Caltrans Insists Funding Exists for Cold Spring Bridge Project

Im all for preventing someone from the hopeless decision to kill themselves... HOWEVER... I am also for taking these funds to improve the DISMAL SAFETY MEASURES that have been, almost as an afterthought, taken to protect those of us on bicycles. A line in the road WILL NOT stop a car from smacking you into the here-after. I would LOVE to participate in riding my bike to work, but I have known 2 people so far who have been killed by passing traffic that accidentally clipped them while passing. You want to spend some money? MAKE IT COUNT FOR THOSE OF US WHO WANT TO LIVE!

The Indy reporter must have neglected to include the rest of the story about where this funding really does come from.

The CalTrans speaker said: “The funding for this project has not been pulled in any way, shape, or form. To make the claim the funding has been pulled is simply not true.”

However, the rest of the quote must be missing about where this funding really does originate. The CalTrans representative would not say that they have the funding but then not identify where the actual money comes from instead, would he?

How could that be? Obviously, the news reporter forgot to put that in this article because no agency representative ever would say that their project has the funds but not also identify the source of those funds.

That would never happen, would it?

Good question. Is CalTrans planning on Measure A funds for this project?

The 44 suicides since 1963 are actually a fraction of the problem... look at page 4, Chapter 1 of the EIR. In the past 8 years there have been 162 suicide-related law enforcement calls to the bridge, often in the middle of the night.

If you scale that number up to the 35 years since 1963, you'd estimate that about 700 suicide-related law enforcement law enforcement calls have responded to the bridge in those 35 years.

Something like 95% of the suicidal behavior attracted by the bridge is already addressed via the `human barrier' of law enforcement.

Opponents of the barrier totally neglect the 95% of the suicidal behavior, and the Indy has bought into their propaganda.

There is strong evidence that the impulsive behavior that leads to bridge suicides would actually be stopped by the barrier. Some of that evidence was recently discussed in the New York Times, and there is also the study done by Seiden of Golden Gate Bridge survivors.

The opponents of the Cold Spring Bridge have been quite implacable in pointing out small faults in the Seiden work, but they've done no study that is an improvement. Other than creating sturm and drang, they've added nothing conclusive to the debate.

sevendolphins, all of your concerns have already been stated and addressed numerous times, both on this website and elsewhere. For example:

http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=...
http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jun...
http://www.independent.com/news/2007/oct...
http://blogabarbara.blogspot.com/2007/11...
http://santabarbarasblog.com/?p=1482

Spamming multiple threads on this topic with identically worded talking points contributes nothing to the debate.

Garrett Glasgow - you bug! Get over yourself!

Well thanks Garrett. Perhaps you could imagine that from other perspectives, you and Marc Mcginnes have spammed far greater than your opponents, and that all your talking points have been resolved unfavorably to your case.

Look out, it's the dreaded "I'm rubber and you're glue" defense!

What an absolutely stunning picture of this beautiful bridge that is being threatened by Caltrans' deeply flawed and fiscally irresponsible barriers proposal.

Hats off to you, Paul Wellman!

What an eye!

What a joke this proposed project is. I can't think of a bigger waste of money. If someone want's to end their life without harming other people, let them. They probably think they are going to a better life, like most of the people in our country do for some reason. For the rest of us, use our tax dollars on something beneficial.

A point of information that may be of interest: I was curious about where the number of 162 suicide-related calls to the Cold Spring Bridge came from, so I wrote an email to the SB County Sheriff's Department.

Commander Palera responded, and told me that that number includes any call potentially related to suicide and the bridge. This includes for instance a deputy stopping to contact a pedestrian near the bridge to make sure they're not suicidal, checking the bridge because a family member called in and said someone might be suicidal and headed for the bridge, and so on.

That is, we have not actually had 162 suicidal people on the Cold Spring Bridge in the last 8 years. Commander Palera told me that so far this year his department has contacted 3 people who were actually suicidal and on the bridge or on their way to the bridge.

