By Mary O’KEEFE

Recently the City of Glendale kicked off its “Be Street Smart Glendale” campaign. The launch was held outside Glendale City Hall and included city officials and students from local elementary schools.

The idea behind the program is to educate residents and those who work in Glendale on how to “walk smart, drive smart and bike smart.”

Though the downtown and southern areas of Glendale have had their share of pedestrian accidents, the push to keep Glendale street safe has been a longtime commitment, according to Alan Loomis, deputy director of Urban Design and Mobility in Glendale.

He added that recognizing the need to make safety a priority can be traced back to years ago when Councilmember Ara Najarian requested a traffic safety study that included Caltrans personnel.

“One of the things that came out of that group was [a suggestion] to really ramp up our pedestrian safety education program and to develop a master plan. That was really the impetus for this [program],” Loomis said.

With the information garnered by the committee the group applied for and was awarded Caltrans grant money of about $1.5 million.

“It was a very competitive statewide program that we were very fortunate to win more [grant money] in the first round than anyone else in the state,” he said.

“The ‘Be Street Smart Glendale’ campaign seeks to remind every-body to be safe when crossing the street, follow the rules of the road while biking and pay attention and look out for pedestrians when driving,” said Phillip Lanzafame, director of Community Development. “We all know what we need to do when we are on the road.”

The program will begin with education. There are signs hung throughout the city that are designed to create awareness of street safety. At present those signs are in English and Armenian but there are plans to design them in other languages.

There will also be planned events in the future that will focus on intersection crosswalk safety as well as other areas, including
biking and driving.

Lanzafame added safety is everyone’s responsibility, whether  driving, walking or biking.

One target area of the educational campaign will be about encouraging behavioral change, Loomis said. Another area will be a pedestrian master plan that will involve infrastructure improvement.

“So we will be looking at intersections, street segments [and more] throughout the entire city and then start making improvement suggestions,” he said.

Not every area of the city has the same problem. In Montrose and far north Glendale, pedestrian accidents have been few and far between though issues still exist.

Loomis said they will be looking at crosswalks without street lighting, a common issue in the Crescenta Valley area of Glendale. He added they would also be looking at areas like CV that do not have neighborhood sidewalks. The program will also aim to educate those biking and walking about the safest routes and practices.

He added they will also be looking at issues of sidewalk bulb-outs and ramps for safer accessibility for pedestrians.

In addition to the “Be Street Smart Glendale” program, the city introduced a Billion Step Challenge, a program that encourages
physical activity.

  Mary Okeefe