City Council, Residents Discuss Traffic Issues With Antonovich

and Los Robles Avenue traffic were among the top issues discussed at a at last Wednesday morning.

The breakfast meeting was open to the public and a handful of residents showed up--mostly Los Robles Avenue residents who urged Antonovich to consider ways to discourage so many cars from traveling on their street.

Until the 710 freeway is extended through the surrounding areas, residents are concerned about the heavy traffic down the street and how it affects their safety and home values.

"I'm desperately worried about being an alternate route for traffic," said Judy O' Keefe, who has lived on Los Robles and Winthrop for 43 years. "I don't want to lose the classification of being a residential street." 

Another Los Robles resident mentioned a car-counting study she had performed by Wiltech Engineering that found that over 18,000 cars travel down Los Robles every day, about 5,000 more cars than the population of San Marino.

"Eighteen-thousand cars on a street is unacceptable," said the resident, who did not want her name published. "It's done nothing but go up. It's funneling all the people from Alhambra."

The Wiltech study differs from a City of San Marino study conducted the week of January 23 that found about 14,000 cars per day travel down Los Robles.

Possible Traffic Solutions

Los Robles residents shared possible ways to decrease Los Robles traffic flow, such as having drivers travel on Fair Oaks Avenue or Garfield Avenue, allowing left turns at the Huntington Drive and Atlantic Boulevard intersection and putting stop signs or speed bumps on Los Robles.

San Marino Vice Mayor Richard Ward said that the long-term Los Robles traffic solution is completion of the 710 freeway.

"The 710 [freeway extension] is years away," resident Stephanie Johnson later said. "What can be done now? It's very dangerous. ... Flow can be controlled by signal timing in Alhambra. Some solutions are outside the City."

Los Angeles County employees at Wednesday's meeting said it is "very difficult to restrict traffic from moving on the street" and the County can't mandate Alhambra to do something, but San Marino City Manager Matt Ballantyne said the City is in talks with Alhambra.

"We have to study 710 alternatives environmentally but can't study everything," said Michael Cano, Deputy Supervisor of Transportation, Infrastructure and Freight Policy for Los Angeles County.

Residents also made mention of a letter that San Marino City Manager Matt Ballantyne had sent to Antonovich's office about the issue.

Check back on Patch for more about the City's letter to Antonovich and stances on Los Robles traffic.

Do you think Los Robles in San Marino has too much traffic? What do you think would help ease traffic on Los Robles?