Bike Coalition Looks to Bring Safer Streets to Glendale

One of Glendale’s Better Streets for Pedestrians

Sometimes when you live in place as large as Los Angeles, you can forget that there are other relatively large cities that are almost literally next door.  For example, The City of Glendale is home to nearly 200,000 residents, many of them foreign born and is barely a blip on the county-wide radar.  Yet, Glendale has it’s own transportation problems.  For example, this week’s Glendale News-Press carries two different stories of pedestrians being killed while crossing the street after a driver broke the law.

However, Glendale is making steps to change its streets.  Working with the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, Glendale received a $305,000 grant from the county to re-make itself as a safer place for both cyclists and pedestrians.  The grant, which is being overseen by planner and long-time bike activist Colin Bogart, who told the City Council about a pilot plan already in design that if succesful could be expanded city-wide.

Bogart told the City Council that a corridor to connect Pacific
and Maple parks in south Glendale was already being considered for a
$20,000 project by the coalition. Under the project, the group would
use a small geographical area to demonstrate new traffic-calming and
safety measures before possibly expanding them citywide.

Whatever
the project might include has not been finalized, he said, but he
cautioned against relying on standard bike lanes as the only option for
improving bike-riding conditions on Glendale streets.

The City is also hoping to change it’s somewhat alarming obesity rates by getting people out of their cars to do more local trips.  37% of adults are overweight and 15.9% are obese, in Glendale and surrounding cities in the San Fernando Valley.

Thanks to tipster Erik Hovland for his help with this story.

Photo: Hubbuzz.com