To the Honorable Members of the Glendale City Council

Petition to the Glendale City Council to renegotiate the Metro dedicated bus lanes along Central and Glenoaks

Dear Mayor Najarian and City Council Members,

We, the undersigned residents, business owners and stakeholders of Glendale, respectfully request that the City Council renegotiate the current plan by LA Metro to construct a dedicated bus lane on Glenoaks and Central.  While we support efficient and reliable public transportation, we believe the current design is wrong for our Glendale neighborhoods.

Concerns

Traffic Congestion and Safety:
Reduction of traffic lanes will worsen traffic and push drivers onto   adjacent residential streets.

In some locations, the dedicated lane design will create confusion, causing drives to pull into bus lanes or bike lanes.

2.  Economic Impact of Local Businesses: 

Dedicated lanes along Central remove critical curbside parking and reduce customer accessibility. 

Our neighborhood businesses depend on visibility and convenient access, the current design may limit accessibility and hurt business.

3. Rezoning Impact of residential Neighborhoods 

Dedicated bus stops along Glenoaks and Central have the potential to trigger rezoning mandated by bill SB 79.  If bill SB 79 becomes law, neighborhoods within a half-mile radius of all dedicated transit stops will be up zoned for 6-9 story high-rise construction, regardless of overcrowding, safety, infrastructure concerns, or neighborhood cohesion.

4.  Inequitable Usage:

Less than 5% of Glendale residents commute by public transit.  Prioritizing busses over the overwhelming majority of drivers does represent the best use of limited roadway space and provide for the needs of our community.

5.  Alternate Solutions:

We request that the Glendale City Council negotiate with Metro to reroute the North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT bus lanes. 

If this is not possible, we request that the Glendale City Council renegotiate with Metro to change all dedicated bus lanes to regular, mixed flow bus lanes.

Conclusion

We urge the city council to make public transportation choices that reflect the needs of the vast majority of Glendale residents and stakeholders.  We strongly support safe and efficient public transit, but believe that any changes must reflect a fair balance between transit users, drivers, pedestrians, and business. We believe that any public transportation that has the potential to trigger bill SB 79 is dangerous to our neighborhoods, our local infrastructure and our way of way of life.  We therefore call on the Glendale City Council to renegotiate the Glenoaks and Central rapid transit bus lane design.