Multi-modal Transport Planning for South Orange County

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) reports south Orange County is expected to grow by 170,000 residents and 130,000 jobs by the year 2045. The agency is planning a multimodal design to meet the demand for transportation in south county including beach cities and seeks public input to the planning process. 

Express your mobility preferences for Laguna in a short survey here.  

The OCTA planning FAQ page is here.

-LS

Petition for Multi-use Path Laguna Canyon Road

The Village Entrance features a 150-foot long multi-use path serving the Laguna Pageant and Farmers Market motorists.  A petition to extend the path to serve pedestrians and bikers was submitted to City Council on Monday 14 March. The petition from Laguna residents requests extending the existing path from the Village Entrance to Canyon Acres and Act V. The extension would serve Canyon residents and Act V visitors to walk/bike/trolley to town without driving, consistent with reducing parking and traffic congestion in LB.

From the Pageant to Canyon Acres is roughly 6/10 of a mile long with an existing sidewalk. Built as a community project a multi-use pathway could feature some inspiring artwork to welcome visitors to the downtown area:

• Street Art (examples)
  
• Poetry Readings
• Rest Area Seating (examples)
• DIY Bike Service Station
  

UPDATE: 12 March 2024 Les Miklosy submitted an ACTION REQUEST FORM to the Parking Traffic and Circulation Committe to foster the Multiuse Pathway. The action request was rejected, the response received indicated this proposal was NOT IN THE JURISDICTION OF THE LAGUNA BEACH PTC.

UPDATE: 10 May 6:00pm Les Miklosy spoke to the LB City Council during PUBLIC COMMENT to remind the city the petition was not recorded in the public record despite previous attempts to do so.  In the 10 May Agenda there is no record of the comment, the petition for a Multiuse Pathway remains DOA - as planned.

UPDATE: In the 26 April City Council meeting this petition was noted by city staff as "Public Comment (received after Agenda posted)", most odd since the petition was submitted for Public Comment on 15 March 2022. The Petition was not recognized by council members during public session.

UPDATE: As of the 12 April LB City Council meeting no mention of the public petition appears on the city agenda for Public Comments. 

UPDATE: This petition with 56 residents participating was submitted to LB City Council and City Clerk on 15 March 2022.

-LS

Laguna Beach Rally for Ukraine

 "Let's go attend the Rally for Ukraine"!

On Sunday March 4 2022 LB residents and visitors at Main Beach show support for citizens of Ukraine fighting the Russian invasion due to geopolitical differences, democratic freedom, and billion$ in petroleum resources. In contrast the West it seems, motorist convenience remains non-negotiable.

-LS

Coastal Commission Reviews Laguna Downtown Specific Plan (DSP)

In December 2021 Laguna residents were invited to read the California Coastal Commission (CCC) review of the latest Laguna Beach Downtown Specific Plan (DSP). The commission review consists of 325 pages of edits, redactions and recommendations to modify the original 179-page DSP. The CCC redacted some topics dear to Laguna residents and city planners, other topics were modified or added to the DSP. 

Since these lengthy planning documents are unlikely to be read by LB residents and fewer still will comprehend how the planning changes would affect them, it would be helpful to reduce their content to basic topics readers could grasp at a glance. The charts below are an attempt to do this. In this way a quick view of the chart gives the reader a grasp of the topic and the trend shown by the graph.

Topics of interest dear to Laguna residents are associated with abbreviated keywords, for a topic of Affordable Housing the keywords may be "InDeed" or "shared parking" or "single-family". The keywords for Mobility would include "employee incentives" or "parking structure" or "remote parking" and so on. 

In this way each DSP topic is described by a short library of distinguishing  keywords. The topics covered best contain more descriptive keywords, those covered least contain fewer keywords. For example "aesthetics, attractiveness, art community, preservation" are keywords for topic Goals in the DSP.

The charts show keywords mined for a given topic, like Affordable Housing. Notice how seldom the keywords appear in the original DSP.

The Laguna Beach DSP document was organized into Goals, Issues, and Implementation Measures. The next charts show charts for DSP Goals and the Implementation Measures proposed to achieve those Goals. Notice the measures proposed often do not address the goals. For example, the most frequently mined Implementation Measures of "new development", "affordable housing" and "funding" do not address the popular Goals of "enhance", "activities" and "preserve".  

