Caltrans Deals with Another Malibu Sign Snafu: PCH Zone Is Still 50

• Trancas Area Not Slowed to 45

BY HANS LAETZ

Caltrans officials say they really didn’t mean to knock five miles an hour off the speed limit on Pacific Coast Highway at Trancas this summer, and Monday announced plans to remove a new “Speed Limit 45” sign on the southeast-bound road.
“We apologize if there was any confusion,” said spokesperson Jeanne Bonfilio Monday. “We’ll have someone out there this afternoon to assess it, and replace it with the right sign.”
The impromptu lowering of the posted speed on southbound PCH past Zuma Beach went unnoticed by government officials for three weeks, and was to be corrected within hours after a Malibu Surfside News reporter called the Caltrans media office in Los Angeles to inquire if it was a mistake.
Traffic Sgt. Philip Brooks at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said he was unaware of the change, and did not think motorists have been ticketed for going 50 in a 50 zone that is posted at 45.
The PCH confusion comes in the same summer that county road workers posted different speed limits in either direction on two adjacent chunks of Kanan-Dume Road. That snafu was ironed out when the speed limit on all of the roads from the city limits to Mulholland Highway was raised from 50 to 55 mph.
Speed limits on state Highway 1 have been unchanged for at least a decade, Bonfilio said, and longtime residents said they could not recall them ever being different than 45 east of Malibu Canyon Road, 55 west of Trancas Canyon Road, and 50 in the middle.
“The speed limits on Highway 1 remain the same,” Bonfilio said Monday.