Glendale’s dismal accident record makes it difficult to get more people walking and using public transit. How can we encourage forward-looking development and transit sustainability ideas like this if people resist becoming pedestrians out of fear for their lives?
Yesterday, I heard a crossing guard muttering loudly to no one in particular (no, he didn’t have a cell phone) that Glendale has the second-worst traffic record among cities its size. That fact is straight from the 2008 Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report. Today, the Glendale News Press lead reports on the latest in an appalling string of oncoming car collisions on Glendale streets.
News Press columnist Dan Kimber wrote several days ago
…parents who give their teenage sons luxury cars to drive are possibly doing a disservice to their little prince as well as the rest of us who must share the road with him. But let me amend that. I think it borders on stupidity. These young men think they own the road, likely because they’ve been given the false impression from their parents that they are a cut above everyone else.
Additionally I would repeat my request for the Glendale Police Department to look into the driver preparation schools that our kids are supposed to be attending. My students have been telling me for years that $100 slipped to the instructor will buy your way out of having to attend the school.
I don’t know what kinds of punitive measures would be included in the six-point plan to improve traffic safety that Councilman Ara Najarian presented at this week’s city council meeting, but I hope they are a big part of the plan. Glendale has more than its share of crazy and impatient drivers. Pedestrian safety measures won’t be enough to put the brakes on these individuals, who have no regard for the safety and lives of others sharing the road.
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