Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl joined Santa Monica councilmen Bobby Shriver and Kevin McKeown to lead a rush hour protest at a 10 Freeway on-ramp today, in support of Prop T, a Santa Monica residents’ ballot measure designed to reduce traffic in the area.

Rosendahl held a sign reading “Honk If U Want Traffic Fixed.”

The three councilmen were joined by about 30 supporters of Prop T at the Freeway on-ramp at Cloverfield to dramatize the “disastrous” state of traffic on the Westside and the need to pass the local anti-traffic measure.

Rosendahl, whose district includes Venice, West LA and Mar Vista, got many honks of support from the slow-moving cars and trucks trying to enter the backed-up 10 Freeway.

Shriver’s sign read “Had Enough Traffic? Yes on T” and McKeown’s read “Santa Monica is Not For Sale.”

The freeway rally followed a press conference at which all three councilmen said that Santa Monica and adjacent communities were in dire need of the pause in commercial development and new traffic that Proposition T would provide.

“Whether you live in West LA, Venice or Santa Monica, residents are fed up with traffic gridlock and the increasing number of commuters forced on to our residential side streets,” said Rosendahl. “Measure T is a think out-of-the-box initiative and it will cut down on new traffic. It will improve the quality of life for our residents, both in Santa Monica and in Los Angeles.”

McKeown echoed Rosendahl’s support for Prop T, saying that Santa Monica needs a respite, adding that “Twenty years of overdevelopment has put us in the hole on traffic. When you’ve dug yourself a hole like this the first thing is to put down the shovel.”

Shriver criticized the scare tactics employed by the developer-funded campaign to defeat the resident-sponsored ballot measure. “It’s a lie that Proposition T will hurt school funding. The City Council would never cut school funding. It’s a lie that it would hurt funding for the police or fire departments. It’s obscene that the developers are pouring this kind of money in to fund these lies,”

Developers who have large projects in the works in the iconic beach town are funding what may be a record-breaking ad bIitz. It is estimated that some 98% of the No-on-T campaign contributions have come from the development industry.

Seven developers have contributed between $45,000 and $140,000 each. The current total for the No-on-T campaign is $730,000. It is expected to hit $1 million by election day, or 20 times the amount raised by ‘T’ supporters.

“When you have this kind of out-of-town developer money pouring into an election in a community this small, it’s no longer about the issues. It’s about the money. Big developers are trying to buy this election and they don’t have Santa Monica’s best interests in mind.,” said Diana Gordon, co-chair of the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, which is sponsoring Prop T.

If approved by voters, Prop T will place an annual cap of 75,000 square feet on new commercial development in the city and require that any large projects above the cap go before voters for a thumbs-up or down.

The measure targets large-scale commercial development because research shows it generates the most traffic per square foot of all forms of development.

The law would expire in 15 years. More than 10,000 Santa Monica voters signed petitions to place the measure on the November ballot.