said "We are going to fix our streets".

Credit: Circulate San Diego

Steps to meet zero tolerance include road improvements costing $15 million to get started. A challenge to $120 million more in bond financing was defeated preserving the additional financing.UPDATE:  Latest story here from City of San Diego.

These graphs show the number of fatalities from auto collisions for 10 years 2002 - 2012 for PCH (San Diego City Hwy 5) for San Diego compared to Laguna Beach.

San Diego 153 Fatalities

Laguna 15 Fatalities

French Asparagus

Like kids and Asparagus, pedestrian zones are hard to swallow in LB.

 "Road reserved for cyclists and pedestrians 

10am - 7:30pm"  - City Hall

Asparagus and Les Trolleys

Fuchsia

Rouge

These silent all-electric trolleys  serve French cities from the suburbs and peripheral parking lots to the city center. Les Trolleys were demanded by city residents for their aesthetically pleasing design and convenience. In the city of Reims local residents realize too many cars increase noise and air pollution, make outdoor eating very unpleasant and ruin the feeling of their town. French aesthetics demand a better visiting experience hence the trolleys.

Unlike Laguna, Reims is essentially void of automobiles or running engines. Like Laguna, Reims is a tourist destination town yet their streets are completely empty of  cars. Residents and tourists walk. There are some cars parked at curbs but everyone uses trolleys. Locals say it is so much easier to use trolleys for transportation, they run from 8:00am until 9:00...some until midnight.

Think outside the gear-box

 

What if, just what if Laguna was served by Les Trolleys from the Barranca Irvine station to The Festival of Arts? Even if you've never tried Asparagus you'll love the trolley.

Jaune

Bleu

Les trolleys are powered by overhead electric power or alternatively a ground level low-voltage supply safe to pedestrians and animals so overhead wires are not necessary. Wireless les trolleys are used exclusively in Reims serving a six-mile route from suberbs to the city center.

At the moment Laguna resident Jahn Levitt is visiting Reims and has this to say about her experience.
"The Cathedral with Chagall stained glass and les grand marques (champagne houses) like Mumms, Taittinger, Veuv Cliquot....have headquarters in Reims, all give daily tours and tastes. So why do these visiting tourists and residents use public transportation in Reims and don't drive around the city? Why don't they drive cars to the champagne chateaus? Because the city hall demands that these vineyards provide some type of public transportation to get outside the city. The majority go on tours and are driven in buses. Here's the issue... You can take the train from Paris to Reims for $50 round trip, it takes 45 minutes. How can you get to Laguna from LA? Or Irvine? You drive. I thought it was really interesting because there are also no car dealerships, no car washes, or gas stations, as there are in Laguna. The superb public transport from Paris make daily trips to Reims possible, j'adore les trolleys fuschia et jaune. "     -Jahn Levitt

OCTA Regional Bikeways South OC

(Update) On June 4 2015  The Orange County Transportation Authority held another roundtable meeting to review plans for 10 regional bikeway corridors in South Orange County, 6 corridors serve beach cities including Laguna. A discussion followed the presentation where city planning personnel and the public again contributed ideas to the planning process. Laguna Beach City planning personnel did not attend.

These are the current bikeway corridors planned to serve Laguna Beach and Aliso Canyon. View high-resolution maps of all 10 bikeway corridors here.











The corridors are designed to increase the cycling mode-share and improve cycling safety as measured data show from other installations.





 
To understand the level of cycling competence  among the participants the spectrum of abilities was measured in this chart. The audience measured from average (green) to expert (black).

 

Update: To show the corridor preferred greatest some meeting attendees selected their preferred route from Corridors A-J. Laguna Canyon Road is I, most preferred is Regional Parks Corridor A.

To identify routes to be completed first, priority is assigned according to weights given in this table. There are more projects to be completed than there are resources available so a weighting criteria is necessary.






The OCTA planning process to increase the mode-share of rail, transit and cycling continues. Local city planning departments are encouraged to PARTICIPATE. The next opportunity for public collaboration on the Bikeways Strateby appears here.

The OCTA meeting agenda appears here.
The OCTA Round Table summary and follow-up appears here. 
The OCTA Round Table meeting presentation appears here.

-LS