Summit Meeting Laguna Residents First

Wednesday November 13 2019 Laguna Residents First held their second Summit meeting open to invited guests. LRF objected to the blended parking requirements proposed in the newly drafted Laguna Downtown Specific Plan. The requirements presented were:

Old Requirements:
   10 spaces per 1000 square feet
   4 spaces per 1000 square feet

Blended Requirement:
   3 spaces per 1000 square feet

Here are some modern intensified parking requirements like angle-in parking, in-lieu parking, automated parking, robot valet parking and China parking.  Choose the best one for Laguna Beach and let Laguna city planners and LRF know your choice.  Website: Laguna Residents First.

 -LS

Lyft Replaces San Clemente Bus

Reimagining Transit Convenience in San Clemente

Our beach towns experience large surges in traffic due to out-of-town visitors, in San Clemente they arrive by car and train from origins far away as Fresno. When convenience is king a rideshare may fill the intervals between bus rides on a fixed schedule.

Click for Lyft Details

Lyft rideshare has done just that. In a historic move Lyft has partnered with the City of San Clemente to replace the fixed ride service previously offered by OCTA routes 191 and 193. In a new program Lyft is the City's rideshare parther offering convenience and efficiency for residents and visitors providing trips around the city on demand, quickly and affordably for carfree visitors and residents alike. Is Laguna next?

To get started download the Lyft App and enter SCRIDES in the "Payment" section. To be eligible, rides must be taken between 6 AM-6 PM, boardings are along corridors of the 191 and 193 bus routes. To make sure you’re at the right space, look for signs at participating bus stops.

-LS

LB City Council Approves Modeling CARMAGEDDON

How do you like Laguna's traffic congestion so far? Get ready for more because Tuesday night the Laguna Beach City Council voted 5-0 to guarantee increasing more car traffic in Laguna Beach. Agenda Item #16 Task Order for a Traffic Analysis Model says in brief:

“Our City is near build-out, there are several large re-development projects that propose use intensification within the City that may increase local traffic congestion.”

Our LB Public Works department is preparing for traffic congestion caused by these re-development projects – some of them scheduled for construction simultaneously. LB Public Works relies on a consultant to embellish a computer traffic model of Laguna’s main road corridors through downtown. The consultant's traffic model is car-centric, they measure transportation success by moving more cars faster so get ready for more traffic erosion through Laguna Beach.

Reading the consultant's traffic modeling manual shows how car intensification occurs:

“saturation flow rates,” “pedestrian interference,” “Intersection Capacity Utilization (ICU),” “Level of (car) Service (LOS),” “Conforms to Highway Capacity Manual (HCM).

The keywords "transit, bus, trolley, rail, lightrail, and cyclists" don't appear in the consultant's manual.  "Pedestrians" are considered interference to car traffic; a delay in signal timing. Two arterial highways already slice through Laguna Beach, does Laguna want more of the same?

Once again our Council neglects the core problems: how to move those 6 million visitors and provide alternatives to cars. Once again Public Works overlooked the Laguna Beach mobility plan itself: the Circulation Element of the General Plan. Now is the time for the City and Developers to change traffic models otherwise Laguna Beach is modeling Carmageddon.
 

"If you do not know where you are going it does not matter which way you go" Lewis Carol

-LS

Bike Lane Protests and Why

Here's a title from the Santa Maria Times:

 Solvang residents protest bike lane through Rancho Santa Ynez Estates neighborhood

Council adopts SYV bicycle master plan

(click) Santa Maria Times Article

And the story line that followed:

Mayor Jim Richardson joins call for more bike lanes at Mayor’s Bike Ride Cyclists of all ages and abilities gathered at Solvang City Hall just before noon Thursday to join the Mayor’s Bike Ride around several blocks…

After more than a year of community planning, isolated community members respond to bike infrastructure like this:

“If the city wants to continue to put bike path in our area you should get us involved,” said Bud McCoy, who like many of his neighbors, hadn’t heard of the bike path until construction workers were cordoning off Fjord Drive in preparation for road work. “We feel that you just ramrodded that down our throats.”

