The Malibu City Council is continuing the fight to make PCH safer for drivers and pedestrians. At the Jan. 21 city council meeting, city leaders discussed PR campaigns and traffic calming measures to slow drivers down and reduce reckless driving.
The council unanimously approved the exploration of additional safety measures three months after the deadly PCH crash that claimed the lives of four Pepperdine seniors. The safety measures include raised medians, narrowed turning lanes and traffic signal synchronization.
“If we don’t keep this issue in front of the community, it’s going to disappear,” Mayor Steve Uhring said.
Safety Measures
The city released the list of 130 safety projects discussed at a November PCH Task Force Special Meeting. They are based on the 2015 PCH Safety Study.
Out of the 130 projects, only 59 are currently designed, under construction, completed or in the planning stage. There are 71 projects that have not yet made it to the planning stage — 59 of which are unplanned or unfunded, according to Deputy City Manager Alexis Brown.
“There are one or two areas where a lot of them [projects] are done,” Councilmember Bruce Silverstein said. “But for the most part, we have 21 miles, and we have a whole bunch of projects.”
The additional safety measures proposed at the meeting included a left turn signal on John Tyler Drive and a PR campaign to change how people view Malibu and PCH.
During the meeting, Councilmember Paul Grisanti presented five signs — all with different slogans promoting safe driving.
“We need to have these concentrated on the entry points of Malibu,” Grisanti said. “Put them on things like Pepperdine’s lawn. Put them anywhere.”
The council attributed much of the increased traffic on PCH to a term coined as Z-traffic — or traffic caused by drivers using the highway to avoid congestion on the 405 and 101 freeways. One way to make Malibu a less desirable option is to increase patrol and ticketing.
The City Council also extended California Highway Patrol’s contract through June 30, 2025, according to the meeting.
Malibu brought in CHP officers for extra enforcement after declaring a local state of emergency due to the dangers of PCH in October, according to previous Graphic reporting.
“Bring us things that can happen tomorrow that aren’t engineering [related],” Silverstein said.
The contract includes adding three full-time officers for enforcement and one sergeant to oversee the operations, according to the meeting. The City and CHP can cancel the agreement at any time, as long as they give a 30-day notice.
Reaction from the Community
While many Malibu residents are pushing for lowered speed limits, reduced speeds could violate California’s speed trap laws. Engineering and Traffic Surveys (E&TS) need to be conducted for speed limits to be lowered, according to the Caltrans website.
The following are considered when conducting E&TS:
1. Speeds prevailing the 85th percentile
2. Collision history
3. Conditions that are not apparent to the driver
Based on preliminary data from Caltrans, Mayor Pro Tem Doug Stewart said PCH does not meet the requirements to lower the speed limits. A lowered speed limit on PCH would be considered a non-statutory speed limit, which are not held up in court.
“If we follow the speed and traffic safety, we have to raise the speed, not lower it,” Doug Stewart said.
During public comment, members of the community continued to push the city to implement safety measures faster. Barry Stewart, father of Peyton Stewart, called on the city to make PCH safer for pedestrians like his daughter.
“You need to put up traffic calming measures like barriers, narrowing lanes to prevent reckless drivers from driving 104 miles an hour in a residential area and killing our daughters,” Barry Stewart said.
Abby Wilt contributed to this reporting.
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