MALIBU, CA — Officials from all levels of government say they’re busy working to address urgent safety issues on Pacific Coast Highway with a number of long- and short-term solutions, including two that are coming into focus: California Highway Patrol officers and speed cameras.
State, county and city officials gathered at an emergency meeting of the PCH Taskforce on Tuesday in what was the first gathering of the body since the Oct. 17 crash on the highway that killed four Pepperdine University students.
Malibu city officials hope to deploy CHP officers to patrol the city’s 21-mile stretch of PCH beginning in January. The officers would be focused solely on traffic enforcement in the area, City Manager Steve McClary said.
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McClary is ironing out a city-funded contract with the CHP that would pay for three officers initially. Longer term, he said the city may seek to increase staffing to six officers by July 1.
The city has also provided funding for an additional Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy during each shift.
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Sen. Ben Allen said that he and Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin plan to introduce a bill to the Legislature in January that, if passed, would allow speed cameras to be deployed on PCH, similar to a program approved by the state earlier this fall.
He said they’ll attempt to get it passed through an urgency clause, which would allow the bill to be implemented immediately after its signed into law if its approved by a two-thirds vote.
“Law enforcement alone is not going to solve this problem,” Allen said.
There’s many other PCH safety ideas at various stages of development and exploration, including lowering speed limits, designating the road a safety corridor and redesigning the road to a design more fitting to its usage as Malibu’s main street.
A 2015 report identified 130 improvement projects for PCH. Of those, the city has initiated 52, with a total cost of $52.1 million. The city has identified $20 million in funding and is seeking an additional $24 million, McClary said.
Tuesday’s meeting came after the Malibu City Council the day before declared a local emergency in response to the hazardous conditions on PCH.
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