Candidates' positions are categorized as Pro (Yes), Con (No), Not Clearly Pro or Con, or None Found. Candidates who have changed their positions are listed as Now their most recent position.
Does City Hall Have a Good Plan to Improve Traffic?
"Although City Hall has taken many steps with regard to transportation management, more must be done to alleviate traffic during peak hours. Ordinance 1604 provides a relatively comprehensive approach to traffic reduction but more programs that fit the scope of this policy can definitely be implemented to assist in the process. For instance, additional incentives could be provided to employers that stagger their hours of operation and/or employee shifts in an effort to ensure ease of access for both Santa Monica residents and non-resident employees. Also, continued investments in public transportation and local infrastructure are necessary to exceed the consistently increasing demand on existing thruways. In addition to this, I would recommend targeted development that focuses on workforce housing in an effort to mitigate traffic conditions during peak hours. Regardless of the method, a creative approach that allows for future development and strengthens the partnership between local business interests and the city is necessary in order to accommodate both competing interests." Oct. 1, 2014 Nick Boles
"No. We have chosen to add more traffic instead of relieving it. Adding more people to our mix adds to traffic. Traffic calming has led to traffic snarling instead, adding more pollution and anger. Our traffic engineers experiment on us. Our traffic police desert us every afternoon to work near areas with tourists, and residents are stuck-trapped in our own city with no recourse.
Let's use common sense in designing our traffic patterns. Let's use our traffic officers to 'go with the flow' on Olympic, Pico and Ocean Park Blvd every afternoon. Let's not build more office space and let's not hear of more 'Hines-type' developments that would add 7,000 more car trips to our streets each day. Let's work on traffic solutions that don’t force people to drive in endless loops seeking parking. Let's make our streets friendly for autos, bikes and pedestrians. Let's create a superior public transportation system with bus benches instead of stupid bus stools. It can be done. It must be done." Oct. 1, 2014 Phil Brock
"The City's current jobs-heavy jobs/housing imbalance is a result of poor planning by the City Council in the 1980s; is what leads to major commute problems, including why the I-10 is backed up to the 405 in the morning, and the City's east side is impassable in the afternoon.
To redress these past planning sins – and to reduce pollution, congestion and address climate change - I support positive alternatives to the automobile like bus, light rail, bikes and increased pedestrian-orientation. But such approaches cannot solve the problem alone.
We must also pursue a traffic demand-reduction strategy, by minimizing the need to drive by meeting local needs locally - by promoting community-serving affordable retail, neighborhood-based local markets and community gardens; housing policies that enable people to live closer to work and along public transit/bike corridors; more local parks and open space we can walk to; and local hiring and living wage jobs.
Outside our borders, I support the 'Subway to the Sea' extension to Santa Monica on Wilshire Bl. and enhanced public transit down Lincoln Bl. and Sepulveda Bl. to LAX and the South Bay. I'm endorsed by LA City Councilmember Mike Bonin, in whose districts these would be partially located." Oct. 1, 2014 Michael Feinstein
"Some elements of the City's plans are good, such as the use of Traffic Demand Management (TDM) programs, and through the Big Blue Bus’s agreement with Santa Monica College many more students have switched to transit. Nonetheless, the City needs to use the BBB to create real alternatives for the many who commute to jobs here by car from all over the region. The BBB needs to develop express, 'point-to-point' bus routes that connect our job centers directly with the areas in the region where commuters live. These services, modeled after the private bus services used by high-tech companies in the Bay Area, can use the new HOV lanes on the 405 and other freeways. We also need to encourage bike programs and better bus routes to our public schools so students will be able to bike or take the bus to school, further reducing traffic." Oct. 1, 2014 Frank Gruber
"Previous city councils have simply approved too much commercial office development that generates major traffic, very little city revenue and few local jobs. Now we need to limit commercial development significantly and facilitate moderate density affordable residential development in mixed-use configuration near transit services. We also must require that new residential development aggressively market its units to the existing Santa Monica workforce and put real financial penalties into our transportation demand management program for employers in the city.