"The master plan was developed by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments over more than a year of planning, including four meetings of the Technical Advisory Committee, meetings with schools, public health and business representatives, surveys, interviews, and a series of public workshops held in October 2018 and March 2019."

Thankfully the Solvang Council saw through the residents uninformed protest. After staff reporting, public comment and brief council deliberation, the city council voted 4-1 to adopt the Solvang portion of the Santa Ynez Valley Bicycle Master Plan.

-LS

TODAY Urge Cal Governor Sign SB-127 Complete Streets

Laguna Canyon Road SR-133 and South Coast Highway Hwy-1 are under Caltrans jurisdiction. Senate Bill 127 pushes CalTRANS to build Complete Streets for SR-133 and Hwy-1 - the TRANSPORTATION part of CalTRANS.

Tell Governor Newsom to please sign this legislation, three step request here.

1. Zipcode
2. Name
3. eMail

GO! 

(To call Governor Newsom staff (916) 445 2841.) UPDATE: October 12 Governor Newsom VETOED SB-127.

-LS

Complete Streets Bill SB-127 ready for Governor

SB-127 Applies to Laguna Canyon Road and PCH

Caltrans claims to make streets safer when they make roadway improvements, like the $39 million Caltrans improvement planned for Laguna Canyon Road beginning 2021.

Caltrans often claims to make streets safer when they repair them, but in practice they prioritize fast traffic over more livable streets. The Complete Streets for Active Living Bill will provide Caltrans stronger direction, and force the safety improvements necessary to reverse the poor safety record on SR-133.

246 Collisions 5-Killed 311 Injured, 2015-2018 

"In California from 2007-2013, nearly 1.7 million people were injured in traffic incidents, including 95,758 while walking along or across the street. In those crashes, 22,117 people were killed, with pedestrians accounting for one-fifth of the total persons killed." The problem is often concentrated around Caltrans roads that go through low-income neighborhoods where more people get around via transit, biking, and walking."

SB 127 Co-Sponsors:
California Bicycle Coalition, California Walks, American Heart Association, AARP, Safe Routes Partnership
Bill Supporting Organizations:
350 Bay Area Action, 350 Silicon Valley, Active San Gabriel Valley, American Lung Association in California , Alameda County Transportation Commission , Berkeley Climate Hub, Bike Bakersfield, Bike Concord, Bike East Bay, Bike Monterey, Bike San Diego, California Alliance for Retired Americans, California City Transportation Initiative/NACTO, California Democratic Party, California Interfaith Power & Light, California Park and Recreation Society, California ReLeaf, CALSTART Inc., CALPIRG, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Stockton, Cedars, Center for Climate Change and Health, Central California Asthma Collaborative, City of Encinitas, City of Half Moon Bay, City of Long Beach, City of Sacramento, City and County of San Francisco, City of Santa Monica, City of San Luis Obispo, Climate Action Campaign, ClimatePlan, Climate Resolve, Coalition for Clean Air, Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, Compton Unified School District, Cultiva La Salud, Davis Bike Club, Day One, East Bay Recreational Park District, Elders Climate Action (NorCal), Environment California, Fossil Free California, Inland Empire Biking Alliance, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, La Verne Bicycle Coalition, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Local Government Commission, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Los Angeles Walks, Lyft Inc., Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Napa County Bicycle Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, Natural Resources Services Division Redwood, Office of the Mayor, San Francisco, Orange County Bicycle Coalition, Office of the Mayor, San Francisco, Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition, Planning and Conservation League, PeopleforBikes, PolicyLink, Public Advocates, Redwood Community Action Agency, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Rural Counties Representative of California, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Transportation Municipal Agency, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco Planning Department, SFBA Families for Safe Streets, Santa Monica Spoke, Save The Bay, Seamless Bay Area, Shasta Living Streets, Sierra Club California, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, Sunflower Alliance, Transform, Transportation Agency for Monterey County, Trust for Public Land, Walk Bike Berkeley, Walk & Bike Mendocino, Walk Sacramento, Walk San Francisco, and Walk Long Beach.

-LS

Carfree Cities: Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre Italy located on the Italian Mediterranean has a population of roughly 6000 residents manage up to 5 million visitors per year with NO PARKING. Maybe we should ask the Italians how to do that. 

