Transportation and Mobility Department: Critical Infrastructure and Services and Essential Government Functions.

Santa Monica’s economy depends on a functioning transportation network that safely moves people, goods and services. Current proposed budget cuts will be destructive to transportation work, will disable basic functions, and slow our safe recovery from this pandemic. Transportation staff and systems perform vital functions that literally keep our community running safely.  These cuts will damage safety and the very fabric of services and programs that we depend on living in The City of Santa Monica.

Our City Council will meet to review the cuts on May 5. Your help is needed immediately to stop these devastating cuts that will negatively affect our quality of life, jeopardize safety, and delay economic recovery.

Please join us and share your support with Santa Monica City Council. Information, email addresses and template can be found HERE.

Transportation is needed right now to:

  • Facilitate physical distancing at entries to essential services on narrow sidewalks
  • Maintain traffic signal systems to ensure quick emergency response times
  • Assist businesses to reopen and problem-solve new issues
  • Expedite plan review and street permits to facilitate economic recovery
  • As we emerge from home, heading back to work and stores, to define wider sidewalks queuing areas and other temporary measures to keep ourselves and our families safe
  • Create slow zones to give people more space to move outside while maintaining physical distance
  • Implement parking solutions for people who are driving to local businesses
  • Install loading zones for all the delivery services we’re so heavily relying on these days
  • Identify ways to move people with at least a short term reduction in transit ridership
  • Help us maintain the improved air quality that has been a silver lining of this pandemic
  • Evaluate ways to raise new revenues to expedite recovery with a foundation in equity that supports local businesses

When transportation staff do their jobs right, nobody notices. But there is constant work to keep our city flowing safely. Read on for more details about the vital services the Transportation and Mobility Division continues to provide on a daily basis, even now during the crisis:

  • Maintains and continuously adjusts 200 traffic signals to move commuters, buses, first responders, delivery trucks, bikes, and everyone else to keep Santa Monica vital and facilitate commerce.
  • Maintains the City’s parking meter system which generates $16.4 million per year—vital revenue at a time of recovery.
  • Collaborates with the community to design safe streets that safely accommodate all modes and facilitate access for critical first responders.
  • Reviews blueprints for new buildings and remodels to ensure that parking, driveways, loading zones, pedestrian access and bike racks are designed for safety and convenience.
  • Mitigates construction quality of life impacts by reviewing Construction Mitigation Plans and issues Oversize Load Permits to ensure heavy equipment, like cranes and concrete pumps, travel safely and stay out of our residential areas.
  • Monitors construction to ensure contractors are not closing streets, sidewalks, and bike lanes without City review for safety and access.
  • Facilitates safety of all roadway users including cars, people, buses, delivery trucks, Rideshare -Uber/Lyft, bikes and scooters during construction by issuing 500 Temporary Traffic Control Plans in 2019.
  • Works with local employers to promote carpooling and transit, eliminating 6,000 car trips per day, giving relief to residents on our congested streets.
  • Implements preferential parking zones to protect parking spaces for residents and their guests.
  • Sustained capture of $2 million grant funds annually for 10 years to sync traffic signals, build miles of green bike lanes, support Safe Routes to School, pedestrian safety, Breeze bikeshare, to name just a few.
  • Manages the scooter program and created 105 scooter parking zones to reign in lawless scooter parking.
  • Evaluates our most dangerous intersections to identify life-saving safety enhancements.
  • Educates hundreds of students per year to ride bikes and be safe pedestrians through our Safe Routes to School program.