Santa Monica City Council explores transportation solutions

Taylor Witt / The Samohi

Clara Percuns (’26) uses the bike lane outside of Samo after school on Oct. 9

Transportation plays a significant role in students’ lives at Samo. From taking the bus to biking there are many different ways students and staff get to and from school. Through the busy roads, and the fight for parking spaces, there is a lot of stress for students to make it to school on time. A related law called the Bike Action Plan Amendment is being proposed by the city of Santa Monica to help bike riders be safer on the road, add poles to separate bike lanes from traffic, and expand the bike lanes Jasmine Talledo (25’) bikes often on the way home from volleyball practice at Samo. This form of transportation can get hectic with the number of people in the bike lanes and the amount of traffic causing accidents and overall stress.

“Bigger bike lanes would help people in the morning because there is a lot of traffic and it can get stressful when there’s a bunch of cars so improving the bike lanes can make it easier and faster,” said Talledo.

Taxis were another main discussion in the council’s meeting. The popularity of cabs has declined due to a recent shortage, as well as the uprising of Lyft and Uber. The City Council noticed this issue and is trying to turn those into short-term parking zones or bike lane blockages. This could give more accessibility for divers in pick-up zones. Getting rid of the cab zones could cause parking for Samo students and staff to become cheaper if there are more parking spaces.

Brody Wilkes (’24) the leader of the Urban Design Club shares his thoughts about the transportation matter as he said if the city decided to reduce the amount of parking, people could be forced to pay for parking as spots on the street are removed, becoming more expensive.

“To students who don’t want to pay for parking, this could result in decreased accessibility,” Wilkes said. “But for students who rely on driving, the civic center, SMMUSD office, and Belmar Fields’ parking prices changing, would probably have more of an effect on parking costs overall.¨ Due to requests to have law enforcement give more tickets for big lane infractions of people parking, bike lanes were a secondary topic of the Santa Monica City Council’s meeting on Sept. 12. They are looking to bring more electric scooters and bikes into Santa Monica to reduce the number of cars in the city. This would try to provide more accessible transportation for residents. Zinnia Weybrigh (’24), a member of the Samo student transportation task force said students need to be notified if changes were made to motivate them to switch their habits.

“Another thing the city could do is work on their public transportation, specifically buses,” Weybright said. “Either expanding bus lanes or increasing the frequency of the buses before and after school. Since, late or completely full buses prevent a lot of students from taking them.”

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