One of the stop signs would be placed on a 4-foot-wide median in the middle of the street, reducing the distance that students would have to spend in front of cars, while also putting drivers on alert, said Jano Baghdanian, the city’s traffic and transportation administrator.
“Everybody who is traveling on Glenwood as they are approaching this crosswalk, they will have to stop 24 hours a day,” Baghdanian told the gathering at the Hoover auditorium.
The crosswalk would have been 45 feet wide, but with the current sidewalk bump-outs and possible added median, the distance would be cut to 25 feet, Baghdanian said.
The city is also investigating the possibility of a continuous median, which might include a 4-foot-tall railing.
The median would be located along Glenwood in front of the three schools to prevent U-turns and jaywalking, while helping create a distinct driving atmosphere around the schools, Baghdanian said.
“It’s as if you’re going into a college campus, which is really a different street,” said Baghdanian, explaining the city’s goal of making the area visibly different from other traffic areas. “We want to create that kind of a vision for the driver as well as for the pedestrian.”
The possible changes would add to the distinctive measures in place around the schools, including one-way streets, sidewalk bump-outs, the mid-block crosswalk with flashing lights and 10 of the city’s 25 daily crossing guards, Baghdanian said.
Those changes were made after Hoover student Raul Aguirre was stabbed and killed on Glenwood in a gang-related incident in 2000 that involved cruising, Baghdanian said.
