The Public Safety Commission admits “serious safety problems” exist regarding Malibu school traffic.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
Local residents and members of the Malibu Park Safety Coalition, or MPSC, begged and pleaded Public Safety commissioners during its meeting last week to implement their proposed solutions to the gridlocked traffic during Malibu High, Middle and Juan Cabrillo Elementary school drop-off and pick-up hours. The committee agreed to present the solutions to the city council.
The solutions, compiled in a packet written by the MPSC, ranged from short- to long-term and addressed safety concerns that have blossomed as a result of the traffic on Morningview Drive, Ebbtide Way, Pacific Coast Highway and on portions of Merritt and Bush drives. The meeting focused primarily on short-term solutions, as those long-term will be heavily dictated by how Measure BB funds are spent.
MPSC members Marshall Thompson and Julie Hutchinson both prefaced the meeting with incidences of children who have been hit and killed by cars during school pick-up and drop-off times. A friend of Thompson’s son was hit and killed during pick-up time at his school by a parent who had accidently put her car in reverse and “crushed” him against a wall.
“It’s [the Malibu Park traffic] a situation that’s going to result in a death, and nobody wants that,” Thompson said.
Hutchinson spoke of a three-year-old in the city of Diamond Bar who was hit and killed by a car during drop-off time while holding her father’s hand and walking to Maple Street School.
“That was one school, we have three schools,” Hutchinson said.
Residents’ frustrations also included illegal parking, pollution, lack of legal enforcement and the overall jeopardy of driver, pedestrian and resident safety.
MPSC member Bob Miller, who has lived on Morningview Drive for 11 years, said the traffic has grown increasingly worse.
“Over the past two or three years it’s just gotten crazy,” Miller said. “We’ve reached out to the schools specifically and to lots of constituencies, but have gotten no support or response. This has left us all very frustrated. Someone’s going to get hurt or hit.”
Morningview Drive resident Steve Shankman agreed.
“We have met with the school board numerous times, we’ve given license plate numbers of kids parked incorrectly, and the bottom line is that we have gotten zero response. That’s why we’re here,” he said. “At the end of the day, they just don’t care and have now pushed it back on the city. And we’re asking the city to please help us. Please help the kids before they get hurt.”
But Bow Bowman, the city’s special projects engineer, said the city has very little leverage over the school board and all efforts are being made to come up with solutions to mitigate the traffic problem.
“Nobody wants to see a kid get hurt, that goes without saying,” Bowman said. “But there is a paradigm. All we can do is our best, and we are. What the outcome’s going to be, I can’t say.”
Members of the MPSC also stated that adding to the problem are the “mixed messages” being sent to Sheriff’s deputies patrolling the schools regarding the desired level of legal enforcement and citation issuance, and the unpredictability of their schedules that does not guarantee their presence during all pickup and drop-off hours.
Sergeant Phil Brooks of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, who helped the MPSC put together its safety packet, said deputies need to know what to enforce.
“One day it’s parking, one day it’s not,” Brooks said, adding his own solution: “Parents have to drop off early and pick up late. It has to be like the airport. You can make the whole street a ‘no parking, just drop-off’ zone and if the parents sit there too long, they’re out.”
Parents need to step up
The topic of Malibu parents taking more responsibility was also in the spotlight. Public Safety Commissioner Susan Tellem, a former Beverly Hills resident, said parents get angry when laws are enforced and feel their children are getting picked on, especially in wealthy communities like Malibu.
“When I lived in Beverly Hills and saw school traffic jams, they hired crossing guards who were really strict,” Tellem said. “They disciplined and issued tickets and gradually issues changed … I think you guys [Malibu residents] need to push for crossing guards.”
Commissioner Rick Mullen spoke of the importance of educating parents about the unsafe traffic conditions.
“The school board is a government institution supported by taxpayers who can make awareness of problems,” he said.
Both Bowman and Tellem advocated law enforcement as the primary step toward remedying the Malibu Park traffic.
“The bottom line is the only way to make people do what they’re supposed to do is enforce the law,” Tellem said.
“The approach is writing tickets,” Bowman said. “Certain people got upset and went to the city asking to lower enforcement. You’ve got to remember that politics come into play here, whether you like it or not. In my personal opinion, we’ve done everything we can do to support residents and the school.”
Despite the Public Safety Commission’s agreement to present the Malibu Park Safety Coalition’s solution packet to the city council, some Morningview residents were still not satisfied with the meeting.
“The thing that upset me about this meeting was that Sgt. Brooke told them how to fix it [the traffic] right now, and the Public Safety Commission just glossed right over it,” MPSC member Nina Shankman said.
“He [Brooke] was in charge of fixing the same parking issue at Round Meadow School in Woodland Hills,” she continued, adding that she thinks parking on both sides of Morningview Drive should be prohibited and a deputy should be assigned to the street for two hours in morning and two in the afternoon.
Shankman also noted that the traffic endangers not only Malibu’s youth, but also its elders.
“This could be immediately fixed tomorrow,” Shankman said. “I was on the PTA at Marquez Elementary in the Palisades and we had exact same problem. We implemented the same things and they’ve worked beautifully.”