COAST launches pedestrian advocacy project

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Following a string of pedestrian-related traffic accidents last fall, officials with the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) have announced the launch of Walk Santa Barbara, an advocacy program for pedestrian improvements on the South Coast.
Project organizers hope to decrease the number of pedestrian injuries and deaths by building political support for safety improvements along routes to schools, senior centers, parks and community centers.

Dennis Jaffe, a public affairs and transportation advocate for 25 years recently hired by COAST, will serve as director of the project.
Eva Inbar, vice president of COAST, said a grant from the Montecito-based Green Park Foundation — which previously supported efforts to build a footpath along San Ysidro Road south of Montecito Union School — is making Walk Santa Barbara possible.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time, but I haven’t had the funding for it,” Inbar said. “[The grant] has enabled us to hire Dennis Jaffe, who is great and has so much experience.”
Jaffe recently arrived in Santa Barbara from Washington, D.C., she said, and will start researching the current network of pedestrian paths and identifying dangerous areas.
“Each of us can make a positive difference just by speaking up about needed improvements in street lighting, sidewalk access, or intersection design,” Jaffe said in a prepared statement. “Of course it’s government’s job to fulfill those needs. But our job as citizens is to assert what’s important to us.”
Inbar said two particularly severe pedestrian accidents spurred her to move forward with her vision of a pedestrian-safe Santa Barbara.
The first involved three family members hit in the crosswalk at State and Carrillo streets on Sept. 30, 2007. A 54-year-old woman and her 18-year-old son suffered serious and moderate injuries, and were released from the hospital within a week. Her 14-year-old son sustained severe injuries and remained in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for several weeks before being transferred to UCLA Medical Center, hospital officials said.
Although Inbar acknowledged that a woman allegedly running a red light caused the accident, she said that merely points out issues with enforcement.
“Why are we getting so little traffic enforcement in this city?” she said. “That is a priority issue and that is something we will be dealing with.”
The second incident involved a 23-year-old local woman hit and killed on Cliff Drive while walking home from the Brewhouse on Oct. 5, 2007. Inbar described the sidewalk along that stretch of roadway as less than 5 feet wide.
“It is just very, very narrow and the kids that walk to school to McKinley [Elementary School] are not allowed to use that sidewalk because it is so narrow and dangerous,” she said.
Other pedestrian and bicyclist accidents have simply affirmed her belief that local streets need improved traffic design and enforcement, she said. Her vision of Walk Santa Barbara is a program that will advocate for those who are too busy to deal with bureaucracies such as Caltrans or the City of Santa Barbara.
“The time is right,” Inbar said. “People are realizing that this is important to do.”
Although the project is still in its infancy, she said she already has several improvements in mind and plans to start the public advocacy arm of the program as soon as possible. She urged the public to visit www.coast-santabarbara.org to learn more or get involved.