“What would make PCH safer?” I, for one, believe continuing the center island and barriers down the entire length of Zuma Beach would discourage the constant illegal left turns over the double-double yellow lines. As a resident of Pt. Dume who drives this area constantly, I’m amazed and flabbergasted at the number of people who are unaware or wish to disregard the law as they commit this dangerous maneuver. I’m wearing a four inch scar on my forehead after flying through the windshield from a collision with a tourist who decided to make an illegal, nonsignaled left turn from the fast lane to grab a parking space. My personal souvenir from Zuma Beach!
Malibu loves the revenue that comes from being a tourist destination, but we do little to educate and enforce the rules of our roadways. Many visitors (and locals as well) fail to recognize the double-double yellow designation and make illegal left turns whenever it pleases them, regardless of the risk. When I first saw Caltrans building the island barrier I was satisfied this maneuver would stop. To my chagrin, the work ended after a few hundred feet. The concrete island and plastic barriers should continue from the entrance to Zuma all the way to the Trancas intersection. What also amazes me are people who stop and double park as they wait for someone to leave and open up a parking spot. With cars speeding past in the fast lane at 65 mph they force cars in the slow lane to quickly stop or merge. Or how about the families with kids, coolers, and surfboards, who run half way across and stand in the center and wait for the traffic to open up? With cars speeding past with considerably more lethal force than speeding bullets, they nonchalantly pass the time. Why haven’t there been signs erected informing motorists not to left turn over the double-double yellow, or double park in the slow lane while waiting for a parking spot, or crossing out of the crosswalk at Morningview?
Every “somebody” seems to have a cell phone, triple frappuccino, or licking cockapoo in their face. Under-skilled housekeepers driving big SUVs with screaming backseat kids, inebriated road raging celebs, foreign tourists who don’t read or speak English; the list of highway dangers grows. Please, nothing is more important than your own life. Except mine.
Scott Winner