Extra Lane Puts Coast Back in PCH : Traffic: But merchants along the stretch of highway in Hermosa Beach are not so happy with the rush-hour parking ban.

Old bottlenecks die hard.

On the first day of the new afternoon parking ban on Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, the newly cleared curbside lane was all but barren of cars. It was as if the endless stream of work-worn commuters believed the extra lane was too good to be true.

By Tuesday, however, they were getting the picture, and by Thursday, reality had set in.

“It used to take me 10 or 15 minutes to get through that stretch of Hermosa. Now I whiz right through,” exulted Rick Goss, a Xerox commuter management supervisor who lives in Redondo Beach and works in El Segundo.

“On Monday, it took me three to four minutes at most. What a difference,” he said.

But merchants and apartment owners along the stretch of highway that runs through the sleepy beach town had a harsher view of the new law banning curbside parking on the street’s western side between 3 and 7 p.m. weekdays.

“This is sheer hell,” complained Wilma Goin, manager of the Villa Marina apartment complex near 21st Street and PCH. “It’s a scary situation and the dirt is unbelievable.”

Already, Goin added, two of her tenants have given notice, citing the sudden paucity of on-street parking. “It may be faster getting down the highway,” she said, “but when my people get home, there’s no place for them to park.”

Put into effect Monday, the parking ban ended a 20-year standoff between Caltrans and city officials, who argued that ridding the highway of curbside parking even for part of the day would put local merchants out of business and create an expressway in the heart of town.

But Caltrans persisted, contending that clearing a third southbound lane would cut smog emissions, clear congestion, keep shortcutting motorists away from residential side streets and reduce accidents.

Moreover, officials warned, Caltrans had the ultimate power. If the city failed to voluntarily clear the curb lane, Caltrans could do it by fiat.

Finally, in December, the state agency issued an ultimatum to the city, which grudgingly complied. The parking ban was approved, but with the understanding that it will be re-evaluated after a year.

Dave Gilstrap, senior transportation engineer for Caltrans, said Thursday that if the first week is any indication, the third lane will be a success, at least from the commuter’s standpoint.

“It’s doing pretty good,” Gilstrap said, adding that the average speed through the city had increased from below 20 m.p.h. to 25 m.p.h. this week. The speed limit is 35 in the north end of the city and 30 in the south.

Among the agency’s goals, he said, is to prompt at least 750 motorists to stop shortcutting down residential side streets and use PCH instead.

For some merchants--those with parking lots--the change has been a painless one.

But for the salespeople at places like Dewey Weber & Sons surfboards, the loss of parking has been a catastrophe.

“Business is down. People can’t park on the side street because the people who live in apartments have all moved their cars there,” said Patti Schimmel, the office manager. “Meanwhile, the cars just whiz on by, and I mean they really cruise. The dust flies in, so that we have to keep our doors closed, and that makes matters worse, because then everybody thinks we’re not open for business.”

Gilstrap acknowledged that, over the long haul, the ban could prove detrimental to mom-and-pop businesses along PCH, which traditionally have not bothered to invest in rear parking lots because their customers could park on the street.

“I think in the long run, these storefronts crowded along the highway with street parking will disappear,” Gilstrap said. But the price of accommodating them, he added, has been increasing congestion on PCH and a notorious bottleneck at the Hermosa Beach city limits.

For example, at Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, about 16,000 of the corporation’s 40,000 employees commute nightly to homes in the South Bay, said Cheryl Paniagua, commuter services coordinator. Of those, she said, the “vast majority” live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and must creep down the highway in order to make it home.

Paniagua said the new restrictions have “definitely” improved commuting times for aerospace employees.

“It’s a smart thing for the city to do, because they obviously are not going to be able to widen the streets,” Paniagua said. “Other than the stores, I can’t see anyone not liking it.”