By Haylynn Conrad
Malibu has a tremendous opportunity in front of us that must be embraced: a $50 million investment from Caltrans to enhance public safety on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).
This project represents a long-awaited chance to protect lives, and public safety must remain our top priority. With new lights, medians, guardrails, safer crossings, sidewalks, paving, signs, and crosswalks, we can finally address the dangers that have plagued our community.
I ran for Malibu City Council on a campaign platform to make PCH safer, a personal commitment rooted in concern not just for my own son and daughter but for all our residents. Now it’s time to deliver. After years of advocating for attention from the state and county, Caltrans has responded thoughtfully and considered Malibu’s input and requests for environmental impact mitigation.
For example, they have redesigned some sidewalks to be porous and earth-colored, aligning with community requests for environmentally sensitive features. The streetlights meet dark sky standards to minimize glare while saving lives. Concerns about wildlife, traffic, and other impacts are also being addressed in the plan, including measures to promote safe sharing of the road with cyclists through clearer bike lanes that improve on the current unclear markings. Sure some of it doesn’t make clear sense, but we can’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
These improvements are designed by trained engineers whose job it is to solely study crash data and share our goal of reducing liability through proven safety measures. While there will be impacts resulting from the construction that should be mitigated, limited funding means we must seize this investment now to save lives.
PCH’s challenges are real. It is a finite stretch of land squeezed between the crumbling ocean side and falling mountains, with increased traffic that we can hear no matter where we live, making it a busy highway, not a quiet rural road. The world knows PCH’s reputation as a deadly route that endangers residents and visitors. We have a chance to help this bad PR Malibu is constantly facing.
In the 1980s, we didn’t have the transient population walking the highway at night, but today we do, and much of the road remains dark. Recent incidents, like a young driver not speeding or drinking striking a pedestrian in an unlit area, highlight the risks. I often see walkers jaywalking in the dark on my drives home from council meetings. Streetlights could prevent such tragedies, especially in fall, when it gets dark early as kids return from sports and parents commute home.
I personally live on PCH and welcome a streetlight at my own driveway. We chose to live in a city along a state highway. These are our choices, but death and injury should not be.
It is also important to remember that Malibu doesn’t own PCH. The state does, and Caltrans is responsible for its design, safety, and maintenance. We can collaborate and provide input, but we rely on the state agency to implement these improvements which we have been begging for.
On Nov. 3, the Planning Commission will decide whether to support this project. If not approved or if appealed, the $50 million could shift to another community ready to fix their highway. That’s just how government funding works, and it poses a major risk. Alternatively, moving forward could mean a safer western corridor in time for the Olympics, with incentives for Caltrans to complete it promptly and make Malibu shine for the world.
Every day I think about the parents of the four Pepperdine students killed on PCH, and so many others. We owe it to them to advocate for reason and safety.
Malibu is tired from fires, rebuilding, and red tape, but people and families have been leaving even before that, weary of memorials, white tires, press conferences, and the dangers of raising families here. Our aging infrastructure is like a necessary colonoscopy, unpleasant but essential to avoid greater harm. PCH has been broken for too long; this isn’t a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I love Malibu’s rural character, and that can be preserved. But we have to remember that this isn’t a rural back road in New Hampshire. It’s a state highway with daily commuters and millions of visitors.
This is not a proposal for a giant mall or an airport, or hotel, just lights and features to prevent tragedy for human lives and wildlife, which also suffer on dark roads. This is nonnegotiable for me and the hill I’ll stand on; it’s why I ran for this volunteer position. Leaders must speak up for what is right, even if there will be some disagreement.
To Malibu’s teenagers: this is your city too. You’re the ones driving home from practice, jobs, or friends’ houses. Your voices on what makes you feel safe matter deeply. I ran for you as much as anyone.
As acknowledged, there will be some annoying impacts from construction, which must be mitigated to the extent possible. But the public safety benefits are necessary to protect everyone and prevent avoidable tragedies. I’d love for it all to happen overnight and never know it was happening, but magical thinking never got me very far.
I’d love for Caltrans to add beautiful reminders of the various projects at the construction sites, reminding us why we are being inconvenienced while sitting in traffic. These signs would have gone a long way at the Corral Fish Bridge or Trancas just explaining and reminding us residents what the timeline is and what the end result will be.
Let’s seize this chance to finally make PCH safer and encourage the Planning Commission to do the same.