By Michel Shane
As we start the New Year, my mind drifts to a typical summer weekend in Malibu; paradise turns into a nightmare. Along the Pacific Coast Highway, the beauty of the million-dollar views is marred by an endless line of idling cars. Anxious families navigate the maze of vehicles, risking their lives to reach the beach. Emergency vehicles, our lifelines in times of crisis, are stuck in the gridlock. This is not just an inconvenience — it’s a daily crisis unfolding along one of the world’s most celebrated coastlines. The most tragic part? This crisis demands our immediate attention and action.
Let’s take a moment to consider Brighton, England — a coastal city that was once plagued by similar gridlock. Today, the city’s park-and-ride system has significantly reduced downtown congestion by 40 percent. La Rochelle, France, offers another inspiring example. It transformed from a traffic nightmare into a model city with electric sea buses and bike shares, boosting local business revenue by 15 percent. And let’s not forget Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where free electric trams have turned beach parking battles into a distant memory. These are not just feel-good stories — they are living proof that change is possible.
We live in California, where our car-centric culture runs as deep as our coastal roots. “But Malibu once had a bus service, and no one used it,” critics remind us. True — but that’s precisely the lesson we need to learn. Adding transit options while maintaining unlimited car access is like adding a slow lane to a highway and expecting people to take it. These thriving cities didn’t just add alternatives — they made them the most attractive choice.
Malibu remains caught in a bureaucratic tangle where the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), Caltrans, and the California Coastal Commission engage in a perpetual three-way standoff. Each agency’s competing mandates and jurisdictional claims create a perfect storm of inaction. Caltrans focuses on traffic flow and highway safety but lacks authority over beach access points. The Coastal Commission champions public access but can’t directly implement transportation solutions. MRCA advocates for public beach access but faces resistance when proposing new infrastructure.
The tragic deaths of four Pepperdine students finally sparked action, with Caltrans’ recent study proposing to relocate parking spaces and add shuttles. Mayor Doug Stewart’s statement that “We cannot sacrifice lives for access” rings true but presents a false choice between safety and access that has paralyzed progress for decades. While other coastal communities have proven that safety and access can be dramatically improved, Malibu continues to debate this false dichotomy.
The path forward isn’t complex: remote parking hubs with frequent electric shuttles, protected bike lanes replacing shoulder parking, and dedicated transit lanes during peak hours. Cities with terrain just as challenging as PCH have made it work. The economic math is compelling: reduced maintenance costs, increased property values, higher business revenue from consistent visitor flow, and potential federal grants for environmental restoration would offset implementation costs. The hidden costs of the current system — from emergency service delays to lost business revenue to ecological cleanup — far exceed the investment required for modern transit solutions.
This moment for transformation aligns perfectly with the LA2028 Olympic preparations. As Los Angeles invests in regional transportation infrastructure for the Games, Malibu has an unprecedented opportunity to integrate with these improvements. We need look no further than Long Beach’s successful AquaLink water taxi service, which has been shuttling passengers along their coast since 2001, to see how water-based transit can work in Southern California. Rather than becoming a notorious bottleneck during this global showcase, PCH could demonstrate how coastal communities balance access and preservation. Olympic infrastructure funding could help establish water taxi terminals and expanded transit services that would serve both Olympic visitors and provide lasting community benefits. The Games create urgency and opportunity — a concrete deadline to implement solutions we’ve long discussed. Just as other Olympic host cities have transformed their transportation systems into lasting legacies, Malibu could emerge from 2028 with modern transit infrastructure that serves our community for decades to come.
The same community outrage that demanded action after the Pepperdine tragedy needs to be harnessed into a sustained force for comprehensive change. When residents and officials united after those deaths, we saw how quickly the government could respond. That same urgency needs to drive the transformation of our entire transportation system. We, the community, have the power to demand and drive this change.
As climate change threatens our coast with rising seas, we can no longer afford the luxury of incremental change. Each step forward, including the current Caltrans proposals, should be viewed not as an endpoint but as part of a more extensive transformation. The question isn’t whether Malibu should modernize its beach access – it’s how quickly we can progress from today’s baby steps to the comprehensive solutions other coastal communities demonstrate are possible.
Malibu’s paradise deserves better than to become a parking lot with a view. We have the examples, technology, and resources to convert PCH from a barrier to a gateway. The current proposals mark a beginning — now we need the vision and political will to follow through on the entire journey toward a safer, more accessible, and more sustainable Malibu. Our elected officials and agencies moved swiftly when tragedy struck. Let’s not wait for another tragedy to finish the job. And I can’t help but wonder: if these solutions are evident to me — someone with no unique expertise in urban planning or transportation — why aren’t our experts already implementing them? Perhaps the actual knowledge we need isn’t in transportation planning but in breaking through bureaucratic gridlock.
As we begin 2025, I wish everyone a safe and peaceful year ahead. Starting with my next column, I will open with a running count of lives lost on PCH this year. I encourage other writers and community members to do the same. Let’s make 2025 Malibu’s Zero Death Year. By keeping this number in front of us, we transform statistics into reality and motivation into action. We can create the change our community desperately needs by making safety a constant part of our consciousness rather than just responding to tragedy.
Contact me at: 21milesinmalibu@gmail.com