Safe & Healthy Streets

Mayor Frank Quintero, Council Members John Drayman and Ara Najarian, and a friendly group of residents, supporters, and Glendale City Staff enjoyed the grand opening of the Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden on Saturday July 11, 2009. About 100 people attended the ceremony; some of whom arrived by bicycle. The garden is said to be the first of many community gardens in Glendale. Congratulations to the Coalition for a Green Glendale for a job well done. We look forward to more grand openings!

You can read the Glendale News-Press article here.

We were happy to see that bike racks have already been installed at the garden!

North Glendale Community Plan Advisory Committee

The Glendale Planning Department has been working with the community on a North Glendale Community Plan. The Plan is going to address multiple issues and an Advisory Committee has been formed to refine input already collected during past meetings. Two of the subjects to be reviewed by the Advisory Committee in September will be Street Design and Mobility. Potential bike lanes on Foothill Blvd. are under consideration, among other possible amenities for bicyclists and pedestrians. It’s worth noting that Honolulu Ave. is recommended as a bike route and ultimately to be striped for bike lanes in the Glendale Bikeway Master Plan. Letters of support for bike lanes on Foothill as well as other bike/ped amenities should be sent to:

North Glendale Community Plan Advisory Committee
Attention Laura Stotler, Glendale Planning Department
633 East Broadway, Room 103
Glendale, CA 91206
or  LStotler@ci.glendale.ca.us

More details about the North Glendale Community Plan are here.

Safe Routes to School

There will be a free Safe Routes to School webinar on August 25th, 2009. The webinar will be hosted by the National Center for Safe Routes to School and America Walks. All you need is a computer with audio to participate. For more details and to register, click here.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership sends out a free e-newsletter every month full of updates about Safe Routes to School including current legislation, reports, conferences, and news about Safe Routes to School projects around the country. You can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here.

Transportation for America CLEAN-TEA update

This is from a recent Transportation for America e-mail update. CLEAN-TEA would help to fund bike and pedestrian projects nationwide. It’s about dedicating more of the existing transportation budget to transportation alternatives, especially those that will help reduce pollution.

“A proposal called CLEAN-TEA would direct funding to clean transportation investments – like public transportation and passenger rail, affordable neighborhoods around transit stops, and neighborhood improvements that increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians. Investments in transportation alternatives – like those in CLEAN-TEA – are an important way to stop global warming emissions.”

For more information about CLEAN-TEA and contacting your representative about it, click here.

Sharrow Update

Several readers have contacted us about sharrows they have seen in Pasadena on Lake Avenue near Cordova Street. We haven’t seen them yet, but the reports we’ve received indicate that the sharrows are easily visible and may have been repainted recently. Clearly, Pasadena deserves a little more credit than we’d previously given it. If anyone has a photo of the Lake Avenue sharrows, please send them to colin@la-bike.org   Thank you.

Summer Night on the Plaza

Neighborhood Services and the Committee for a Clean & Beautiful Glendale will host the 6th Annual “Summer Night on the Plaza” Friday, July 31, 2009 from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Join them for this festive gathering featuring an impressive food and dessert “taster” from many of Glendale’s best restaurants and bakeries, live entertainment by the steel drum band Trinidadio, an eclectic array of silent auction items and an exhibit of the finalists in the “My Home Town” photo contest. All proceeds from ticket sales and silent auction items will continue to fund the Committee for a Clean & Beautiful Glendale’s community beautification and environmental education programs. For more information click here.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the Glendale History Walk on July 11. Ninety people walked with us on a beautiful (and hot) sunny day! Highlights included a rare peek inside the Howard Street Electric Substation, a visit to the Good House (complete with a detailed description of how it was refurbished by project manager David Ahern), and a subterranean adventure into the former dining hall and ballroom of the old Hotel Glendale which are now a wine storage facility.

Many people commented that they learned something new that day, even some who have lived in Glendale for years. Hats off to Arlene Vidor and Scott Lowe for picking the destinations, compiling the information hand-out, and leading the tour. There’s talk of more History Walks and Rides in the future, so stay tuned…

The Glendale News-Press published a nice article about the walk.
You can read it here.

Walk participant Graeme Whifler posted some amazing photos
of the day on Flickr, here.

City Council Presentation

Tuesday night, July 14, we updated the Glendale City Council regarding the activities of the past 6 months for the Safe & Healthy Streets Plan and what we plan to do for the next 6 months. The presentation went very well and was met with generous approval from the Council Members. The Glendale News-Press has published an article about items in the report that accompanied the presentation. You can read the GNP article here. You can read the actual report submitted to Council here. You can also watch video of the presentation here. Skip to 1 hour and 40 seconds or you can choose the “Jump to…” drop-down menu and select item 6-b to jump to the beginning of the presentation. Be sure to watch the responses from Council. Council Member Laura Friedman requested a bike rack be installed in the city parking garage and promised to ride her bike to work. Council Member Ara Najarian invited PLACE Grant Coordinator Colin Bogart to return to Council to provide informational presentations that will help people who want to commute by bicycle to get started. We are very excited about these developments!

Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden Grand Opening

Don’t forget, the Grand Opening of the Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden is this Saturday, July 18 at 10 am. Bicycling, walking, and car-pooling to the event is encouraged. 870 Monterey Road. For more details click here.

Walking, biking to work linked with better fitness

This just in! There’s another report out that links walking or biking to work with better health. The article explains that our built environment often prevents people from getting exercise through Active Transportation (walking and biking). This is precisely what the PLACE Grant and Safe & Healthy Streets is all about. You can read the article here.

Rose Bowl Changes for Cyclists, Pedestrians to Be Reviewed

The City of Pasadena is considering a change to the flow of traffic around the Rose Bowl which includes changes to accomodate pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists. They want to know what users of the Rose Bowl Loop think about the proposed changes. You can give them your feedback in person on Tuesday, July 28, any time between 5 and 7:30 p.m. (look for the tents at Brookside Golf Club and Lot K). Or, you can visit http://www.cityofpasadena.net/trans/rosebowlloop.asp to provide feedback online. For more information call (626) 744-4610.

Before we get into the Sharrow Update, are you looking for the Glendale History Walk? If yes, click here.

The New Long Beach Sharrow

The first sharrows to be painted by a city in Los Angeles County were revealed on June 27^th in Long Beach. Located on 2^nd Street in the Belmont Shore neighborhood, the new sharrows have excited cyclists all over Southern California.

"Regular" Sharrow

Sharrows, a road marking usually symbolized by a bicycle and directional arrows, aim to keep bicyclists safe. They mark the place in the road to ride to help them avoid the “door zone.” Sharrows remind both cyclists and drivers that they share the road. Sharrows also help prevent cyclists from riding the wrong way, which is both dangerous and illegal. For more information on sharrows, click here.

So far, sharrows have been painted in various cities all over the country, including many places in Northern California, but they are new to Southern California. The only other sharrows in Los Angeles are located on the campus at UCLA.

The new sharrows in Long Beach do not look like the sharrows that are usually painted on the road. These experimental sharrows include a thick, continuous, green stripe on the street. Cyclists in Long Beach are happy with the new sharrows. Russ Roca, a writer and photographer, made a video of what local cyclists thought of the new sharrows:

Glendale would be able to easily and inexpensively add sharrows to many of its roads, particularly those categorized as Class III bike routes by the Glendale Bicycle Master Plan. Some streets in Glendale are already being considered for sharrows.

These are only the first sharrows in Los Angeles County. As people become more aware of the need for improved safety for cyclists, sharrows, being both inexpensive and easy to install, are a natural part of the solution.