Santa Monica Boulevard Safety Study

Santa Monica Boulevard is a critical street that provides multimodal access to community and regional destinations such as:

  • the Santa Monica Public Library, 
  • Santa Monica Community College Performing Arts Center, 
  • McKinley Elementary School, 
  • public parks including Memorial Park, Reed Park, and Douglas Park; 
  • high density residential neighborhoods (Mid-City and Downtown Santa Monica); and 
  • large job centers such as Downtown Santa Monica, Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center, and Providence Saint John’s Health Center.


In 2022, the City adopted the Local Roadway Safety Plan (LRSP), which builds on the previous Vision Zero work launched in 2017 to eliminate fatal and severe crashes on city streets. Both of these studies identified Santa Monica Boulevard as a top priority due to the number and severity of crashes that occurred during the analysis period. From 2015 to 2019, the 2.4 mile stretch from Ocean Avenue to Centinela Avenue experienced nine severe injuries and one fatality. The Santa Monica Boulevard Safety Study will focus on identifying improvements that address crash patterns on Santa Monica Boulevard, as well as observations and experiences shared by community members through a robust community engagement process. Recommended improvements will aim to improve safety for people walking, driving, and taking transit, and serve to improve connectivity to major destinations and job centers.  Ultimately, this study will set out to achieve the following goals:

1. Gather existing conditions information to establish and understand the context of the corridor;

2. Identify targeted safety enhancements through a detailed and data-driven process;

3. Gather community feedback through robust public outreach process;

4. Encourage safe and equitable access to destinations, business, and transit along Santa Monica Boulevard;

5. Identify preferred short-term and long-term recommendations to improve safety for all users.


Community engagement will begin in Fall 2024 and include several opportunities for input including: 

  • October 31, 2024 - a Halloween evening pop-up event at the Downtown Public Library from 3-5pm
  • October 31 through November 21, 2024 - the interactive pop-up model will be displayed at the Downtown Public Library for continued engagement (full summary here) 
  • November 6, 2024 - a pop-up event at the Downtown Farmer's Market from 9am-12pm
  • December 2024 - business outreach along the corridor
  • January 31, 2025 - a tabling event at McKinley Elementary School
  • February 1, 2025 - a pop-up at Douglas Park from 10am-12pm 
  • February 22, 2025 - a community walk audit to observe how people use the street and driving behaviors (full summary here)
  • A web mapping survey from October 2024 to April 2025. Click here to see submitted community comments. 
  • May 7, 2025 - a presentation to the city's planning commission (view here)
  • June 10, 2025 - a study session and discussion with the City Council on preliminary findings
  • July 2025 - a community workshop to learn about the proposed improvements

The project team also completed a recent analysis of crashes for the last ten years, and transit performance along Santa Monica Boulevard. The full safety analysis memo can be downloaded by clicking here. 

Please sign up for our Take the Friendly Road newsletter to receive monthly updates about this, and other mobility projects by clicking here.


You can also download the project flyer below:

Project Flyer in English  |  Project Flyer in Spanish


The project will begin in Fall 2024 and conclude in the Winter of 2026. 

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