Observations, understandings and comments after a week of driving around Arcadia and listening and asking questions at multiple presentations and meetings:

• Congratulations to Westfield for finally adding the electronic Car Count system to the parking garage at the Santa Anita mall, which they began advertising as “coming soon” last October just before the November 2006 election they created to force the proposed Shops at Santa Anita development to allow non-Arcadians to park for free. The new Car Count system which displays the constantly-changing number of available parking spots on each level of the parking garage as you enter, seems to work identically well to the system Caruso Affiliated has had in place at The Grove for more than five years and will include at The Shops at Santa Anita. Since both the Car Count system and Westfield’s planned new outdoor retail expansion at the mall are being added just as Caruso’s development, which was proposed about three years ago, nears final approval, we have to assume that the threat of competition has been at least partly responsible for these improvements at Westfield’s mall, and perhaps the same even goes for the welcome additions of the new Cheesecake Factory and H&M store. As we’ve said all along, competition will prove beneficial to both developers, all patrons, and especially the city and residents of Arcadia.
• The City of Arcadia will begin work this year on the first phase of traffic light integration, the first step towards making the city’s traffic lights be coordinated by a centralized system that will ultimately help traffic flow more smoothly and respond to historic and at-the-moment traffic patterns. Although the city hopes to have the first phase completed by late 2007, city funds will come up short by more than $1 million for the funding of even this first phase. This is yet another reason that it will be important for city leaders to approve Caruso’s Shops at Santa Anita development, since Caruso has already promised to spend the money required to complete that traffic light integration system as it relates to the 20 intersections near the Santa Anita Park area, and millions more dollars to make physical traffic flow improvements at the intersections (extended and double left turn lanes, new dedicated right turn lanes, etc.).
• Sam Schwartz, the former New York City chief traffic engineer who coined the term “gridlock,” not only took the advice of Arcadia Wins! members and others who advised him during his Dec. 9 driving tour of Arcadia to return on Dec. 26 to observe traffic during the confluence of the holiday season (the 6^th heaviest shopping day of 2006) and the opening day at Santa Anita race track, he hired aircraft and photographers to record traffic from all angles and for many hours all along Huntington Drive and other streets in the area. The result: Schwartz and his associate Annie Weinstock demonstrated to numerous city groups last week the computerized micro-simulation they are creating. The animated aerial video simulation allows viewers/users to examine traffic in the entire area and analyze the patterns and timing and problem situations. Digitized vehicles can be added to simulate extra traffic projected at various intersections and how it will be affected by changes in traffic light integration systems and physical changes in the roads and intersections as proposed. Schwartz will spend the next weeks and months further developing the simulation on behalf of Caruso Affiliated and, after making final recommendations for the best traffic flow improvements, will donate the computer program system to the city of Arcadia to use for any future research and analysis desired. Schwartz is communicating with city officials and asking for input from Arcadians about problems traffic areas and situations in that vicinity. Feel free to e-mail your comments to us here at Arcadia Wins! – info@arcadiawins.org – and we will get your comments to Schwartz. Or you may e-mail your comments directly to Schwartz’s consulting firm via Weinstock at aweinstock@samschwartz.com.
• In response to questions about growing traffic surrounding every Arcadia school each morning and afternoon as Arcadia parents drop their children off one-by-one, it turns out that although school bus service is available, demand has been so low (parents don’t want to have kids standing at pick-up points, not enough pick-up points, price is too expensive, etc.) that it is currently only offered to four schools – Baldwin Stocker and Hugo Reid elementary schools, and Foothills and First Avenue middle schools. According to the district website (http://district.ausd.net/docs/routes.pdf), there are only a handful of pick-up locations for each route in close proximity to each other (only four each for elementary schools – just five minutes from first to last). The cost for this service is $210 per school year ($70 every three months). Schwartz suggested that Arcadians may want to take this up as a “Green Initiative” to find ways to work with parents and schools to provide incentives to increase usage of the school bus or carpools or walking, not only to reduce traffic congestion but also to reduce energy consumption. Sounds like a great idea to us. Let us know if you have any thoughts.

Scott Hettrick

Founder, Arcadia Wins!