Summer beach traffic a hot issue

Andrew Glazer

NEWPORT BEACH -- Only the patient or artfully clever make it to the

beaches here on summer weekends.

Clogged streets approaching the beach deter thousands of landlocked beach

lovers from coming here.

Locals, however, have dealt with the crush often enough, to the point

where they have developed a certain amount of guile. The key to

surviving, they say, is to out-think the crowds.

Sara Garcia, manager at Pizza Hut on 17th Street in Costa Mesa, says her

drivers know better than to get stuck on major thoroughfares during peak

hours.

“They use the side streets,” Garcia said. “They stay away from the major

streets.”

Balboa Peninsula resident Gay Wassall-Kelly says she’s analyzed the

traffic problem in considerable detail as she has sat in lines of

slow-moving cars trying to head down to the peninsula from Newport

Boulevard.

“The peninsula becomes a definite bottleneck up after the pier,” she

said.

Fortunately, there are alternatives. Wassall-Kelly didn’t want to reveal

too many details for fear of exposing well-kept secrets, but she was

willing to issue a tiny hint.

“There are alleys,” she whispered.

More common knowledge are side routes such as Old Newport Boulevard,

Superior Avenue and Placentia Avenue, each of which can offer some relief

to the commuter crunch of Newport Boulevard.

For the out-of-towners who aren’t aware of these options, though, just

getting around town can be a major hassle.

“Sometimes you shouldn’t even bother,” said San Bernardino beach bum Tina

Boyer, who was joined on the beach by her daughters Kristin, 3, and

Kaitlin, 1. “Memorial Day or Fourth of July -- forget about it!”

They say the stretch of Newport Boulevard from the end of the Costa Mesa

Freeway to the beach -- a 10-minute drive in the winter -- can take up to

an hour to negotiate on a warm and sunny summer Saturday. And that’s

before hunting for the elusive free parking spot.

“I park in the Carl’s Jr. parking lot,” said pink-skinned Jeremey Moore,

17, a Tustin native who was basking on the beach last Friday. “They don’t

seem to care.”

Sweden natives Monika Gronberg and Linda Markdalen, both 21, attend

Orange Coast College and are frequent beach visitors. They said they

don’t know what to expect when summer comes.

“If it takes any longer than 25 minutes, I won’t go,” Gronberg said.

Mary Francisus, 33, a Riverside housewife, said she had only one

suggestion for avoiding summertime beach traffic:

“Get there the night before and stay in a hotel.”