Out of the Blue: The answer is fewer cars, not more traffic lanes

I’m of the opinion that progress and preservation are not mutually exclusive but are actually interrelated and co-dependent.

As cities swell and convulse with populations that exceed their original infrastructure, progress must be made to ensure that heritage is not only preserved but also accessible.

No one can argue that we’ve done a great job of it in Laguna. What other Southern California community is insulated with a protected green and blue belt, with rolling hills, mature trees and charming craftsmen homes?

So it’s quite disheartening that four out of five proposals going before the City Council next week for re-making iconic Laguna Canyon Road call for defiling our open space by adding more car lanes, as well as imperiling our quality of life with more cars.

Los Angeles-based RBF Consulting was hired by the city to find solutions to traffic and safety issues on Laguna Canyon Road. The group has worked up five possibilities to deal with congestion, including creating a three- or four-lane highway and replacing traffic signals with a roundabout at Canyon Acres Drive and El Toro Road. All the ideas include placing utilities underground and creating an 8-foot-wide bike lane.

Didn’t the community just give a resounding thumbs down to more traffic by killing the downtown parking garage?

Do we really want more drivers coursing through our bucolic canyon, at higher speeds, with one objective: to get where they’re going as quickly as possible? Think of the carbon dioxide fouling our open space, if not the noise, danger and additional cars swarming downtown like locusts.

I had a recent out-of-body experience that solidifies my belief that Laguna Canyon Road is sacred ground, that, if anything, steps must be taken to reduce and slow the flow of cars.

I had spent a wonderful day hopscotching Los Angeles, culminating in an L.A. Clipper game. While the city always thrills, it also overwhelms with the sheer scale of its traffic and congestion.

The game went into overtime, and I didn’t hit the road until nearly midnight. Even still, the 5 Freeway was busy. The sprawl goes on forever, through garden spots like Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk and Anaheim, and it takes every ounce of white-knuckle concentration to drive this road safely.

Then I eased onto the 133, and the vibration immediately changed. I entered a sanctum of open space. It was still. The moon shone brightly and silhouetted the canyon. There were meadows. I was driving a country road, buffered from the cacophony of city life by a deep cut through a magnificent coastal range. I was in an alternate universe. Relaxed once more. Magic.

In the daytime, the emerald arroyos, deep escarpments, hikers and bikers, and the artists studios and college offer a very special gateway. Drivers should rightfully be slowed to take in the majesty and pay homage to nature.

Yes of course we want to underground the power lines. That will make the canyon 10 times more beautiful, and safer too. But do we then want to desecrate it with more lanes? Take away one menacing eyesore and replace it with another?

There is another way. The Complete Streets solution. And it’s the right way. Underground the power lines, take the added real estate on the north side, and create a dedicated bike and pedestrian byway for multi-modal use and enjoyment. Plant bio swales as a natural buffer and rustic wood fencing where possible. And build it on a mountable curb that can be used by vehicles in an emergency.

Then imagine a canyon that families can access for pleasurable, flat rides out of town and into the wilderness. Or that savvy commuters and beachgoers can use to get into town and never have to sweat parking. Maybe one day we’ll even have remote park-and-ride lots (with bike and trolley options).

Are we really that time-starved and addled that we need to spend $25 million and experience 10 years of incalculable delays for road construction just so we can gain an additional 50 seconds — the average calculated by our consultants?

It’s a sad statement about our capacity for patience and mindfulness that we would endure 10 years of pain to realize an extra minute savings maybe once or twice a day. When you live in a special place with a buffer that funnels people in and out (like, say, a drawbridge), you build in an extra 10 minutes for unexpected delays. Can’t we do the same here? Think of the canyon as a nature gateway that carries an occasional awesome tax, mostly just three months a year.

Do we really want one more outsized development project that only serves something as destructive to our community as the automobile, or should we stem the flow of traffic through attrition and create the possibility for clean, sustainable travel and enjoyment of the canyon?

This would send an even stronger welcome to people coming into town that life in Laguna is worth slowing down for. Don’t like it? Take the tollway.

If you agree, please let the City Council know that you favor the Complete Streets Plan and not a single additional car lane.

BILLY FRIED has a radio show on KX93.5 from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays called “Laguna Talks.” He is the chief experience officer of La Vida Laguna and member of the board of Transition Laguna. He can be reached at [email protected].