They are NOT taxpayer funded "artwork" (not Redevelopment Agency legacies like the orange "IUD" on Atlantic Ave. in uptown Bixby Knolls or bird/animal images installed years ago along part of Stearns St. in Los Altos.)

The two metal dinosaurs and two metal aligators on the median are the latest in a series of efforts by Long Beach Traffic Engineer Dave Roseman to try to slow traffic along a stretch of Wardlow Rd. between the 605 freeway and the San Gabriel River. It's a wide open area that invites drivers to speed up, blowing past the posted speed limit of 45 mph.

Heading west, some might be flying near 50 mph heading straight into a residential neighborhood where the posted speed limit is 35 mph. Going east, they reach Claremore Ave., the northern entrance to what will be the new Newcomb Academy K-8 school. Meanwhile, children currently walk alongside the high speed Wardlow Rd. stretch to get to and from Newcomb's temporary site at Keller Elementary to the west.

Mr. Roseman tried "Botts Dots" (round white speed bumps.) He tried less popular "rumble strips" that shook cars (slowing vehicles a bit but not enough.) He tried narrowing the street, installing widened protected bike lanes.

In September 2012, the City unveiled a high tech speed detection system, dubbed "Operation Rest in Red," which triggers a red light midway through the high speed stretch at Fire Station 5, stopping cars if they speed over sensors entering the area. "The City of Long Beach looks at ways to improve all of our City streets," said Mayor Bob Foster quoted in a City Hall release at the time. "In this instance, traffic signal changes to improve safety for commuters, cyclists, and pedestrians along Wardlow Road made the most sense."

The results will be measured soon...amid a problem added by Sacramento. Mr. Roseman told LBREPORT.com that under various state laws [which he summarized and we haven't researched at this point], if traffic regularly exceeds a posted speed limit by a certain amount, the speed limit must be raised...meaning that stretch of Wardlow Rd. could potentially end up with a Sacramento imposed [speculated] 50+ mph speed limit, something the City definitely doesn't want.

So, the two metal dinosaurs and aligators were dug up, not from a La Brea tar pit but from a city storage place.

Mr. Roseman told LBREPORT.com they are unused bicycle racks that the City obtained some time ago under some type of offered federal funds. Apparently federal taxpayers provided a load of animal shaped bike racks, and the dino and alligator racks were sitting unused in storage, so Mr. Roseman put them into service...not to lock up bikes but to try and calm traffic.

In an email to a resident provided to LBREPORT.com, Mr. Roseman spelled out the problem [in candid verbiage] and his efforts to find a solution to address it:

[Roseman email text to a resident]...I can appreciate your passion for our community because as a resident of Long Beach myself I share your passion for making Long Beach a better place to live, work, and recreate. In my "day job" as your City Traffic Engineer I also have a great passion for making the streets of Long Beach as safe as possible for all of us.

For decades Wardlow Road between Claremore and Stevely has been a roadway in which many motorists have chosen to travel at excessive speeds. In my twelve years as the City Traffic Engineer at almost every community meeting I attend in northeast Long Beach the subject of excessive speeding on Wardlow is brought forward as an issue that the City needs to address. For me as an engineer I recognized the problem...but what could I do? It's a straight long section of roadway with no intervening streets or driveways except for a Fire Station.

We tried speed feedback signs west of Stevely and we upgraded the traffic signal at Claremore but really neither change had any impact along the main stretch of the road. Then came a change in the State mandated process for the setting of speed limits, which could have resulted in a raising of the speed limit on Wardlow Road from it's current 45mph to 55mph and concurrently it was announced that the Newcomb Academy site was closing for reconstruction with it's students being moved to the Keller site west of Stevely.

For me these two changes made it critical that we as a City and more specifically me as the City Traffic Engineer take some action, because having students riding bikes and walking to school on a mile stretch of roadway with a 55mph speed limit was simply unacceptable. As an engineer we have plenty of manuals and procedures for calculating capacity, determining merging and weaving distances, modeling traffic patterns, etc....but there is no sure fire calculation or procedure for affecting driver behavior to get them to do the right thing and travel at reasonable speeds on a wide open roadway that connects two residential communities.

