On a car-free day you can hear the surf


By Jim Smith

The headline on last month’s Beachhead screamed “Rumors of War....” Those “rumors” are growing by the day. But many, if not most, Venetians seem unwilling to follow George Bush into the trenches. Nearly 500 of us wrote letters, sent email or called our Congressional representatives urging them to vote against giving Bush a blank check to wage war.


What’s the best way to be patriotic under these circumstances? Should we stick an American flag on our Japanese vehicle? Or perhaps we should reduce our demand for oil. A demand that seems to push the boys from Texas to more, and greater, adventures in the Middle East. This article is dedicated to the second alternative.

Venice has always been known as the one place in the Los Angeles area where people walk. But with the spread of big-ugly-box construction with enclosed garages, some residents are able to get in their cars, press a button to open their garage doors and zoom off without once seeing their neighbors.

Along with more and more unaffordable housing, come more - and bigger - cars per capita. This leads to less walking, less talking with neighbors and a reduction in the feeling of “community” for all of us. It also leads to more pollution and more traffic. It’s time to turn this around.

We can’t eliminate cars overnight. Many of us need a car to get to a job half way across L.A (Census 2000 says that 72.6 percent of us drive to work alone). But we can start thinking about the auto’s impact, and about alternatives.

Imagine how quiet it would be without cars. No engine noise outside your apartment. No car alarms going off in the middle of the night. And no subliminal hum from traffic blocks away.

But we need our cars. How else can we get around? Let’s find out. You can drive anywhere in Venice in 10 minutes or less. But wait. Keep your keys in your pocket for a minute. You can do the same on a bicycle (see chart on page 9). Walking takes a little longer, but you see more.

If you drive, but don’t walk, you miss all the oddities in a community where no two houses are the same. You miss the decorations, the plants, the bizarre and the beautiful, that make Venice – and each street – truly unique. There are many sights in Venice that can’t be seen from a car window. There are the walk streets between Ocean Front Walk and Main Street, the Canals, the walk streets – Crescent, Nowita, Marco and Amoroso – between Abbot Kinney and Lincoln. And, needless to say, it’s healthier to walk or bike than to drive. So here’s an idea: For starters, let’s walk, or bike, or skate in Venice, and drive in Los Angeles.

We shouldn’t have to wait for mass transit before we stop using our cars to get around Venice. Let’s think about alternatives before we reach for our car keys. Is this trip necessary in a two-ton vehicle, or can I get there another way?

Unfortunately, the car culture has been particularly destructive in Venice. Our city was built before automobiles were the primary source of locomotion. That’s why most of the streets are narrow. That’s why there are still artifacts of a mass transit system - the Red Car - around Venice.

Over time, we’ve lost many of the neighborhood stores within walking distance. The Safeway, at the Venice Circle, became a post office annex. Val’s Pharmacy and drug store, at Windward and Pacific, became a record store and coffee house. The Venice Department Store on Windward became, well, a succession of stores catering to tourists. We’re left with two options: a visit to a high-priced liquor store or a trip to Lincoln Blvd. This makes it more difficult, but not impossible, to do without a car. If you put a box on the back of your bike, you can carry groceries home from Ralph’s (watch out crossing Lincoln!). For smaller loads, a backpack should do nicely.

Kicking any habit is easier if you’re part of a group rather than a lone individual. That’s why 12-step programs and AA are so popular. Therefore, on the first of every month, let’s all stop driving in Venice (except for Handicapped). The Beachhead Collective joins me in proposing to the Venice community that on Nov. 1, Dec. 1, Jan. 1, etc. we abandon our cars for one day. The advantage of doing it on the first is that it’s easy to remember and it will be a different day of the week most months.

This is not a novel idea. You may have seen the small article in last month’s Beachhead about car-free day in Europe. According to the article, 1,400 cities celebrated a car-free day on Sept. 22. Let’s join the crowd. But, let’s not just abandon our cars, let’s go for walks. Let’s say hello to our neighbors. Let’s explore parts of Venice that we don’t know so well.

Let’s create a Venice Critical Mass - the group that bikes together in cities all over the world once a month <http://www.critical-mass.org>. Unless you have a better idea, let’s start our bike cruise around Venice, on the first of every month, at Windward and the Boardwalk at 5 pm. Skaters, you can do the same beginning at the skate area on the beach (near the old pavilion).

Ok, that’s one day a month, what about the rest of the time? It should be obvious to everyone that large vehicles - SUV, vans, trucks - make parking, traffic and pollution problems worse than do small cars. As seen in Doonesbury, many people are writing their own pollution tickets and placing them on SUVs <http://www.zverina.com/2001/0322.htm>. In recent months, it seems that the tide of public opinion is turning against these highway dinosaurs. The faltering economy might have something to do with it. The big auto manufacturers would rather sell us a monster car since they get a bigger profit per vehicle. Not only are they fighting California’s mandate for electric cars, they also make it impossible to buy many small cars that are popular in the rest of the world. The 60 miles-per-gallon SMART car, which was created by a joint project of Mercedes and the Swatch watch company, can park in half the space of a normal gas-guzzler.

Smaller cars are better than big cars and trucks. Electric and hybrid cars are better than fossil-fuel cars. Changing over to small, non-polluting cars is certainly worth the effort. However, individual cars will still keep us separated and building them will still place a strain on the planet’s natural resources.

Our quality of life will improve if we get rid of individual cars as much as possible. We should rely on our own physical effort - walking, biking, skating - around our community and mass transit elsewhere.

To this end, let’s put pressure on our neighborhood council and everyone else who matters to make Venice a “Walking, Biking, Skating Zone.”

Here are some of the features of the Zone:

• Signs should be posted alerting motorists to the primacy of walking, biking and skating within the zone.

• Through traffic within the zone should be discouraged. Venice has enough beach traffic without having north-south vehicular traffic roaring through residential “shortcuts.” This can be achieved by additional stop signs, speed bumps and the creation of dead-end streets. The creation of one-way streets that prevent north-south traffic, slower speed limits and more “children playing” signs would also help.

• Walking, biking and skating should be made safer. Crosswalks and signal lights that flash for pedestrians should be spread across the zone. Separate bike and/or skating lanes should be created wherever possible.

• The city should operate more parking lots outside the zone with small electric shuttle buses similar to those used at other major attractions in Southern California. Parking lots should include low or no rent for bike/skate rental franchises.

• A study should be conducted on the feasibility of closing Pacific, Speedway and cross streets to automobile traffic (except for residents) during summer months and/or weekends.

Posted: Fri - November 1, 2002 at 06:52 PM          

©