Corona Del Mar : Crosswalk Policy Makes Residents Cross

Corona del Mar residents and business owners are seeing red over a Caltrans plan to erase crosswalks on East Coast Highway during a resurfacing project next month.

“There’s a statewide policy that wherever there are unsignalized intersections and we do a resurfacing, we do not replace the crosswalks,” Caltrans spokesman Albert Miranda said.

“Unsignalized crosswalks could be a safety concern because they give pedestrians a false sense of security” where there are no signals to warn motorists to stop, he said.

Part of the Caltrans policy is not to install crosswalks and signals or flashing yellow warning lights in areas where fewer than 100 pedestrians an hour try to cross the street, Miranda said.

But Caltrans officials are looking for a loophole that might allow an exemption for Corona del Mar, Miranda said. Officials are meeting with residents and business owners, who want the crosswalks--some in place for as long as 45 years--restored. Researchers are trying to find out whether there has ever been an exemption and how one could be granted in this case.

Merchants fear the lack of crosswalks will make already difficult street crossings impossible, preventing people from patronizing their shops and restaurants.

“I don’t mind if they take out the crosswalks if they put a signal at every intersection where they take out a crosswalk,” said Luvena Hayton, longtime owner of a Coast Highway sportswear shop. “The reason they will never get 100 people to cross is because they are afraid of the speed of the traffic on the highway. They get in their cars and drive across where there is a signal.”

A sympathetic council has voted to send a letter to Caltrans seeking an exemption to the statewide policy.

Caltrans will spend $167,000 to resurface the highway from Poppy to MacArthur Boulevard, in a routine maintenance project that will start in mid-May and take about a week, Miranda said.