After conducting some research across the country we decided to try a combination of treatments pioneered in Portland Oregon for speed control...that result was the unique pattern of lines and bumps you first saw out on Wardlow. We measured speeds before and after implementation and we did see a slight drop in travel speeds but I wouldn't consider it significant. So unfortunately, what had worked in Portland didn't work on Wardlow Road...so back to the drawing board we went and came up with the idea to narrow the traveled roadway by installing a buffer between the travel lanes and the bike line and use delineators to shorten up the width of the roadway. Additionally, we decided to modify the emergency traffic signal to better control traffic speeds than simply staying green for Wardlow until a fire engine appeared. Such treatments have worked in other locations so perhaps they would work on Wardlow Road. The roadway was restriped, delineators installed, and the traffic signal modified to be responsive and a crosswalk across Wardlow was added. This combination of treatments proved to be the most successful yet, except for one problem. That being that some motorists decided that they would willfully and intentionally vandalize the delineators by running into them and knocking them over.

We use delineators all over the City and they generally last three years or more...but on Wardlow we had lost about half of them in a matter of less than three months.

So back to the drawing board and we came up with the idea of installing the raised pavement markers to better define the lane lines and buffer at night and to install something in the raised median to break up the wide open view of the roadway...but what did we have on hand that we could use in the median that would be inexpensive to install ... and that is when the idea of installing some extra bike racks we had in storage came to fruition. So we thought if we are going to put something in the median why not do something unique and communicate a message...a message to those same students biking and walking to school?

That is when we came up with the idea of using the dinosaurs and alligators we had on hand to convey the importance of eating right and active living. I will be the first to admit your traffic engineers are not artists, but I think we did add a unique flare to the street...we are definitely getting people to talk about the important issues of traffic safety and healthy living.

Obviously, you are not a fan of our attempt to add some fun and character to a rather drab section of roadway. From my perspective I would much rather live in a City with a government that is trying to do everything it can with whatever it has to improve safety and provide a unique sense of place and character...then [sic] to have those same staffers sit back and do nothing as speeds increase and students are as risk. I've been somewhat quiet waiting for the completion of the project so that I could see how it all came together.

So this weekend I spent some time hanging out at the Fire Station just observing the activity on the street. I must say that I'm proud of the outcome of what we have done...I saw drivers traveling at reasonable speeds, I saw bikers up and down the street, walkers and bikers crossing in the new crosswalk. Some folks even stopped what they were doing to look at what we had installed in the median. I may be biased, but I think I saw a few smiles.

Mr. Roseman told LBREPORT.com there's plenty of evidence that "open space" tends to invite higher speeds, and reducing that driver perception has been shown to calm traffic, so he decided to give the dinosaurs/aligators a try. The cost is minimal, the city already had the bike racks; they weren't being used; his crews regularly install such things and it wasn't a big job, he said.

Mr. Roseman said that in addition to lessening the "open space" speed-inviting perception for adults, he hopes kids may notice and prompt their speeding parents to slow down. Although they're not to be used for locking up bicycles where they are now (in the middle of Wardlow Rd.), they're being put to a different use.

We commented that when we photographed the dinos (Oct. 16 morning), the cars seemed to be zooming by at their usual high speeds. Mr. Roseman said the results remain to be seen and, for better or worse, they will be measured.

What if the dinosaurs lay a dinosaur egg with the public and residents want them extinct again? Mr. Roseman said that could be done, and added, "We make no claim of right to this as artwork."

What about using items funded by the feds for bicycles for, well, something other than bicycles? They weren't being used for anything when we used them, he replied.

Mr. Roseman acknowledged that a landscaped street median -- with bushes, trees and the like -- is a conventional way to break-up the "open space" perspective and calm traffic. He stopped short of saying it was optimal...and noted it would be expensive. Five or six figures we asked? Mr. Roseman said depending on its length and other factors, it might reach seven figures.