Pedestrian Safety

This week saw another assault on Glendale's perpetually abysmal pedestrian safety record: new high-tech roadway warning signs, and tri-language paint markers at busy intersections reminding pedestrians to watch out for oncoming traffic. This is what city officials have been forced into: painting basic safety messages on the road to remind adults what children are taught early on — to look both ways before crossing. The entire message is so elementary that it continues to boggle the mind as to how tragic pedestrian-involved collisions occur seemingly every week.

Cars injure and kill our children ("Wilson student injured in collision," Dec 7). In the last two months, three students have been hit by cars in front of Glendale schools (Rosemont Middle School, John Muir Elementary and Wilson Middle School). Neither drivers nor pedestrians are paying attention while driving and walking around our schools. Pedestrian safety must become the highest priority for parents, students, school administrators and the entire Glendale community. Bottom line — cars and children do not mix. We would like to make all Glendale residents aware of a national program called Safe Routes to School ( http://www.

CITY HALL — Roughly a third of Glendale’s bicyclists don’t use helmets, while more than 20% ride on sidewalks, according to a recent citywide survey of cyclists and pedestrians. The count — during which dozens of volunteers manned 26 street corners during a morning and evening weekday commute and a weekend morning — logged more than 2,000 cyclists and more than 15,000 pedestrians. The findings showed a continued need for public-safety campaigns to curb dangerous behaviors, said Colin Bogart, a liaison with the nonprofit Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition who oversaw the count as part of his work on a Safe and Healthy Streets plan.

Glendale's 2009 pedestrian safety record among seniors was the worst among similarly sized cities in California, according to figures released this week, despite concerted efforts to clamp down on the ongoing issue. The California Office of Traffic Safety figures, which were released this week, also ranked Glendale as having the third-worst overall record for pedestrian safety among cities with a population of 100,001 to 250,000. The city was ranked among 56 cities in 11 categories, which were based on the number of victims injured or killed in collisions involving pedestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists or alcohol.

Police on Sunday continued an educational effort to encourage pedestrian safety in a year when the frequency of auto-pedestrian collisions is already troubling, officials said. A 49-year-old man was struck Jan. 1 and eventually died of injuries suffered in a hit-and-run collision with a driver who fled the scene. Then, a string of collisions on Central Avenue this month prompted concerns about pedestrians on a road with seven incidents a year ago, Sgt. Dennis Smith said. “What’s more disturbing: So far this year since January we’ve had four auto-pedestrian collisions” on Central, Smith said Sunday, as he prepared for a day of telling pedestrians how to cross streets safely.

CITY HALL ? A snapshot of Glendale?s pedestrian safety record given at Tuesday?s City Council meeting wasn?t a glowing one. Coming a week after the fatal hit-and-run accident that killed 24-year-old Elizabeth Sandoval, the report gave council members a broad view of how big of a problem pedestrian safety has become in the city and what the Glendale Police and Public Works departments are doing about it. Last year, there were 122 pedestrian-related traffic...

The City Council on Tuesday will review the receipt of $150,000 in grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety to the Glendale Police Department for pedestrian education and speed enforcement activities. The funding will be used to pay for overtime hours for Glendale police and community service officers, support staff and supervisors when conducting education or speed enforcement. WHAT TO EXPECT The council is expected to approve the grant funding.

More than 97,000 citations for traffic and parking violations were issued last year, a sum that changed little compared with 2011, according to figures recently released by Glendale police. Parking enforcement officers issued 79,392 tickets last year, up 4,397 from 2011, according to the Glendale Police Department. Citations for traffic-related violations, meanwhile, were down from 22,896 in 2011 to 17,784 last year. “The overall goal behind it is to make the streets safer,” said Glendale Police Lt. Steve Robertson, who oversees the Traffic Bureau.

Hundreds of thousands in state funding is headed to Glendale to help pay for pedestrian education and distracted driving enforcement, officials announced this week. The Glendale Police Department received $377,550 in grants this week from the California Office of Traffic Safety to fund enforcement efforts and lower the number of alcohol or drug-related incidents on the road. Police Chief Ron De Pompa this week said DUI-related traffic collisions and overall traffic safety have been areas of focus for the department.

