Slowing traffic down on Ocean Boulevard could have a great side benefit — more parking.

City officials and community groups are mulling two separate “road diet” projects, one in Belmont Shore from the Belmont Pier to Alamitos Bay, and other on the Peninsula from 54th Place to 72nd Street.

Traffic may be reduced to one lane in each direction of the coastline stretches, in favor of bike lanes and more parking.

“When we talk about it, the most common concern is that we’re going to cause traffic congestion,” city traffic engineer Eric Widstrand said. “That’s what we want to do. It slows the traffic down.”

Ocean Boulevard is currently four lanes, and is a popular route used to skirt the traffic-clogged Second Street in Belmont Shore, particularly traveling east. That’s despite summer closure of Bayshore and restricting left turns through the neighborhood.

The boulevard’s traffic signals tend to cause faster speeds, as well, according to traffic engineer Paul Van Dyk. That proves problematic to pedestrians crossing Ocean Boulevard from the residential area to the beach.

“The traffic isn’t going to go away,” said 3rd District Councilwoman Suzie Price, who asked for a traffic study of the area shortly after being elected in 2014. “We just want to slow it down. What we need is a road diet.”

City officials revealed what that means at a recent community meeting in Belmont Shore: Reducing eastbound Ocean Boulevard to one lane by restriping and adding dedicated left turn lanes onto one-way streets. The bonus — 50 to 150 new diagonal parking spaces on the east side of Ocean.

About 50 parking spaces could be created between 39th Place and Bennett Avenue, Price said. Those spaces could serve the commercial area there, as well as nearby apartment buildings.

Another 100 spaces are also being considered from just west of Granada Avenue to 54th Place, with appropriate gaps for parking lot entrances. Both have parallel parking now, but diagonal parking would allow more spaces.

The councilwoman said given that the changes would increase parking by 68 percent, residents in Belmont Shore favored the changes.

There was some concern about cars backing out of parking spaces into traffic in the Belmont Shore area, but Van Dyk said there would be a 6-foot bicycle lane and a 5-foot buffer between parked cars and the traffic lane. Price said they still needed to get a price estimate, but since the only material cost is street paint, it shouldn’t be too expensive.

For the Peninsula work, Price said the Alamitos Beach Preservation Group, the residents’ association on the Peninsula, is almost evenly split over proposed changes.

No decisions have yet been made on either project. City staff are still working with Price and the community to get feedback on the proposals.

If approved, work would likely not begin until the next fiscal year, city officials said.

Harry Saltzgaver is executive editor of Gazette Newspapers. He can be reached at hsalt@gazettes.com.