Glendale Businesses Form Group to Curb Traffic

In response to a state mandate, a consortium of Glendale employers, including the city, plans to join forces next week in an effort to curb increasing traffic congestion.

About half a dozen businesses have pledged to work with the city in forming a transportation management association that would develop, coordinate and promote a variety of traffic reduction programs, including ride-sharing and staggered work hours.

The city in February allocated $143,000 as “seed money” to help start the program, which was recommended by the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. An additional $10,000 was pledged by the Glendale Partners, a group of private businesses.

After a series of organizational meetings, consortium leaders said they are ready to launch the program Wednesday.

“We have to deal with realities right now,” said Glendale Councilman Dick Jutras, who led the chamber’s study of growing traffic problems. “It’s just more efficient to do it in a larger group.”

Formation of the association will mark the first coordinated effort by private and public employers in Glendale to reduce congestion. Employers said they also expect to save money by working as a partnership to meet stringent air quality standards.

Under a 1987 state law, the South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a rule, called Regulation 15, which requires all businesses with 100 or more employees to reduce the number of automobiles that employees drive to work. Eventually, about 8,000 employers will be affected in four counties--Los Angeles, Orange and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino.

The district’s goal is to reduce traffic by 25% during the peak commuting hours between 6 and 10 a.m., said Jacqueline Switzer, district spokeswoman. In addition, businesses must increase the average ridership among employees from the present 1.13 people per vehicle to 1.5 per vehicle.

Businesses that fail to submit viable plans by January could face fines or mandatory traffic-reduction programs imposed by the district.

Rosalia J. Martinez, Glendale transportation coordinator, said 49 major employers with a total of 26,000 employees in Glendale have been ordered to comply with regulations.

One of those employers is Security Pacific Automation Co., a subsidiary of Security Pacific Corp., which has 1,500 employees in Glendale and soon expects to add 400 to 600 more, said Pat Fangio, vice president of human relations.

Fangio said company officials were shocked to learn that they would have to spend at least $700,000 to provide fleet cars, shuttle buses and other alternative transportation for employees to meet the district’s standards. A “bare-bones plan” submitted by Security Pacific earlier this year was rejected as inadequate by the air quality district, Fangio said.

“We are in big trouble, folks,” said Fangio at a sparsely attended meeting of local employers last week.

In contrast, she said, costs could be reduced to about $100,000 if the company cooperates with other nearby employers, based on estimated fees of $3 to $5 per employee. Fangio proposed that companies pool their resources and funds to provide fleet vehicles, emergency rides home for employees who have to work late or otherwise miss their regular ride, and a computerized program to match commuters who live near one another.

“Clearly, there is a major difference,” she said.

But leaders admit that the Glendale program has been slow to catch on.

Jutras, co-chairman of the transportation management committee, said “there is a reticence among people to participate” in the association, partly because many employers are still confused by the new state law and because the actual cost of joining the association has not yet been determined.

Interested Businesses

Martinez said only half a dozen businesses have indicated interest in joining the city so far. They include Walt Disney Imagineering, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, Security Pacific, Glendale Federal Bank, Glendale Adventist Medical Center and Verdugo Hills Hospital.

In an effort to encourage others to join, the group plans to limit voting power to only those businesses that participate in the formation meeting next week, to be held at 3:30 p.m. at Verdugo Hills Hospital, 1812 Verdugo Blvd.

William D. Parente, president of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce and chief executive officer of Glendale Memorial Hospital, said letters urging other employers to join the group will be mailed within a few days.

While taxpayers’ dollars have been pledged by Glendale to launch the organization, city officials said they do not want the traffic management association to be construed as a government-operated agency because they are hopeful that district standards can be met without government intervention. “We are here simply as an employer,” Jutras told the group last week.

The city expects to recover most of its money within a year through state and local grants, pledges from businesses and fare revenue from public transportation, city officials said. Association organizers said they hope to meet a June 30 deadline to apply for a $60,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation.

John Walker, director of security and safety at Glendale Memorial Hospital and an organizer of the association, said all businesses “in Glendale or in the vicinity” with five or more employees are eligible to join.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” he said. “We need more hands.”