‘X-Ray’ Shows Santa Monica’s Clogging Points : Traffic: Study finds that Santa Monica isn’t as badly congested as other areas but that it still may take up to $170 million to keep the city circulating by 2010.

Santa Monica’s first citywide traffic study has concluded that current conditions are better than in most other urban areas, but that as much as $170 million in roadway improvements could be needed by the year 2010 to meet future traffic circulation needs.

The 16-month, $210,000 study, prepared by Crain & Associates of Los Angeles and released this week, recommends widening a number of streets, synchronizing traffic lights and restricting rush-hour parking and left turns.

City Manager John Jalili said city staff will take several months to study the recommendations before making a list of priorities for the City Council to consider for next year’s budget.

Jalili also said the $170 million cost for improvements is for a worst-case scenario in which all development would be built to the maximum allowed under city zoning codes. He said the actual improvements would probably cost much less because zoning has recently been scaled back in some parts of the city and because many projects are built smaller than the codes allow.

For example, he said, the City Council recently approved a commercial and retail project at Santa Monica Airport for 822,000 square feet even though the building code allows a project as large as 1.4 million square feet.

Jalili said he could not estimate what the actual cost of improvements might be, but it is likely to be more than the $36 million the city estimates it will collect from developer fees and from federal, state and local sources over the next 20 years.

The balance of the money would have to come from new sources, such as new local or regional taxes, he said.

The study based its conclusions and recommendations on an assumption that in the next 20 years Santa Monica’s population will grow by 8% and the work force by 23%.

Among the conclusions of the study:

* Traffic conditions in Santa Monica as a whole are better than in most other urban areas and other parts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

* The most significant congested areas in Santa Monica are along regional highways such as Lincoln Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway and ramps on the Santa Monica Freeway.

* Outdated traffic signals decreases the efficiency of the city’s street system and increases travel time.

While the study said protecting neighborhoods from traffic intrusion is one of the city’s greatest challenges, it cautioned that doing this the wrong way could increase response times in emergencies, hinder access for residents and service vehicles and increase congestion on arterials and nearby residential streets.

The study also included a survey mailed to about 2,000 households, of which 500 responded. The survey found that of people who make regular trips to school or work, 87% travel by car and 83% drive alone. Only 2% reported using mass transit, including the Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines.

The survey also found that 32% make at least one trip a week between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Of these people, 51% indicated that they would use a light-rail system if one was available.

The study identified potential capacity problems on Pacific Coast Highway, on north-south streets in the area south of Ocean Park Boulevard and west of Santa Monica Airport, and on streets crossing the Santa Monica Freeway, particularly those with interchanges.

Among the recommendations to improve traffic on Pacific Coast Highway is to relocate the California Incline that connects the highway with Ocean Avenue so that it would feed Wilshire Boulevard rather than California Avenue. Another is to build a “flyover” that would allow southbound traffic on Pacific Coast Highway to get onto the Incline without having to stop northbound traffic.