The following was addressed to Douglas Failing, district director, Caltrans District 7. We are long-term residents of West Malibu and live at the north end of Zuma Beach. We have two young children who are ten and twelve years old. I mention this because we are very concerned about the safety of our family and people in general who frequently drive on the Pacific Coast Highway in the Zuma area.
Specifically, there have been multiple, and recently unprecedented, numbers of fatality and serious injury accidents on PCH between Trancas Canyon and Westward Beach Road. There seems to be several reasons for these accidents and why they have increased. This is the most important issue; there are too many drivers from out of the area who unwittingly attempt to make dangerous, sudden and highly illegal left and U-turns across the double-double yellow lines or from the shoulders on PCH to park their cars at Zuma Beach. The people who do this truly do not understand the risks involved with this maneuver and they endanger all of us because of it. This happens all of the time and many residents report that they have been in near accidents because of this type of driving. I have experienced this myself.
Drunk drivers cross the double-double yellow lines on PCH. There is much more traffic on PCH than there used to be. There is a paucity of police presence in Malibu. The City Council has little power to effect changes on PCH
It seems that we need a center median on this stretch of PCH that will prevent more of these accidents from happening. It would be better to have a concrete center median where there are now double-double yellow lines. At the very least stationary cones that are high and difficult to penetrate would also help if a concrete center median were not possible.
There are more and more families traveling PCH as well as tourists and beach goers. All of these people are at risk if something is not done about this dangerous problem immediately.
Tracy and Matt Borenzweig