The City of Malibu is now seeking community recommendations on how to improve parking along Pacific Coast Highway. After the city conducted an exhaustive study of safety on PCH, it concluded not only is parking difficult to come by at many times, but it can also be downright dangerous. The safety study completed last year led to the city partnering once again with traffic engineering firm Stantec to help find solutions to parking on PCH that will balance the needs of residents, businesses and visitors alike.
The parking study, which has been ongoing for nearly seven months, was unveiled Tuesday, Nov. 29, at City Hall at a public meeting with roughly 40 stakeholders in attendance. Along with a sprinkling of Malibu residents, most others packed in the conference room were affiliated with government agencies including council members Skylar Peak and Laura Rosenthal and councilman-elect Rick Mullen. All listened to traffic engineer Rock Miller’s presentation of what Malibu and Stantec have uncovered so far concerning parking safety, difficulty and inventory.
As expected, the study found parking to be most in demand in central Malibu near the pier, especially on the ocean side. It is also heavy near businesses and trailheads. There is variable demand in other areas of PCH studied, only in city limits, from just north of Topanga Canyon on the south to Leo Carrillo State Beach on the north end.
“I and the staff have been regularly visiting, observing both parking issues, traffic and safety issues — pretty much continuously probably since 2013,” Miller said. He added that free street parking fills up first before paid lots and on Independence Day Miller just about said, “fuggetaboutit.”
It’s not only the lack of parking that is problematic; it’s safety. During the city’s safety study conducted from 2011-15, there were 310 parking-related collisions, totaling 13 percent of all collisions on PCH in Malibu alone. Ninety-nine people were injured; two killed. One concern brought up in the study was the high-speed travel lanes next to parking, which may have contributed to the fatalities where one person was struck exiting a vehicle and another in a parked car.
The study cited 230 (74 percent) accidents involved drivers hitting parked cars, 66 (21 percent) involved vehicles while parking, seven (two percent) involved bicyclists, four (two percent) were classified as “other” and three (one percent) reported obscured sightlines due to parked cars. One resident at the meeting said she had concerns with ingress and egress into her driveway on PCH that at times can be obscured with parked cars. Also noted in the study is that areas with lightly used parking also experience collisions, but often at a higher rate of speed.
Improvement concepts are addressed in the study as well, including narrowing existing lanes from 13 feet across to 11 feet. Miller said it would be impossible to narrow lanes further since many vehicles can span nearly 10 feet in width. Narrower lanes would enable a wider shoulder that could in many areas allow for additional parking and improved areas for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Another improvement suggested is posting uniform, clear parking signage. Lifelong Malibu resident Annie Ellis was in attendance at the meeting and agreed with that idea.
“Between El Matador State Beach and Broad Beach Road there are only a handful of driveways, but it’s a blind hill. On a regular day with no parking on the highway, it’s scary to get out because drivers are going about 70 miles an hour,” Ellis told The Malibu Times. “There are ‘No Parking’ signs up there, but they’re so old and washed out that you either can’t read them or people still park in front of them. They do not care. People make U-turns to grab a spot even in front of a ‘No Parking’ sign. We’re looking to replace these signs with ‘No Parking / Tow Away’ signs because that’s the only thing that might keep people from parking in a ‘No Parking’ zone.”
Miller emphasized parking spaces that are lost would likely be added in other areas to keep the number of spaces the same. He also added that it would be highly unlikely to install parking meters on a state highway, despite some enthusiasm from meeting attendees.
“The changes would have to largely be — either the Coastal Commission agreed to it or Caltrans was so determined that it had to be done that they would be willing to do it without Coastal Commission approval,” Miller said. “That has happened once or twice before, generally in response to a severe safety problem.”
Comments will be accepted until Dec. 16 at malibucity.org/PCHParkingStudy.