Outside firm hired to analyze mobility in Glendale

Residents will soon see how Glendale stacks up with other cities when it comes to commuting through downtown.

While the city collects data on how its parking structures are used, officials say they’re not sure how many people are taking advantage of bike lanes or local buses.

Voting unanimously to change this, the City Council voted Tuesday to have an outside firm analyze parking data, Glendale Beeline ridership and count how many cars are rolling through intersections as well as the number of bicyclists.

All the information will come back in the form of a “report card” next spring, which will compare the information to other cities, said Alan Loomis, deputy director of community development.

The feedback could also shape future decisions on how the council wants to mold mobility in the downtown, he said.

“It’s a report card to give us a baseline on data on which we can begin to make policy,” Loomis said.

The council adopted a similar mobility study in 2007, completed by Nelson/Nygaard, Inc., the same firm hired for the current study.

The firm will also go into neighborhoods just outside of downtown to count how many cars are parked on the streets. By doing so, they’ll be able to determine how many are residents and how many are visitors or even employees who work in the downtown area, Loomis said.

Mayor Ara Najarian said he’s looking forward to that last bit of data because he believes some office buildings that provide parking are charging workers too much for it, causing strain on residential areas.

“Whether this is a revenue issue for them, they’ve got to realize it’s not what the city had in mind,” he said.

Councilman Vartan Gharpetian said he’d like to see if anything could be done about expanding Beeline hours for seniors, who have told him the service ends too early. The bus runs through 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. on weekends.

“[Seniors] can’t go to the Americana in the evening if they want because the Beeline is not working,” he said.

It may also be worthwhile to see if it would be worth providing taxi vouchers for economically disadvantaged seniors, or even all seniors, as an alternative to expanding Beeline operations, said Councilwoman Laura Friedman.

“It would certainly be more economical than running Beeline buses to areas where we don’t know if we have the ridership to really support them,” she said.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @arinmikailian