Insight
Mark Cuban had a great insight today. Mark said the virus fosters openings to live a different lifestyle. Like we all will in the future, we will reserve our event times, such as sport games, dinners, any get together of more than two people.
Also simple things become a big deal, like yesterday when I went to HiHo in Santa Monica to get a key lime pie recommended by a friend as the most outstanding key lime in LA. It was.
Or when a neighbor dropped off some homemade scones. Sure, just simple scones, but they were super.
Our Palisades taste of things past will change … no more 4th of July Parade, but a fly by at 2 p.m. and Home Decorating Contest will help fill the void.
Not everything can be online and social distancing. I talked to a gal running a preschool, she said it’s real hard to use online learning and distancing in preschool.
Even our grandkids, some in college, are restless with big questions: what will fall bring or will fall sports happen?
I think it’s a time, like Mark said, to live a different lifestyle and a time to concentrate on things like outstanding key lime pie and wait for your scone delivery and we will all get through. We are Palisades tough.
Kent Sather
Palisades Drive and Traffic Scofflaws
I thank Robert Ratcliffe for his detailed comments, observations and suggestions concerning Palisades Drive in a May 14 letter to the editor. An underlying issue, however, is a state law (regulation?) that rewards traffic scofflaws while punishing law abiders.
Recall that several years ago there was a 45 mile an hour speed limit on Palisades Drive. The residents justifiably and formally complained that speeding cars were the cause of many accidents, some of them lethal.
A governmental traffic organization found that so many drivers exceeded the speed limit that the limit was raised to 50 miles per hour. Thus, fewer people would be breaking the law.
Ratcliffe reported that 55% of the drivers he observed exceeded the speed limit. Will the scofflaws be rewarded again? Since the coronavirus there has been much less traffic. We do not know if the number of accidents or deaths increased or not.
Scofflaws exist throughout the world, especially so in the Palisades. For example, there are four lanes going toward the ocean on Temescal Canyon. The posted signs portray two lanes are for left turns on to Pacific Coast Highway, a third lane to go straight or take a right turn, and the fourth, to take a right turn on to PCH.
The light to take a left or go straight is about four minutes long. When traffic is heavy, every weekday morning, the number of cars taking left turns is huge; frequently having cars wait for two lights—about eight minutes. Scofflaws take the third lane and most make a left turn, violating the posted sign.
Thus, scofflaws save themselves up to eight minutes and increase the wait time and frustration for the law abiders. Those, seeing the scofflaws and waiting in the left turn lanes ask, “Should they break the law by using third lane?”
Is it dangerous when scofflaws take that left turn? Yes, since it is not expected. The scofflaws force the long-waiting, law-abiding drivers to watch for unexpected cars on their right. Further the aggravation of law abiders surge when the scofflaws save their own time and increase wasted time for the law abiders.
I do not know how many accidents occur because of the many scofflaws. I do know of the extreme frustration of the law abiders. Perhaps the same traffic organization that made the scofflaws legal on Palisades Drive could do the same on the Temescal and PCH with positive effects.
Perhaps the traffic organizations are waiting for more frustration, road rage and accidents to occur before acting. Or, more cynically, are they encouraging scofflaws?
George Wolkon
The Palisadian-Post accepts letters to the editor via email at mypost@palipost.com or mail/hand-delivered at 881 Alma Real Drive, Suite 213, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. To be considered for publication, letters must be signed, and are subject to editing for length and clarity. Opinions expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect the views of opinions of the Palisadian-Post.
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