Armed with umbrellas and slickers, thousands of children, parents and officials crowded the streets of Glendale Wednesday morning for International Walk to School Day, designed to promote healthy lifestyles and pedestrian safety. It was the third consecutive year that local schools have taken part in the national event. Participation numbers were projected to hit 20,000, the highest of any district in California. “We got all 29 Glendale Unified schools participating this year, as well as three private schools that signed up,” said Kara Sergile, a parent at R.D. White Elementary School and a pedestrian safety advocate who spearheaded the effort.

In January, a beautiful article (“More courtesy needed on the road,” January 11) by Camille Levee, executive director of Glendale Healthy Kids, took up being more courteous in our driving habits in relation to pedestrian crossings. Yes, I do concur with that rationale, however, one must practice courtesy on a daily basis for it to be practical, not just dust it aside. Our situation with pedestrian safety crossings needs a long-term solution. Just look at drunk driving and how long it took us to get a handle on it. With our municipal election coming up April 5, this would be an excellent time to put this topic on the candidate forums by the various sponsoring organizations to get input from our six City Council candidates on their perspective on how to find solutions to this quality-of-life issue.

CITY HALL — Roughly a third of Glendale’s bicyclists don’t use helmets, while more than 20% ride on sidewalks, according to a recent citywide survey of cyclists and pedestrians. The count — during which dozens of volunteers manned 26 street corners during a morning and evening weekday commute and a weekend morning — logged more than 2,000 cyclists and more than 15,000 pedestrians. The findings showed a continued need for public-safety campaigns to curb dangerous behaviors, said Colin Bogart, a liaison with the nonprofit Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition who oversaw the count as part of his work on a Safe and Healthy Streets plan.

CITY HALL — Six local schools will receive nearly $1 million in pedestrian safety improvements under a construction project given the green light Tuesday by the City Council. In 2009, Glendale won a $900,000 state grant for the Safe Routes to School program, which is aimed at reducing injuries and fatalities and increasing walking and bicycling among students. On Tuesday, the City Council voted to spend the grant and roughly $100,000 in local transportation funds on improvements at Balboa, Columbus, Dunsmore, R.D. White and Verdugo Woodlands elementary schools and Wilson Middle School.

"It all points toward pedestrian safety," Chris Cochran, a spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, said in July as state officials awarded Glendale police $254,800 to boost pedestrian safety measures and reduce the number of distracted drivers. Evidently, that investment has yet to pay any dividends as the recently released California Office of Traffic Safety figures suggest. They rank Glendale as having the third-worst overall record for pedestrian safety among cities with a population of 100,001 to 250,000.

Comes as no surprise that Glendale ranks lowest in senior pedestrian safety ("City gets another poor pedestrian safety score," Jan. 8). I know — in addition to being a driver, since moving to Glendale, I have increased walking to my appointments and errands. (It really is great not to have to hassle with parking spaces and complex meters!) So I have a couple of suggestions for both pedestrians and drivers, based on personal experiences. Pedestrians: Please cross at crosswalks.

This week saw another assault on Glendale's perpetually abysmal pedestrian safety record: new high-tech roadway warning signs, and tri-language paint markers at busy intersections reminding pedestrians to watch out for oncoming traffic. This is what city officials have been forced into: painting basic safety messages on the road to remind adults what children are taught early on — to look both ways before crossing. The entire message is so elementary that it continues to boggle the mind as to how tragic pedestrian-involved collisions occur seemingly every week.

Glendale's 2009 pedestrian safety record among seniors was the worst among similarly sized cities in California, according to figures released this week, despite concerted efforts to clamp down on the ongoing issue. The California Office of Traffic Safety figures, which were released this week, also ranked Glendale as having the third-worst overall record for pedestrian safety among cities with a population of 100,001 to 250,000. The city was ranked among 56 cities in 11 categories, which were based on the number of victims injured or killed in collisions involving pedestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists or alcohol.