Then we need to provide enhanced transit service as well as model bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure as alternatives to driving. The Exposition light rail line is crucial to this effort. So is the enhancing the level of service and maintaining the affordability of the Big Blue Bus.
We must have strong first mile last mile access, strong bicycle and pedestrian access to transit, and a commitment to operate a shuttle system linking these transit systems to our neighborhoods, and integrate bike sharing and car sharing at key transit station areas. These objectives will all probably be good candidates for use of California cap and trade funds." Oct. 1, 2014 Sue Himmelrich
"As a member of the Planning Commission for the past four years, I have voted to improve circulation to reduce traffic congestion in development proposals, and to strengthen Santa Monica’s strong Transportation Demand Management ordinance in our new zoning code to implement LUCE policies to reduce vehicle trips and emissions. City Hall has a good plan but it must be improved upon and adapted to current and future conditions. To reach the goal of 'no new net PM car trips' in Santa Monica we must ensure that developers participate in a Transportation Management Organization, reduce the amount of car trips before they start, and carefully manage the amount of parking that is built or shared. We need to improve TDM plans to make them more aggressive, and include stronger fines and increase monitoring. Building truly affordable housing units along Santa Monica's transit rich corridors for people who work here will help alleviate the commuter traffic that currently clogs our streets." Oct. 1, 2014 Jennifer Kennedy
"City Hall continues to approve millions of square footage for developments with little or no compensation in mind for the community." Oct. 1, 2014 Terence Later
"No one has a good plan to improve traffic! One thing I know for certain is that we can't build our way out of gridlock — but even if we were to stop building right now and for years to come, traffic still would get worse, not better.
That doesn't mean we are without options. First and foremost, we must do no further harm. I am, have been, and will be a champion of thoughtful slow growth, taking into account the cumulative effects of development, including traffic, not being fooled by individual project promises.
Commercial development generates three times the traffic of housing, and we are a community with a demonstrable housing shortage already. Creating housing provides workers in local jobs an option not to drive in and out of Santa Monica, through our neighborhoods, every workday.
New development can be designed to avoid making things worse, but only a long-term transition to more mass transit in Southern California as a region will truly 'improve' traffic. Meanwhile, we need to slow down, pick the very best projects from what developers offer, and make sure those few best projects fulfill their promises and deliver tangible benefits to the people who live here." Oct. 1, 2014 Kevin McKeown
"Town Hall has clearly given up on tackling traffic. Their slogan of no new net trips became no new net trips at PM. Neither is likely in a city that hasn't yet instituted a Transport Demand Management organization despite multiple DA's demanding them. The Big Blue Bus doesn't connect with the proposed train properly nor serve neighborhood residents to get them using buses. We haven't pushed commercial or retail interests hard enough to cut back employee driving. We haven't incentivized parent to cut back their trips to school. We are clearly just watching the gridlock." Oct. 1, 2014 Richard McKinnon
"The plan has to keep cars out of downtown as possible and to keep cars at the edges of the city, rather than coming at the center of the city. The bicycle lanes are not properly maintained and it prevents people from utilizing and maximizing this method of transportation. The police are not protecting cyclists which increases the fear of using bicycles and promotes lack of trust and safety." Oct. 1, 2014 Zoë Muntaner
"The question is about improving mobility and the City is working on multiple fronts from the summer 'Go with the flow' program to manage traffic, to developing more bike lanes and bike parking. Soon Expo Light Rail will be operating and bike-share and car-sharing is coming online. Other important components are the Big Blue Bus system that will soon have real-time arrival information available and the new Pedestrian Action Plan. The Big Blue Bus is also working on ways to best connect residents, employees, and visitors to and from the new Expo Light Rail stations upon their opening. Using technology and information to provide travel options will help improve mobility. And new innovations such as using smart technology to connect residents with circulator type buses in real time are on the horizon." Oct. 1, 2014 Pam O'Connor