This number seems more in line with what we have seen on other bridges -- for instance, on the Golden Gate Bridge they contact and save on average about 2 people for every 1 that jumps. Since the Cold Spring Bridge averages about 1 suicide per year, we're more likely getting about 2 suicidal people per year going to the bridge and being saved, not 20.

However the Sheriff's responded, they are still forming a `human barrier', and consuming resources. Even if all they do is stop a pedestrian or check for a family member who is worried.

A well engineered barrier on the Cold Spring Bridge will enable the resources tied up with the currently 162 calls/year to be redeployed and used more effectively.

Of course, Garrett, your responses are entirely predictable: whatever the issue is, you will find a way and a reason to dissemble and prevaricate out of it. You don't acknowledge a single valid point those who disagree with you make. For you it is like Bushworld, all black and white.

Whoops, that should have been 162 calls/8 years. Sorry

And whoops, you should buy a dictionary and look up the words "dissemble" and "prevaricate," since you obviously have no idea what they mean.

You got caught in a lie when you said there were 162 suicidal people on the bridge in 8 years, and your response was to make a complete ass of yourself by changing the subject and insulting the person who caught you.

In other words, standard sevendolphins behavior.

By the way -- trying to justify a $3.2 million dollar project by arguing that it would save us the money spend on 20 calls to the Sheriff per year? Priceless.

Page 4 of Chapter 1 of the DEIR on the Cold Spring Barrier:

``According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, there have been approximately 162 incidents within the past eight years where law enforcement has responded to a suicide-related call at this location.''

A lie? Hardly.

And yes, Garrett Glasgow consistently dissembles and prevaricates. Some examples? His study has never provided any evidence one way or the other on the effectiveness of barriers; turned out his study had insufficient sensitivity to resolve anything. But he makes all sorts of big whup about it anyway; his study actually failed.

He cherrypicked and culled data for his study of the Pasadena bridge. And he systematically ignored all the law enforcement preventions of suicides at Cold Springs, and focused instead only on the known suicides.

$3.2 million to save 60 lives over 20 years? A bargain.

It is the anti-barrier folks who place no value on human life. If they did care, they'd organize volunteer squads to man the bridge 24/7. But they don't care one bit about the trauma and anguish suicide causes.

Your lie was to tell people there were 162 suicidal people on the bridge in the last 8 years. You know, the line about the "human barrier" saving 95% of the suicidal people on the bridge? Totally false.

Here's another gem: You say we'll save 60 lives over 20 years with the barrier ... when only 1 person a year jumps from the bridge. Genius.

And here's one I can't believe you missed: If the pro-barrier folks place value on human life, why aren't *they* organizing volunteer squads to man the bridge 24/7?

Nobody is this stupid. My new theory: you are Marc McGinnes, posting under a fake name to make the pro-barrier people look like idiots.

The 95% is completely accurate. Totally based on the EIR. Why should anyone believe Garrett Glasgow's reports of a conversation? If he posts an .mp3 of the whole conversation that might begin to recover his credibility.

Uh... I was being generous and using Glasgow's low figure that for every one jump there are two other suicidal folks stopped by law enforcement.

The pro-barrier folks are fighting for saving lives by installing a barrier. It is the anti-barrier folks who want the `human barrier' which they are free to make at any time.

It's Marc Mcginnes who screams that `Caltrans is the Nanny State in Drag'. Or maybe the psychedelics cloud his memory, so he denies it.

A lecture on credibility from a man that got caught lying.

An mp3 of an email.

20 x 1 = 60.

Thanks for the laughs, sevendolphins.

20 x 3 = 60

1 (jumped) + 2(stopped, according to Glasgow) = 3

should be

1 (jumped) + 20(stopped, according to DEIR)= 21

but I was being generous.

Whoo-hoo, thanks for the credibility lesson.

To all of you who have never woken up in the morning and had your first thought be about jumping off of Cold Springs Bridge: how wonderful you all are. You are superior human beings and you are smarter and braver and have all those great qualities that I am lacking, having been born from an inferior pocket of DNA. Thank you so much for making sure that no-one bothers to put a fence up, so that I might make the world a better place by removing myself from it.

I hate you all almost as much as I hate myself.