Tag Archives: Traffic

One Way Lighthouse Ave Is Not My Way

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Lighthouse Ave Traffic

Ever get the feeling that these traffic experts ride the bus all the time? Kind of like having priests counsel on marriage. Dedicating traffic lanes to buses will not reduce anything when no one rides them. Take out some sidewalks that are always empty to make more room on the narrow avenue or make the buses use Foam or Hawthorne. Or make Holman Highway 4 lanes all the way.

Making Lighthouse Avenue one-way through New Monterey remains the preferred model for easing vehicle traffic on the crowded city street, improving safety and making it more bus and pedestrian friendly, according to city planners.

Monterey traffic engineer Rich Deal, senior planner Kimberly Cole and principal planner Elizabeth Caraker met residents and business owners Wednesday to hear their comments on the proposed Lighthouse Area Specific Plan. Another workshop is at 5p.m. Nov. 30 at the city’s Hilltop Park Center.

The one-way model, Deal said, would allow improved traffic flow toward Monterey and could include a dedicated bus lane that would speed up bus service by reducing the time needed for curbside stops.

One Way Lighthouse Ave Is Not My Way

Trolleys Will Send The Tourists On A Ride

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Our taxes at work, for the right reason? We are in your town, filling your inadequate sewers.
Trolley Riders

The MST Trolley – Pacific Grove will operate daily Thursday, Aug. 12 through Sunday, Aug. 22, departing every 30 minutes between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and stopping at destinations including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Lovers Point and numerous stops throughout the downtown area for shopping and dining.

The scenic route will include a tour of the bay along Ocean View Boulevard from Hopkins Marine Station to Point Pinos. On-board narration provided by the Monterey Bay Aquarium will provide passengers with information on the city’s history and points of interest.

Trolleys Will Send The Tourists On A Ride

May Is Crosswalk Awareness Month In P.G.

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The City Council will consider the approval of a Resolution naming the month of May 2008 as “Pedestrian Safety Month” as part of the Pacific Grove Police Department’s ongoing efforts to promote pedestrian safety throughout the City.
Reference: Police Chief Engles
Recommended Action: Adopt the Resolution

Sometimes hard to see people crossing the street downtown, but please do try and look.

Even harder to see the pedestrians (or the pedestrians see cars) at Fountain & Lighthouse when delivery trucks block the crosswalk because someone that drives a gold Chevy pickup (presumably an employee of Victorian Corner) uses the “Loading Zone” as a personal all-day parking place.

Crosswalk Awareness Month Vc

All the time . .

Crosswalk Awareness Month Vc2

May Is Crosswalk Awareness Month In P.G.

Mayor Cort Wants To Transform Lighthouse Avenue Into A No Car Zone

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If the gas prices keeping tourists away don’t kill downtown this will. If I need to leave the car down or up the hill to go to the bank or hardware store, forget it. I’ll just keep driving all the way to Sand City.

Cort floated an idea that came out of the city’s Economic Advisory Committee. Pacific Grove could close several blocks of Lighthouse Avenue to cars, he said, creating the first “pedestrianized” downtown on the Peninsula.

Murmurs grew until the room was buzzing like a poked beehive. The noise drowned out the mayor’s subsequent comments on water storage and solar roofs.
But City Councilman Alan Cohen, who also sits on the committee and owns Lighthouse Business Center, is skeptical. He worries that commercial rents on Lighthouse – which are already at a premium – could be affected. And he doesn’t like the notion of customers walking several blocks to go shopping, then schlepping their packages back to their cars. “It would close off traffic on a street that brings a lot of people to town,” he says.

Rough estimate of the planned no car zones:

Ban Cars Downtown

Mayor Cort Wants To Transform Lighthouse Avenue Into A No Car Zone

Traffic! Open Up The Presidio?

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I always thought that the Presidio would be a better site for CSUMB and Fort Ord would be better for the Defense Language Institute.

Fred N. Nielson writes:

One solution would be to move some of the functions to Fort Ord, but such an expensive option shouldn’t be necessary. There are military bases all over the world with civilian roads running through them. A number of roads through DLI could effectively serve the same purpose.

A cursory study of the map reveals that Corporal Ewing Road and Artillery Street could be opened to civilian traffic without damaging the Presidio’s integrity. Lawton and Rifle Range roads could also serve as easily protected routes through the Presidio. Just opening two routes through the Presidio would increase traffic flow by nearly double.

There are solutions to this problem. New roadblocks, literal or otherwise, are not helpful. Let’s help our merchant friends in New Monterey and Pacific Grove. Contact your local officials and voice your concern.

Traffic on the high road
68 At Chomp

Traffic on the low road
Lighthouse Ave Traffic

Traffic! Open Up The Presidio?

The Last Naked Intersection Succumbs

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A new stoplight is planned for New Monterey, aimed at improving safety for pedestrian and bicycle crossings at Lighthouse and avenues. Construction of the traffic signal is expected to begin today.

Lighthosue Ave At Mcclellan

There you have it. Now, every intersection on Lighthouse Avenue in New Monterey has a stoplight. What next? How about a signal at Giannis Pizza, Longs Drugs, the surf shop, and when that’s done move toward the same on Foam street and then Hawthorne.

Here is it.
McClellan Stoplight

The Last Naked Intersection Succumbs

Traffic Solutions Sought

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Lighthouse Ave Traffic

The third project — and likely to be the most contentious — will tackle traffic problems on Lighthouse Avenue, a burgeoning business district where many shopkeepers want more convenient parking and clean, attractive sidewalks.

Deal said the city has explored three options for this stretch of Lighthouse Avenue: do nothing; reinstate left-hand turns and make parallel Hawthorne Avenue a one-way street eastbound; or make Lighthouse a one-way street eastbound with a bus-only lane.

The latter two projects would cost from $2.5 million to $5 million.

The best thing that happend was when Foam Street went one way. Face it, residents of Hawthorne – that’s the best thing to do there too.

Then take out half of the curbside parking, reduce some sidewalks and buy up vacant lots and vacant properties for parking off street. Look at Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz as a model.

Traffic Solutions Sought

Widen Holman Highway?

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Several residents of Crest Road, a Pebble Beach street that runs parallel to Holman Highway, said noise from the highway is already disruptive. Building two more highway lanes will create more noise. Some residents said a sound wall should be part of the project.

David Dilworth, a Pacific Grove environmental activist, also said other alternatives need to be explored. “Pacific Grove is essentially an island,” Dilworth said. “You are only dealing with what one lane is doing.”

68 At Chomp

On one hand we have the Chamber of Commerce begging people to come to PG and shop, and on the other we have the gadfly “environmental activist” that will make you sit in traffic jams, breathing excess exhaust.

One: It’s only to the most busy part of the road – CHOMP.
Two: The Pebble Beach residents bought homes NEXT TO A STATE HIGHWAY. To expect tranquility there is just stupid.

Widen Holman Highway?