New Money for PCH Pedestrian Safety

By MARIE TABELA | Special to the Palisadian-Post

Call it a sand summit.

Politicians, police and safety experts meeting at Will Rogers State Beach on Friday, Feb. 23, revealed new ways to make the Pacific Coast Highway safer—with the help of a $150,000 grant crafted to saving lives, especially of pedestrians and cyclists, on the busy road.

After 617 accidents were recorded on PCH between McClure Tunnel and the Ventura county line beyond Malibu in 2017, local and state bodies have decided to do something.

The new initiative starts with tax-funded dollars being transferred between two tax-funded bodies: The federally backed California Office of Traffic Safety is handing over the new money to the county-based PCH Task Force. The grant was originally mooted last November.

Where will it go?

New signage, engineering fixes and “workshops” to help those on feet and bicycle to share this stretch of PCH, which carries at least 80,000 vehicles per day.

The new initiative is called “Be Safe on PCH” and was launched a short distance from the site of a recent fatal crash site involving a Ferrari, suggesting PCH is busy but hardly unique.

Except in one regard: the vistas.

“There are so many distractions on PCH,” Malibu City Councilmember Laura Rosenthal said. “Please share the road, be aware of all the different users, the pedestrians, cyclists, residents, visitors, commuters and the parents that have to use PCH every day to get their kids to school.”

The meeting was also addressed by traffic police from four divisions, local State Senator Ben Allen, local Assembly Representative Richard Bloom and Malibu Senator Henry Stern.

“This is a very dangerous place to drive,” Stern said. “It’s very beautiful, but that’s part of what makes it so dangerous. We have to stop losing people and families on Pacific Coast Highway.”

The first manifestation of the new initiative—public service announcements on local TV and radio stations—will be revealed at the end of March and run through the summer.