February 12, 2025

Dear Editor,

I found it unfortunate that “Retired Mayor” Kevin McKeown chose to engage in presumptuous and personalized squabbling to respond to my fact-based call to re-examine Santa Monica’s so-called “safer streets” policies ("LETTERS_Give Me a Break," February 10, 2025).

My opinion letter simply pointed out that the city’s own data show traffic laws are not equally enforced, our streets become less safe with that lopsided policy approach, and city leaders have failed to address key underlying factors.

Mr. McKeown’s pretentious response pronounced that I -- “poor” me, in his telling -- feel somehow “threatened” by bicycles and must be a dangerous “lead foot” driver.

The facts are that I hardly feel “threatened” by bicycles. Indeed, the data I cited confirm what common sense would dictate: in bike-auto collisions bicyclists, not motorists, often suffer serious injuries. (And deranged homeless addicts are more the threat here, Mr. Retired Mayor.)

Further, I’ve had no tickets or accidents in over 30 years.

All in all, reading McKeown’s letter brought to mind Mark Twain’s quip that he didn’t mind critics, but wished more of them would actually read the material before writing their critiques.

OK, maybe Mr. McKeown was just trying to be funny. I will confess I found it hysterical that by blindly attacking me McKeown unwittingly highlighted exactly the point I made: Santa Monica’s Political Establishment, which includes the “Retired Mayor,” is fervently prejudiced against drivers. Sadly, that prejudice leads to policies and philosophies that create preventable danger in our streets.

Or perhaps Mr. McKeown’s reaction to my fact-based view stemmed from concern that the 60 percent of Santa Monicans who commute to work by car will become fed-up with unequal enforcement policies and “retire” his Political Establishment allies right alongside him.

Lastly, I will add to the personal observations I made in my initial letter: On the very day McKeown’s letter was published, I watched a wobbly cyclist with a bare-headed toddler strapped to her bicycle illegally plow through two stop signs mere blocks from the site of serious collisions that spurred the city to install additional signs throughout the immediate area.

I hope the cyclist and child arrived at their destination safely, but couldn’t help wondering why supposedly “safe” Santa Monica openly tolerates such negligent endangerment.

Sincerely,

Peter DiChellis
Santa Monica