COSTA MESA : Take the High Road, Mall Urges Shoppers

For 25 years, South Coast Plaza has the been the destination for thousands of shoppers intent on navigating their cars into the vast parking lots of Orange County’s busiest mall.

On Tuesday, the mall’s owners opened a bridge--but this one is for pedestrians. Even though it spans only 600 feet across Bristol Street, officials hope it is a signal to those who work in the towering buildings on the other side of the street that it is all right to walk to shop.

“We hope this makes for a walker-friendly environment,” said Jan Roberts, director of marketing for the mall. “We hope it encourages walking.”

It certainly encouraged walkers at Tuesday’s grand opening, though most of the 500 or so people using the bridge were headed toward the complimentary lunch prepared by mall restaurateurs. But Roberts and others insist that the crowds will keep on coming.

Seventeen feet above the street, the bridge connects the mall with the Town Center complex, which includes several large office buildings and the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel.

“Let’s say (mall shoppers) want to meet in the hotel for lunch,” Roberts said. “You go over the bridge and that way you dodge all the traffic.”

Until now, office workers said, a visit to the mall meant either getting in a car and driving the quarter-mile between parking lots or braving the Bristol Street traffic as a pedestrian. Neither alternative was especially attractive, they said.

“It’s really crazy on the street. People just don’t see you coming,” said Yolanda Martinez, 24, a temporary secretary in the Imperial Bank building.

Before the bridge was built, jaywalking was the fastest, albeit most dangerous, way across Bristol Street, Martinez said.

“Now, this is easy,” she said. “I can run across here without getting onto the sidewalk or being next to cars.”

Mall officials hope others will take Martinez’s cue as pedestrians crossing Bristol only worsen the street’s already severe traffic congestion.

The bridge is colored off-white and has a series of neon-lighted patterns that resemble blades of grass blowing in the wind. A row of palm trees greets visitors on the mall side. Mall officials declined to say how much the structure cost.

“It’s very nice. Absolutely, I will use it,” said Chek Tang, 30, who works at a nearby office.

Added mall shopper Julia Lopez, who darted across Bristol Street to watch the grand opening festivities: “This is the last time I’ll ever jaywalk. . . . I don’t want any tickets.”