What is a Neighborhood Greenway?
Neighborhood greenways are low-traffic and low-speed streets where we give priority to people walking, bicycling, and rolling.
Greenways often feature traffic calming features including speed humps, car diverters, and curb extensions at crosswalks.
In Santa Monica, we built our first neighborhood greenway on Michigan avenue in 2013 but have not built any others since.
Benefits of a Greenway
- Creates safer streets where people drive slower.
- Discourages cut-through traffic keeping neighborhood streets quiet.
- Makes a nice, comfortable route for kids and families to walk or ride to schools and parks.
- Encourages people to leave their car at home, reducing traffic and pollution in the city.
Why now?
Santa Monica signed onto Vision Zero in 2016, but has not made enough progress.
There have been multiple recent crashes resulting in severe injuries and deaths on our neighborhood streets.
In California traffic deaths are the most common cause of death in children. Last year, in the Los Angeles area, deaths on our roads exceeded homicides.
We have the power to stop senseless deaths on our roads. Other cities like Santa Monica have had multiple years in a row without a single traffic death.
It is time for us to give our city council and staff a mandate to make the necessary changes to our roads to make them safe for everyone walking, biking, and driving!
What's Next?
However, in the last few years commuters to Santa Monica have begun using Washington Ave as a cut-through for vehicle traffic.
Together, we can make Washington Ave a low traffic, safe route to school, for the entire community to enjoy.
How can I help?
Join us by endorsing our plan to turn Washington Ave. into the next great neighborhood greenway!
We will keep you updated on all of our progress along the way, as we advocate to the city council for a better Washington.