16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY March 9-15, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com rent because there is no parking or it’s tough to get to,” Sorensen says. “Lighthouse has been that way forever.” With narrow travel and parking lanes, it’s not conducive to people feeling safe getting out of and into vehicles parallel parked on the sides of the road. It’s not a street where people would want to sit and eat outside, or take leisurely strolls, with thousands of cars whizzing by. The city’s Lighthouse Specific Plan adopted in 2016 sought to improve conditions along the road, but while some improvements have been made, most of the plan has been on hold to focus on other projects, Cole says. One of the most helpful improvements—aside from prohibiting lefthand turns in early 2003—has been the installation in 2018 of cameras at intersections connected to a system that uses vehicle detection and artificial intelligence software to adjust the timing of signal lights and synchronize with other lights in real time. (The cameras are low-resolution and can’t make out details like people’s faces or license plates. They also do not record.) Monterey was one of the first cities in the U.S. to utilize the system known as SCOOT—Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique—software developed in the United Kingdom, says Public Works Director Andrea Renny. SCOOT enables traffic to proceed with few or no stops, which in turn results in reduced fuel consumption and fewer emissions, in addition to improving vehicle travel time and safety. “What we are trying to do is create these platoons of cars that move together and get away from the stopand-go, stop-and-go,” Renny says. The city has experienced an annual reduction of 20 tons of particulate matter as a result. After success on Lighthouse, the city has since installed the SCOOT system in other major traffic corridors. The system is overseen on a large monitor from Monterey City Hall in the tiny office of Engineering Assistant Marissa Garcia, who can make manual changes in case traffic spikes. SCOOT has helped improve traffic flow, but the heavy traffic on Lighthouse continues to be a challenge. As the Lighthouse plan was being created, there were five to six ideas floated—one involved three lanes of traffic flowing out of P.G. in the morning, then flipping that in the evening—but no consensus could be reached among business owners and residents. To make Lighthouse Avenue more attractive to pedestrians would require removing a lane of traffic, Cole says. That would require an alternative route for overflow traffic, something the geography of the area doesn’t allow for. Without good alternatives to transform Lighthouse Avenue from road to street, it will remain a stroad. Streets & Roads Garcia shows one of the displays of the SCOOT software system that is continuously monitoring traffic at intersections along the major traffic corridors of Monterey. DANIEL DREIFUSS UPSEASIDE.COM • (831) 899-2232 1760 FREMONT BLVD, SEASIDE UNIVERSITY PLAZA SEASIDE’S LIFESTYLE SHOPPING CENTER lynnsarcade.com Hours open: M-F 4p-12a, Sat 12p-12a, Sun 10a-10p Reserve for your party today! Attention pinheads! Join the Monterey Flipper Pinball League Meetups every Monday A great way to meet new folks, learn about pinball, and start the work week off right! Check it out at MFPinball.org Tuesday - Friday 11am-5pm | Saturday - Sunday 10am-3pm 831.717.3957 Suite C1 GenerationAve.com Monterey County’s Highest Rated Resale Shop st. john brunello cucinelli johnny was stüssy burberry dior prada supreme akris max mara mugler saint laurent jimmy choo ferragamo manolo blahnik armani stuart weitzman ulla johnson zegna altuzarra jil sander comme des garçons coach aquazzura helmut lang lafayette 148 anthropologie dr. martens bogner eileen fisher escada brooks brothers coogi frame theory free people ted baker true religion marmot kate spade vince tory burch mango levi’s frye betsey johnson rothys babette cole haan carhartt starter diesel sandro tahari reiss Open Daily for Lunch & Dinner Order Online at HarumiSeaside.Menu11.com (831) 899-9988 ONLY THE FINEST AND THE FRESHEST
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