On Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at approximately 5:30PM, Stephanie Langlitz (Los Feliz resident and parent at Franklin Avenue Elementary School), was walking her son home from Franklin. He is one of the many students who participates in the Beyond the Bell program and is on campus until after 5:00PM most days. They walked west on the north sidewalk of Franklin Avenue, entered the crosswalk on Commonwealth and Franklin, were halfway across the crosswalk when they were struck by a vehicle turning north onto Commonwealth from the eastbound lane on Franklin. They were bruised, sore, and very scared, but fortunately did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

For many years, pedestrian safety has been a concern at Franklin Avenue Elementary School. The school’s parent/teacher association, Friends of Franklin, has worked closely with school leaders, neighborhood council representatives, elected officials, and city transportation engineers to bring attention to this issue. We have been patient through many delays caused by leadership changes, a global pandemic, district closures etc. We were also proactive in developing (with input from transportation engineers) inexpensive and easy solutions to drastically increase pedestrian safety around campus. 

We’ve even offered to foot the bill for the improvements, if we could afford to do so. Despite all of these efforts, this important safety issue ended up in a cul-de-sac of bureaucracy and as a result, lives were put at risk.

We have advocated for physical barriers around the 4 corners of the intersection where the collision took place for 2 ½ years. However, this and other requests were denied by LADOT just weeks ago, in August 2021. 

The reason we were given was that a crossing guard had been assigned to our school.

We are grateful to have a wonderful crossing guard, but she is only present during the hours of 7:30-8:30 AM and 2:00-3:00 PM. The pedestrians were struck at 5:30 PM and as noted, our afterschool program extends into the evening hours, with some students staying until the very end.  

LADOT must act to provide more physical barriers and safety measures at the intersections of Franklin and Commonwealth immediately. 

Here is a timeline of all of the efforts that have been made in the last 2 ½ years to improve pedestrian safety around Franklin Avenue Elementary School:

1.  Mid-2019:  the Friends of Franklin (FOF) and Los Feliz Neighborhood Council (LFNC) formally requested safety improvements around the school from LADOT & the city.

2.  October 2, 2019:  FOF, along with Los Angeles Walks, organized a Walk to School Day safety demonstration to draw attention to the request since the city/LADOT did not reply.  

3.  October 3, 2019:  Terence Heuston, a Franklin Ave Elem parent and FOF Safety Committee volunteer, informally reached out to LADOT contacts to ask for the best safety improvements and the best strategy to get them implemented. Based on a review of Google Maps around the school, he was given a tentative list of potential improvements and told to go through the LADOT District Office.

4.  October 7, 2019:  we emailed Rachel Fox of David Ryu's CD4 office to request a meeting with the LADOT District Office. LA Walks also wrote us a letter of support.

5.  November 2019:  Mr. Heuston sees Rachel Fox at a Silver Lake Neighborhood Council meeting, where he asked her the status. She said LADOT wanted us to create a list of specific asks since they didn't have the bandwidth to start from scratch.

6.  January 2020:  Two transportation engineers came out for a safety walk around Franklin Ave Elementary to get more specific recommendations than could be ascertained via Google Maps. They make a series of recommendations that are quick/inexpensive. The transportation engineers identify the intersection of Franklin/Commonwealth and the speeds of vehicles traveling on Franklin as the greatest safety risks. To address this they recommend:

• Right and left turn bollards.  (Plastic posts on all four corners of the intersection & on the yellow striped line in the middle of the street to facilitate slower turns, a safety buffer at the corners, and better visibility)
• Turn the light at the intersection of the Franklin/Commonwealth into a four way stop. If this isn't approved, then install a pedestrian only phase, similar to the one in front of TS King Middle School.
  Stripe in a bike lane on the uphill side of the street in front of Franklin to create an additional 5-foot buffer all the way up the street to increase visibility.
• Install a bike corral next to the red curb in front of the school to increase visibility of kids walking on the sidewalk approaching the intersection.
• Stripe in missing crosswalks at Commonwealth/Russell

7.  Jan 2020: LFNC sends letter requesting 4-way stop at Commonwealth/Franklin.

8.  Jan 2020:  LADOT acknowledges the bike lane request from LFNC

9.  Jan 2020:  we send an email to Rachel Fox asking for follow up on recommendations. Also present plan to FOF Board.

10. Feb 2020:  CD4 senior staff report that they formally requested safety improvements for Franklin in their LADOT 2020 annual requests/planning.

