Too Crowded
| Traffic and parking at the beaches has become ridiculous, and it’s not even summer yet. As a born and raised Santa Barbarian, we are experiencing serious traffic and parking congestion issues. I wanted to go for an Arroyo Burro or “The Pit” beach walk only to find gridlock at the opening of the parking lot. So I flipped a U turn and went toward the residential area across the street only to discover that was the obvious overflow from the parking lot. Cars were flipping U turns and being super aggressive to catch an open space to park on that small street. These neighborhoods should not bear the brunt of the excess of cars and people loitering and allowing their dogs to leave their droppings behind. If this were my location, I would not be happy about this. I witnessed all this in the few minutes walking on that block to the beach area. My solution is having the shuttles or some sort of accessible mass transportation go from the Miramar or Biltmore to Arroyo Burro and back again. I recently counted 24 cars at the stoplight at Las Positas and the freeway. It’s almost backing up to the Adams school stoplight. You can’t find parking at Shoreline on the weekends either. It’s driving me to the point of anger beyond my control, and that is not how I want to spend my weekends. I’m generally a humble, relaxed, chill person, but my town has become too damn crowded with cars. Have we become car-centric Santa Barbara? I’m asking any local community people who are feeling compressed like I am to come up with some other options. We shouldn’t have to contend with all these tourists or whoever they are congesting all of what used to be a relaxing walk at our local beaches. I could go on and on about neighborhood parking, but that is a whole other conversation. Where is that Traffic Solutions program? Is it still a part of the city branch? |