City's Stupid Lincoln Blvd Plan Will Cut Off Main Southern Route Out of Santa Monica

In what may be the most ill conceived traffic plan ever created by civil employees paid more than $250,000 a year, the City of Santa Monica is pushing a plan to narrow Lincoln Blvd into one lane in each direction. "Auto-Centric businesses" such as auto parts and mechanics, would be encouraged to leave town.

Commuters would be discouraged from using Lincoln Blvd, since it would flow at about 10 miles an hour between the 10 freeway and Ozone Avenue, 1.5 miles south.

Update: Mayor Ted Winterer's Facebook comment on this article: "Read the plan, there will be no reduction in lanes. This week a grandmother was killed in the crosswalk at Hill on Lincoln, this project will enhance pedestrian safety."

From the City of Santa Monica's website: "The Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor Plan (The "LiNC") is currently evaluating a range of short- and long-term enhancements to the public right of way on Lincoln Boulevard between the I-10 Freeway and the City limits at Ozone Avenue. Utilizing a strategy that balances tactical urbanism and the desire for "Pop-Up Placemaking" (such as the recently installed Utility Box Artwork) with long-range capital improvements like new medians and crosswalks, the Plan also incorporates a layer of policy and program level recommendations for creating a more functional, aesthetically pleasing pedestrian experience that is supported and/or managed by the local business community and property owners."

Well that's how they see it. They also say they will "Maintain and improve traffic flow" for the 50,000 vehicles who use Lincoln every day. Narrowing the road to one lane in each direction from the current two plus a center lane, will do the opposite. But I earn much less than the City Staff who dreamed this up, so what do I know.

If you want to see just how they will screw this up for all of us who live here, and make it even harder to leave town, drive on Ocean Park Blvd between 30th street and Nielson Way. That used to be two lanes in each direction. They narrowed it to one lane each way. The plan will choke traffic, create gridlock, and imprison residents and tourists alike.

If you happen to live on 11th Street, you might want to sell now. Because all that Lincoln Blvd traffic will have to go somewhere, and 11th Street is the best alternate route, as anyone who lives on the Westside knows.

This is going to happen by 2018, people. The idiots in City Hall have already decided it. They will hold public meetings as window dressing, and ten bicycle riders will show up and tell them they're godlike. Bicyclists who live in mom's basement have time to attend public meetings. The rest of us work and raise families here.

It was all over in 2015, when Santa Monica got the State to transfer the right of way from California government to local government. At that moment, it was all over for anything reasonable . Seriously, these people would plant grass on Lincoln and graze cattle there, before admitting they made a mistake narrowing it. Or in City Speak:

"It is envisioned that the Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor Plan will result in a comprehensive framework for the overall enhancement of the Boulevard, and will weave together phased physical design improvements to the streetscape and right-of-way with policy and program level recommendations for balancing vehicle flow and demand. Envisioned to be a mixed-mode and livable street environment for pedestrians, transit and vehicles, the ability for bicycles to coexist with other modes on this busy boulevard has also been explored. Once complete, portions of the Plan will be implemented incrementally as private and public funding allows creating a high quality streetscape and pedestrian environment that removes existing barriers, expands accessibility, increases pedestrian comfort, and improves public health among all non-motorized travelers."

You can read more about the Lincoln Corridor Neighborhood Plan at https://www.smgov.net/Departments/PCD/Plans/Streetscapes/Lincoln-Neighborhood-Corridor-Plan-(LiNC)/