Walking paths, trains and boats connect the five villages, cars cannot reach any village from remote inland cities.

Genoa and Livorno. Day-trippers from cruise ships that stop there stream into the villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Auto drivers park at La Spezia and take a train to reach the five villages.

A walking trail, known as Sentiero Azzurro ("Azure Trail"), connects the villages. The section from Riomaggiore to Manarola called the Via dell'Amore ("Love Walk") is temporarily closed but   alternative trails remain open.

Here is a Google Map of Cinque Terre, below a comparison of the five villages to Laguna Beach. The HD videos take you on a walking tour so use full-screen!

The table shows visitors pay for access to Cinque Terre, there is a fee for using the trains, the walking path even for using the beach. Cinque Terre shows us how to manage local tourism with public transportation and pay for it.

-LS

Keywords DRAFT 2019 LB Downtown Specific Plan

Here is a quick summary of mobility keywords found in the DRAFT 2019 LB Downtown Specific Plan (DSP  169 pages): 

• Bicycle: 5
• Bike: 1
• Bus: 4
• Complete Streets Policy: 0
• Downtown housing: 4
• Enhanced Mobility and Complete Streets Transition Plan: 0
• Increasing density:0
• Lightrail: 0
• Market-rate:0
• Multi-story:1
• Park: 49
• Parking requirements: 12
• Parking structure: 13 
• Pedestrians: 28
• Rail: 0
• Relaxed parking: 0
• Scooter: 1 
• Shuttle: 4
• Single formula: 0
• Skateboard: 1
• Transit Center: 6
• Transit: 26
• Trolley: 17
• Walking: 3

• Parking: 411

The intent of our 2019 DSP is clear. Once again our Laguna Beach Planning Commission denies solutions to Laguna's mobility crisis by preserving 1950's parking requirements (the same as Irvine's). The LBPC denies mobility planning altogether, Laguna is a parking lot after-all.

-LS

LB DRAFT Downtown Specific Plan 2019

In 169 pages (80MB) of our Planning Commission's latest DRAFT Downtown Specific Plan, Complete Streets Policy is not mentioned, instead complete streets is reduced from a state transportation mandate to a paradigm. Note the mandate was specified previously in the RFP for a Downtown Parking Management Plan. Now read the strawman logic setup (DSP page 17) in this mumbo-jumbo:

Transportation changes are notable with respect to new perspectives on parking. The complete streets paradigm emphasizes designing for all modes of travel, particularly transit and pedestrians, and has resulted in a de-emphasis on requiring parking based on the assumption that every person will be driving their own car and only visiting a single establishment. In the Downtown, the increase in available trolleys and the success of demand-based pricing has changed both the behavior of and the parking availability for customers. This process is predicted to continue with the expansion of ride-sharing services and the advent of autonomous vehicles.

The claim is made that demand-based pricing and available trolleys has already changed the behavior of customers and parking availability. Further, future technological means will change roadway user behavior and parking availability, so there is no need to take actions with complete streets interventions.

1. PC claims with no cited data are unsubstantiated
2. Expanding ride-sharing services will benefit customers - unsubstantiated
3. Automomous vehicles will benefit customers - unsubstantiated
4. As if by magic a paradigm is enough to change customer behavior 
5. As if by magic a paradigm boosts parking availability 
6. Complete Streets Policy mandates is only a paradigm, so ignore it
7. The Enhanced Mobility and Complete Streets Transition Plan is not referenced 
8. The Deliverables in the Appendix are missing.

Only a corrupt city manager, paid city lackeys and revolving-door consultants could write mumbo-jumbo shiz like this.

-LS

Scooters Suck? Uh-oh

A VOX Future-Perfect story

We regret to inform you...

 

 

 Say it ain't so!   

Scooters aren't good for the environment?  Well it depends, while riding a scooter is better than driving a car the lifetime environmental costs are not. It depends how you crunch your numbers a study shows:

• Making, deploying, transporting, Juicing them is not emission-free
• Worse for environment than transport modes they replace
• Calculate the emissions per mile per passenger carried over life-cycle
• More emissions than bus with high ridership, electric moped, electric bicycle
• More emissions than regular bicycle, or carbon-free walk.

  -LS