Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-09
OCEAN PARK ANXIOUS
TO WIDEN SPEEDWAY
INCREASED TRAFFIC MAKES
CHANGE NEEDED
Twenty-Foot Road Today Entirely In
adequate and Difficulty Much
Enhanced by Growth of
Automobile Traffic
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
OCEAN PARK, June S.-What sew
eral of the city trustees regard as the
most needed large public improvement
of this city is the widening of the
Speedway, the one thoroughfare near
the ocean front between Venice and
Santa Monica, and President II. b.
Eakins in an interview with The Her
aid correspondent said today that he
would endeavor to have the matter
brought before the public. An issue
of bonds would be necessary, as the
widening would cost, according to his
estimate, about 100000. Some realty
experts say 1t would cost more.
1t was admittedly the greatest mis-
take in the laying out of the city that
the Speedway was made only twenty
feet wide. Its name is a misnomer,
because hanging across it are large
signs warning automobiles and other
vehicles that the speed limit Is only
eight miles an hour. A number of
serious accidents have occurred on the
Speedway because of Its narrowness.
1t is the only way for delivery wagons
and is much used by them because OF
the large number of consumers who
live between the Trolleyway and the
ocean. the Speedway being midway be-
tween and parallel to both.
town, but this is in such wretched
condition as to be dangerous. especially
where the now unused tracks OF the
Southern Pacific railroad cross IT. All
the travel, local and through. is con-
gested into the twenty-feet wide
Speedway When two teams stand OPP
posite each other, as often happens,
there is not room for any vehicle larger
than a baby carriage to get through,
and an ordinance is now being drawn
which will make it illegal for wagons
to stand thus. There Is an elbow In
the Speedway at Brooks avenue and
it is proposed to ease this for travel
by shaving enough off corners diagon-
ally opposite to make curve in the
thoroughfare, instead of sharp turn.
Several accidents have occurred at
that point
But this would not solve the larger
problem. The broad ocean front con-
crete walk, used only for pedestrians,
is more than twice as wide as the
thoroughfare for vehicles. The dan
ger is enhanced greatly by speeding
automobiles, the chauffeurs of which.
being accustomed to a fifteen-mile
limit. go wrong on the eight-mile
proposition. Several Los Angeles au-
tomobilists have been arrested at
Venice on account of this.
President Eakins proposes to widen
the speedway Dy ldhlDS d SlTlp VI idliu
thirty feet wide on the east side of the
present line of the thoroughfare all
the way from Brooks avenue, where
the elbow occurs south through Venice
and from the elbow north to Santa
Monica city limits. and a like strip
from the west side. This would leave
no elbow and there would be clear
road of adequate width the whole way
through Ocean Park. Every foot OF
land taken would cost money. but 1t
would cost less now than a year from
now, says President Eakins. and the
Improvement is absolutely Imperative.
The Speedway at present is nothing
more than a narrow pass.
For good deal of the distance
houses are now flush with the line and
would have to be demolished or moved.
Business properties. such as the Hotel
Decatur and the Ocean Park bath
house at one end of the thoroughfare
and the Hotel de Noyo at the Venice
end, would be cut into. But President
Ea<ins says some of the lots are so
shallow that the taking of ten or fif-
teen feet off them would ruin them
anyway and that amount would still
not be sufficient to make the Speedway
wide enough for the growing volume
of traffic that daily passes through 1t,
local and interurban.