(North Coast Highway 101 Streetscape)
October 11, 2018
I’m Doug Fiske. I’ve lived in Encinitas for 49 years. For 21 of those, I’ve lived west of 101 and north of Leucadia Boulevard. I worked in Carlsbad for 15 years. Highway 101 was my commute route. I’ve driven, biked and walked it thousands of times. That’s my traffic study.
This appears to be a complex issue. It actually boils down to a few simple points.
There’s an extraordinarily long light at 101 and Leucadia Boulevard. It jams southbound traffic two lanes wide up to 1.4 miles. It jams northbound traffic two lanes wide up to half a mile. Drivers spill off the freeway whenever it plugs, which is most often at commuting times and on summer Fridays and Saturdays. The southbound jams are much longer because most visitors come from the north, and it’s much easier to get to 101 from the freeway north of Leucadia Boulevard than south.
If Leucadia 101 shrinks from four to two lanes, those traffic jams will be single file. They will double in distance and time.
The project would make Leucadia 101 two lanes for 83 percent of its 2.4-mile length. It would restrict beach access and increase transit time. The project would confine east-side parking to three bays. It would prevent east-side parking everywhere else. That would reduce the parking capacity of the corridor.
The commission’s principal concerns are access to and enjoyment of the coast. The project would restrict both.
I urge the commission to deny the LCPA. If you approve it with conditions, the city will spend another year and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to meet conditions that a two-lane highway stuffed with roundabouts can’t meet.
The city has wasted 12 years and millions of dollars on a project that’s inconsistent with the Coastal Act of 1976. I urge the commission to deny the project and stop the waste.
###
