Thursday November 12, 2015, The City of Malibu held a community meeting at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School concerning all traffic issues in the Point Dume area. Among those in attendance representing the City of Malibu included Mayor Laura Rosenthal, council member Skylar Peak, and City manager Jim Thorsen. Also in attendance were representatives from the Sherriff’s Department and the Fire Department.
The purpose of this meeting was to address some of the growing traffic concerns in the Point Dume community and get some feedback from actual community members so the City can better understand the issues. Their eventual goal is to come back with a traffic plan to meet as many concerns as they can.
The meeting kicked off at 6:30PM with a brief PowerPoint presentation from Public Works Superintendent Arthur Aladjadjian about some possible solutions to these problems. This presentation also included information about speed studies that the city did on different streets in the Point Dume area.
(The City has not yet put that information online however we will update this article with the link when it is up.)
When it came time for The City to hear from the community, there was no hesitation from those who attended to voice their concerns. Amongst the most popular concerns included speeding, parking, speed humps, street signs, and walkways.
Speeding was by far the most discussed issue. Everyone in attendance agreed that this is a big problem on Point Dume and something has to be done about it. Two streets that were of particular concern were Dume Drive and Fernhill. One resident on Fernhill even went as far as to purchase his own radar gun and conduct his own study on average speed on his street. Needless to say he concluded that people on average were speeding.
When the it came time to talk about what should be done about speeding, residents were not so agreeable. The most discussed solution to this problem was the implementation of speed humps on the most abused streets. The major proponents of humps claimed that this is the most effective way of slowing down cars. They claimed that people will not slow down unless there is physically something in their way. Proponents cited Zumirez Drive as their example where there are already speed humps implemented. Residents of this street confirmed that the humps on their street have calmed traffic.
The major argument against the speed humps is the response time from emergency vehicles. People, including the Chief of the Fire Dept., stressed the importance of every second in an emergency situation. He and other residents claimed that the speed humps could be the difference between life or death in some cases.
Other proposed solutions included more law enforcement, more speed limit signs, and street radar detectors.
The second most discussed issue of the evening was street parking. Residents are not happy that there is little road space when people are parked on the street claiming there is little to no room to maneuver through the road. One area specifically mentioned numerous times was the intersection of Grasswood and Cliffside. Another concern with street parking is some streets allow it and some do not. Those who spoke felt that the parking burden should be felt by all residents or none.
The meeting went on just over two hours or so. The major take away from this meeting is that although everyone is in agreement there are traffic issues, not everyone one can agree on what the solutions are (which seems to be pretty typical of every town meeting).
The City plans to take all the recommendations and concerns from the residents and come back with a traffic plan to try to satisfy as many of the issues as they can in what they feel is the most effective way.
Update 2/22/16: The second Point Dume Traffic Meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 23rd at 6:30pm at the Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School (same location as last time). For full information click here.
Ryan Sarmiento – Social Media & Content Manager
Ryan@allthingsmalibu.com
Like on Facebook and follow on Instagram and Twitter!
