Article here: https://santamonicanext.org/2025/12/new-state-law-brings-safer-streets-within-reach-for-santa-monica/
According to the state's most recent publicly-available data, Santa Monica is currently ranked third-worst for pedestrian safety among similarly-sized California cities: https://www.ots.ca.gov/rankings/santa-monica-2023/.
As a complement to more and better lifesaving infrastructure, we also desperately need more traffic enforcement. Juan outlines how state law can get us there. It would be great to see Santa Monica being a trailblazer!
I can bet money that if Santa Monica puts red light cameras, only for Santa Monica Blvd, the city will no longer be bankrupt
Hell pick any random intersection in Santa Monica and it’d do fine
Add some cameras to a PCH pedestrian overpass bridge and we'll be able to float any project the City wants to pursue for the next 12 years.
It would definitely improve traffic safety if there were consequences for people's actions and hit and run or dangerous drivers could be identified with cameras.
I personally always wish for more scrambles, traffic lights along our major boulevards, etc. though as well. Red light cameras are great but when there aren't red lights to stop at, people speed because there's literally nothing stopping them for blocks and blocks. We also need a lot of the existing crossings to have longer cross times so pedestrians don't have to run to cross the street safely.
Do a pedestrian crossing sting on Ocean north of Montana on Friday and Saturday late afternoon/early evening. Increase pedestrian safety AND city coffers. Win-win.
Hopefully the new police chief increases traffic stops.
I feel like there’s a lot of low hanging fruit that would make SaMo streets safer for pedestrians: installing warning lights for crosswalks with pedestrian density, especially on heavily trafficked streets like Wilshire and Santa Monica, turning 2 way stop intersections into 4 way stops where there have been pedestrian accidents (like they did at 19th and California), more protected bike lanes for bikers, scooters, etc. And yes also greater traffic enforcement
Exactly, there are tons of things that could be done, its just that the city doesn't give a crap and does the bare minimum. Hopefully they will wake up and start prioritizing the safety of the citizens one day.
Seems like traffic stops are off 90% from 10 years ago. Is this really about “equity“?
Terrific article. I’d like to see better lighting of crosswalks. Been reading about focused LED fixtures that illuminate pedestrians vertically as well as the current top lighting.
The red light and stop sign cameras would be amazing. Without consequences, few people will change their bad habits.
Remember spending all that money on pico, just to see zero improvement…
All those projects are just scams to make the politicians richer. They make fake construction projects and keep 90% of it as a kickback (corruption). It is up to us the citizens to call them out and put pressure on them to actually use our tax money for things that improve safety, instead of for projects that just make their donors and shell companies richer.
Why is Santa Monica waiting on a new state law before fixing their road design?
What’s stopping Santa Monica from fixing its own roads itself?
It’s pretty simple: just copy/paste the new Broadway design.
Money?
Painting lines on a road costs too much for Santa Monica?
because their lowest priority is the safety of the citizens. They want to do as little as possible, while taking all our tax dollars for corruption. It is the same with every government in human history. Its up to us to pressure them into actually doing things for our safety. Discussions like these are very important stepping stones to getting people informed and active in the pursuit of making our city leaders actually do the things that we pay taxes for (make the city safe and clean)
I know one. SB 79
The article says that the cameras will be placed at some intersections to automatically ticket people that run stop signs and red lights. I think this will be a great start, however, I hope they are put at every intersection, and also can ticket people based on speed, and maybe even engine volume (someday). Hopefully the city makes a lot of money off this and then adds more of them. Although a lot of people might oppose these cameras, it is worth it to create a safe city for everyone. The people opposing this are likely the ones that drive aggressively and contribute to the danger. Let's push the city to add them to every intersection eventually and have speed sensors as well.
How about instead of adding more traffic lights you remove homeless people