Letter -- Phronie Sanders

This is an open letter to Kerry Morford and Jano Baghdanian,

requesting permission to enter the Rossmoyne/Mountain traffic-calming

plan in the Rube Goldberg Contest for the most elaborate and complex

design for achieving the simplest task.

Nearly six years ago, residents of the Rossmoyne/Mountain neighborhood

approached the city to help with speeding traffic on the streets by

installing stop signs at every intersection. We were told by Mr. Morford

and company that stop signs were not the answer. They told us the answer

was speed humps. Okaaay ... a neighborhood committee will round up

support for speed humps, since we can’t have stop signs.

When it was determined that the speed humps were working, residents

asked for a few more to be installed in areas that had been missed. The

fire department claimed speed humps were too detrimental to response

times, and it suggested traffic circles. (Never mind that Glendale seems

to have the only emergency response vehicles in the country that are

significantly slowed down by speed humps.) It’s worth repeating ... the

fire department requested traffic circles.

The neighborhood committee once again said, okaaay ... if we can’t

have a few more humps, we will try to sell the traffic circles to the

residents. This was no easy task. They are dangerous, marginally

effective, ugly, and a concept for much wider streets. No surprise to

anyone, all hell broke loose, and nobody liked anything about the

measures that had been taken.

It’s now being said that most of the Rossmoyne/Mountain

traffic-calming plan is going to be ripped out and replaced in large part

by stop signs! Rube would be proud.

PHRONIE SANDERS

Glendale