PCH Parking Study: Bike Lanes For Eastern Malibu, No Inland Parking West of Busch – 2014 Pole Collapse Investigation Pried Loose from CPUC – Frog Sex In Local Mtns Gets Biologists Excited

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Malibu traffic engineers release their blueprint for P C H … a little less parking …. more room for bikes.

Southern California Edison gets hit for violating safety rules … again … this time on Trancas Canyon Road.

Red legged frogs are having sex in the mountains above Malibu for the first time in decades … bring your own white wine.

This is Malibu’s only local daily news.  It’s the Thursday edition from Radio Malibu  …. 97 point 5 K B U… Good morning Malibu!

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After a quarter century of cityhood … the municipal government of Malibu has just published its first comprehensive plan for taking care of parking … bicycles and motorists on Pacific Coast Highway. 

A traffic safety consultant hired by the City of Malibu is recommending that lanes be narrowed … and parking rearranged … along the 22 miles of P C H within city limits. 

There are several recommendations for major changes int he road’s layout in the 150-page study.

On P C H west of Trancas … the engineers recommend parking be prohibited along the land-side of the highway .. that the road lanes be shifted away from the ocean … and that bike lanes be installed on both sides of the road. 

Parking would be allowed on the south side … not the north side … hopefully eliminating pedestrian crossings at the beaches.

At Zuma Beach … the parking study recommends banning all parking on the inland side of P C H as well. 

At Paradise Cove … it recommends widening the highway’s shoulder and restriping … to make parking safer but not reduce the amount of parking available in the beach access area. 

And in eastern Malibu …  from Webb Way to Las Flores Canyon … the report recommends narrower lanes for cars and a bike lane on each side of the pavement … while maintaining existing curb parking. 

Citywide … about 25 parking spaces would be lost in heavy demand parking areas … but 660 parking spaces would remain and get safety improvements. 

Hundreds of parking places would be eliminated …. mostly west of Trancas where on-street parking demand is very light.

And all along the highway …. nearly 1000 parking places would remain … and every one of the

them would get safety improvements such as a wider shoulder. 

The space for the bike lanes would be gained by restriping traffic lanes and the center left turn lane … which in some places is 16 feet wide … to a regulation 11 feet wide. 

P C H travel lanes are generally 14 feet wide…. which was the standard for a 55 mile an hour country highway used when the existing road was designed in 1945. 

Traffic engineers say the wide open lanes encourage speeding.

The P C H parking plan goes to city commissions next week … and eventually to the city council.

The meeting is Tuesday at City Hall.

And the whole thing must be approved by the Coastal  Commission … which in the past has shot down parking safety rules when they reduced

 beach access parking.

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Why did a 21-year old man race thru the parking lot at Santa Monica City Hall on Tuesday and mow down a person who just happened to be in the way?

That’s the question being asked by Santa Monica police. 

Absadi Kidane, a 21-year old man from Los Angeles, drove in from 4th Street at high speed …and smashed his car into a pedestrian standing at the parking gate, and then continued out f control … smashing into a parked car on Main Street.

He bailed and ran …. and was arrested in a struggle with police at Pico Boulevard.

Kidane was arrested for murder, vehicular manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, felony driving under the influence, felony hit and run and forcibly resisting arrest.

The dead person’s name has not been released. 

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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu … 97.5 K B U.  ((( time  ))))

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On April 30th of 20-14 … a wooden power pole on Trancas Canyon Road snapped at the base … in moderate winds … and fell over. 

A small brushfire was ignited. 

People living in the Trancas Highlands homes were trapped .. no way in or out. 

It took three years to get the California Public Utilities Commission to disclose what happened … because Southern California Edison took advantage of P U C policies and slapped a top secret … confidential label on the investigation.

KBUU radio appealed .. and the matter had to go before the actual commission for a vote to release the state’s investigation. 

Yesterday … a CD arrived at the radio station with that state investigation. 