It is disappointing to learn the Laguna Beach Planning Commission inserted a single occurrence of "Complete Streets" to support the DSP Mobility topic supported by LB residents, then the Coastal Commission redacted it and other references about mobility.

This chart shows the recommendations for a resilient prosperous town by Strong Towns dot org are largely ignored, the frequency of relevant keywords are low.

In 2001 the Laguna Beach Vision 2030 Strategic Plan written by Laguna Beach residents but not adopted by the city of Laguna Beach. These results show the vision plan keywords for Goals and Actions are absent from the DSP.

These results from the Laguna Beach DSP planning document are disappointing, the actions taken by the California Coastal Commission are further limiting and prevent Laguna Beach from planning implementation measures to achieve future goals. Hopefully these charts give more LB residents a better understanding of the planning documents defining Laguna's future urban plan. Time for a do-over, let's improve our planning deliverable documents.

-LS

Laguna Beach On-Demand Transit Service

Due to Covid-19 the old city transit services were suspended  March 20, 2020, the new LB On-demand transit service launched October 18 will replace it. 

Old Transit Trolley Service

• Grant requirements were 10 passengers per hour, old transit fell below that. 
• Boarding costs were $16 per boarding

New On-Demand Transit Service

• Serving Top of the World, Arch Beach Heights, and Bluebird Canyon.
• From local transit stops to Downtown or transfer points.
  
• New on-demand scheduling is anticipated to improve boarding, convenience
• New on-demand plan seeks to avoid delays due to traffic on fixed routes fixed schedule.

Pilot program budgeted $753,000 for services from a transit company, 80 percent of this transit funding is from state and local grants, the remainder LB parking revenues.

Service Schedule: 

• Mon to Thurs from 8am-6pm/Fri 8am-10pm/Sat from 10am-10pm
  
• TransLōc smartphone app here. 
• Or call Transit Dispatch at 949-497-0766
• Get a user guide here.
  

-LS

CicLAvia is 5 December 2021 South LA

Click for WhenWhereWhy

 -LS

COP26 Results from Glasgow Scotland

Key Points Climate Summit

• Digging our own graves -Guterres
• World is in Climate Crisis -Scientists
• Urgent ACTION required -Guterres
  
• 10X more Cycling and Transit Modeshare Required
  
• China Russia missing from COP26 Summit
  

While politicians play the You Go First game, the world's carbon emissions have not abated even (surprise) under the Covid pandemic. Take action, reduce your personal carbon footprint, the politicians will never catch-up to this crisis.

-LS

"Rolling Coal" in Texas

 Photo and Story by JALOPNIK

All the King's lawyers and litigation will not prevent these intentional acts. 

And more bike hate in Arizona, Ford F-150 mows down six killing one.

The solution to multi-modal transportation begins with public policy, public outreach and education in schools. Respect each other, SHARE THE ROAD.

-LS

Idaho Stop Before California Governor

Data from Delaware shows that collisions involving bikes at intersections went down by 23% after the state adopted the bicycle safety stop.

 Please tell the California Governor to approve AB-122 the Idaho stop (Bicycle Safety Stop) Bill. 

 

10/11/21 UPDATE:  10/8 Governor Vetos AB-122 citing accidents at stop signs. 

US States with "rolling stops": Arkansas, Oklahoma, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Delaware.

The three-foot passing law was defeated twice by Governor Brown, expect the Idaho Stop similar.

There are fewer lawyers in Germany (104,000) than Kalifornia (266,000), and more street users who can think for themselves. 

Sorry to all who participated, we've been Gavined by the Gov.

-LS

Idaho Stop Passes Cal Senate

The Bike Safety Bill (Rolling Stop, Idaho Stop) AB-122 has passed the California Senate by a 31/5 vote on August 30. For cyclists, traffic Stop signs at intersections  may be treated as Yield signs. Thanks to all who participated by writing our legislators.

California will join other states adopting the safety stop: Idaho, Delaware, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Delaware, Arkansas, Utah, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. These states have not reported any safety problems after implementing this rule.

For more details, legislation and a video, see Calbike here.

-LS