11.  Feb 2020:  Rachel Fox tells Mr. Heuston at Silver Lake Neighborhood Council meeting that LADOT won't approve bike lanes and that the 4-way stop for Commonwealth/Franklin is unlikely due to the intersection qualifying for a traffic light in the past, but LADOT "will study it."  Mr. Heuston points out that Talmadge/Franklin (two blocks east of Franklin/Commonwealth) has a 4-way stop, arguing that it makes little to no sense that Commonwealth requires a traffic light while Talmadge doesn't.

12. Feb 18 2020: We try to get dates for the future traffic study from Rachel Fox, but LADOT says it will take several months to "review" the request.  Ms. Fox promises to push it along.

13.  March 2020:  COVID forces closure of school campuses for more than a year.  

13.  March 17 2021:  LFNC uses "Slow Streets Improvements" request as an avenue through which to get safety improvements for Franklin Ave Elementary installed from LADOT.

14.  March 2021:  Nithya Raman elected.  Danny Cohen, President of the LFNC, brings the new regime up to speed on the safety requests for Franklin Ave Elementary. Mr. Heuston also emails the new district rep to catch her up on 1.5 years of safety requests.

15.  April 2021:  School reopens and a crossing guard is present. FOF has no idea who requested a crossing guard and neither does the Franklin Ave Elem school administration. While we are grateful for the crossing guard, it doesn't help students who leave after school programs when the sun is low in the sky and commuters are speeding home from work. The crossing guard is present 7:30-8:30AM and 2:00-3:00PM, but Franklin students are walking near campus 7:30AM-6:00PM.

16.  June 2021:  Indu Subaiya joins the FOF Safety Committee and Board and is able to coordinate with CD4 to get an LADOT Engineer from the district office to come out for a formal safety walk. Oliver Hou from LADOT agrees with the recommendations that the other engineers made and makes some other recommendations of his own. When he discovers that a crossing guard has been sent out, he says that we may not get safety improvements because LADOT doesn't usually do both. He promises to push for the requested improvements.

17.  July 2021:  we follow up with LADOT and there is no news

18. Aug 2021:  Ms. Subaiya receives news from Helene Rotolo, the new CD4 field rep, that our requests have been denied except for painting the parking space red near the corner of Franklin/Commonwealth in front of the school. She indicated that because we got the crossing guard, that is the best that can be done. It should be noted that striping the curb red without the bollards protecting it is not very helpful because people will still park there unless there is a barrier, which has proven to be true every day since in-person learning resumed.

19.  August 2021:  Ms. Subaiya and Mr. Heuston agree to raise the request to higher level CD4 staff to see if we can get any movement.

20. Sept 21, 2021:  A parent and child are hit by a car in the intersection where we requested the safety upgrades by a car turning north at rush hour. The bollards and 4-way stop that we requested would very likely have prevented this tragedy.

21.  The following day, Ms. Subaiya and Mr. Heuston contact district staff to bring their attention to this matter.

By signing this petition, you are standing with Friends of Franklin to request the following actions from LA City Council District 4 and LADOT within 60 days:

• Install right and left turn bollards. (Plastic posts on all four corners of the intersection & on the yellow striped line in the middle of the street to facilitate slower turns, a safety buffer at the corners, and better visibility)
• Turn the light at the intersection of the Franklin/Commonwealth into a 4-way stop at all times or during high-pedestrian hours. 
• Stripe in a bike lane on the uphill side of the street in front of Franklin to create an additional 5-foot buffer all the way up the street to increase visibility.
• Install a bike corral next to the red curb in front of the school to increase visibility of kids walking on the sidewalk approaching the intersection.
• Stripe in missing crosswalks at Commonwealth/Russell 

We are also imploring our neighbors to consider the safety of our youngest residents and SLOW DOWN, especially when near our schools. On behalf of all the pedestrians of Los Feliz, especially our children, please help us improve safety at Commonwealth/Franklin. No one deserves to be injured (or worse) walking to and from school.