The drive from Santa Monica into Malibu may be one of the most beautiful drives in the country — with a scenic view of the Pacific Ocean on one side and celebrities’ houses on the other. Tourists said they come to Malibu just to say they’ve driven along PCH, but they might not understand the dangers of PCH while taking in its beauty.
PCH has had 60 lives lost since 2010, according to Fix PCH. Almost all of these accidents were due to speeding on PCH, reckless driving or distracted driving — on a highway that truly goes through a residential area. There have been over 4,000 basic traffic collisions along PCH in the past 10 years, Mayor Steve Uhring said.
“While I was driving, I kept looking at my boyfriend to be like, ‘Look out the window for me,’” said Kate Ocuch, a tourist visiting Malibu from New York City. “It’s so gorgeous to see.”
Over 15 million tourists come to Malibu every summer, according to a Malibu Recreation Guide. In addition, there are an estimated 40,000 daily commuters in Malibu, consisting of tourists and residents, according to USA Today.
But within those 15 million, several tourists said they’ve never really thought about how dangerous the road is. They also said they haven’t read any news about the fatal accidents on the road or are just excited to be here. They said they think every road is just as dangerous.
Malibu City Council approved a contract to hire four new California Highway Patrol officers whose sole purpose is to monitor PCH, according to the City of Malibu.
Since they hired the new CHP officers, they have been doing routine special traffic enforcement operations. The last one was Jan. 13, when CHP officers handed out 78 citations in one day. Of those citations, 63 were for speeding.
Although it is not clear how many of those citations were given specifically to tourists, Uhring said visitors driving up and down PCH without recognizing the dangers are contributing to the problem.
“I call on residents, businesses, and visitors to our city to exercise caution, obey traffic laws and remain vigilant when driving this stretch of the highway,” Uhring wrote in a statement.
Minji Jwon, a tourist visiting Malibu from New Jersey, said she came for the weekend to go on a vacation with friends and didn’t know PCH had accidents or was dangerous. She said she actually thought PCH had too slow of a speed limit, too many traffic lights and too much traffic.
“I’d like way less stop signs and traffic lights,” Jwon said “Every block has so many traffic lights.”
She did say, as a tourist, it would be helpful if there were more signs about where she could do things like U-Turns or unprotected left turns because it wasn’t clear to her where she was allowed to do that.
Jwon said she didn’t really focus on the road itself but more was looking at the ocean while driving.
“It is just so beautiful here,” Jwon said.
Tom Corey was visiting Malibu from Ontario, Canada, and said he came here to surf over the weekend with two of his friends.
He said he has come to Malibu to surf several times, so he doesn’t find the road dangerous because he knows it well already.
“I’ve been here too many times to really be distracted,” Corey said.
Corey said, depending on the drivers, he thought it could be dangerous because it is windy and scenic.
“If this guy’s driving, it’s probably really dangerous,” Corey said, pointing to his friend.
He said he wasn’t aware of the accidents on PCH and didn’t view PCH as a highway. Instead, he just thought it was a scenic road; although, he was annoyed with the traffic.
Ocuch also hadn’t heard about the many accidents on PCH and didn’t go past the pier when driving from Los Angeles yet, so she didn’t see the Fix PCH memorial. She said she could see where it could be dangerous for people to try to parallel park on the side of the street, especially with such a high speed limit.
“I had to be really cautious as I was driving, especially at the street parking stops, because people will randomly pull over and try to wait in the bank to see if someone else is pulling off,” Ocuch said.
But, in general, Ocuch said she felt safe while driving her rental car along PCH, and the dangerous road conditions wouldn’t be a reason for her to stay away from the area.
“As long as you’re not on your phone and paying attention, it’s alright,” Ocuch said. “It’s not so bad.”
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