We know, traffic.
We want to blame it on the rain. It’s gone now, largely, and people have been cooped up. So they are making up for it. They are driving EVERYWHERE.
“Honey, let’s drive through Laguna Beach for no reason.”
“Honey, let’s cut through Laguna because it’s more scenic.”
“Honey, I’m driving to Coast Hardware for something. I don’t know what but I just want to go.”
Unfortunately, it’s not Laguna residents who are creating the suffocating traffic that has bottlenecked the city – again. It’s the interlopers, the nosebaggers, the commuters, the day-trippers.
You can just tell.
Plus, the studies have shown – all 487 of them over the last 52 years – that Laguna traffic is not our own.
One recent study by Caltrans, the Project Study Report, a 654-page document that was years in the making, proved it.
Of the roughly 36,000 cars that drive through Laguna Canyon Road, for example, only 40% of the drivers actually live in Laguna.
In other words, 60% of all the traffic in Laguna Canyon is pass-through traffic and does not stop in Laguna Beach. For Coast Highway, the estimates are 85% or more.
What those transient cars do, however, is gridlock every intersection, block pedestrian foot traffic, pollute the air with legacy gas cars, loud motorcycles and showboating Newport supercars. And if that is not enough, drivers don’t pay attention and periodically run into people.
More accidents are caused by out-of-towners than locals.
And it’s only going to get worse under the current conditions. More people are moving into Southern California, with Irvine leading the pack. Riverside, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Chino Hills are all growth hotspots.
And they all love Laguna.
It’s disheartening how impossible it is to get around town — and it’s not even summer. But it should not be a surprise. Not enough has been done over the years to help the traffic volume, improve traffic calming or create safer roads.
Every day is turning into a summer day in Laguna Beach.
But not in a good way.