The pole was not that old … nine years.  

But it had deteriorated and was overloaded with Edison and Verizon cables…and had less than half of the strength necessary to support its load … as measured in a metric called the “safety factor.”

KBUU News can report now … that Edison and Verizon were cited for violating state safety rules 

But there was no fine … the pole was replaced with a new stronger pole … the investigation was completed and put into a locked file cabinet in San Francisco.

Edison has a practice of not commenting on these stories.

But in comments filed with the state…. the company said it would not comment on the alleged weak pole … other than to say it has put in a sturdy new pole.

Same story from Verizon.

There are 8,728 power poles in the Malibu area.

Edison’s own figures show that 2,848 of those poles … one third of them … do not meet state safety factor standards today

Nearly 14 hundred poles have been replaced … but 28 hundred substandard poles remain.

And Edison’s special 17 million dollar pole replacement fund … ordered after the disastrous 2007 Malibu Canyon pole collapse and fire … that has been spent.

This reporter … as a Malibu resident … has filed a formal request for investigation by the C P U C into the recent string of power outages in Malibu. 

He has also filed a request for stronger rules preventing power outages.

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Biologists are excited … red legged frogs are having sex and making tadpoles in the local mountains. 

Native California red legged frogs were wiped out in the creeks of the Santa Monica Mountains 40 years ago. 

The native frogs proved to be no match for crayfish … which took over the creeks when they escaped from bait hooks decades ago.

Crawdads eat everything.

The frogs were nearly wiped out in Southern California. 

A small pocket of red legged frogs was discovered in the mountains near Simi Valley … and that led to a crayfish eradication project in upper Trancas Creek … Malibu Creek … and other creeks above Malibu. 

Some frog eggs were transplanted each year to several locations for four years …. tadpoles emerged .. and a tenuous population of transplanted frogs came to be. 

Now… those frogs are doing what frogs will do … and this spring …. researchers spotted nine egg masses.

That’s the first evidence in recent times of the species sustaining a population in the Santa Monica Mountains without the help of humans. 

The exact spots are a secret … there are four of them.

Katy Delaney … a National Park Service ecologist with Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area … says she was crying … when the stream team showed her the photos of the wild egg masses.

The National Park Service is asking visitors to help the frogs by treading lightly around aquatic habitat. 

They say hiking at the edge of the water near waterfalls, streams, and ponds can create erosion that hurts the local critters. 

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Traffic … in 65 seconds … first … weather for the Malibu ….

It will be sunny and cool  ((((   62  )))) degrees today on the beach … ((((   66   )))) inland. 

Winds will be gentle. 

Downcoast winds will be   (((   10  )))) miles per hour this afternoon.

Sunset tonight is at   ((((    7:07    )))).

After that … expect it to be (((   mostly clear  )))) tonight … a low of  ((((   51   )))) on the beach … down to  ((((   44   )))) in the canyons.

Tomorrow should be   ((((   much the same  )))).

Rain may arrive late tomorrow night.

Right now (((  at 8:45  ))) … it’s ((((    56   )))) at Trancas.

((((   46     )))) in upper Malibu Canyon.

And it’s ((((   58    ))) at Civic center Los Angeles. 

In the ocean … it’s ((((   59    )))) degrees in the water at Zuma Beach.

The lifeguards say the waves today are   ((((  4 to 6   )))) feet high …. 

((((  Peaking WNW swell and secondary SSW/S swell. W winds in PM.   )))) 

Those are ((((  poor to fair )))) surfing conditions …. according to the lifeguards.

(((((   High tide was a few minutes ago at 4.4 feet.

Low tide is at 1:56 PM.

A secondary high tide crests at 8:27  tonight.   ))))

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Our KBU Newswire is posted at midmorning at the Malibu Times dot com.

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Navigate to k-b-u dot f-m. … press two buttons …. and we’re in your ear anywhere in the world.