Neighborhoods take steps to deter speeding motorists

CITY HALL — City transportation commissioners this week approved a slate of speed humps requested by residents fed up with motorists speeding through their streets.

Residents from three Glendale neighborhoods had petitioned for the speed humps, which they hoped would improve dangerous conditions.

“There are people going down that street going 65 mph,” Montrose Avenue resident George Anderson told the Glendale Transportation and Parking Commission on Monday. “We have children playing there …We have to stop this because some kid is going to get run over and killed.”

Commissioners approved four speed humps on Montrose Avenue between New York and Pennsylvania avenues, three speed humps on Allen Avenue between Victory Boulevard and Lake Street and two speed humps on Cleveland Road between Glenoaks Boulevard and Zook Drive. The humps typically cost about $3,000 each.

Transportation officials recommended all three installations.

While the installations range from north Glendale to the city’s industrial corridor and an equestrian neighborhood near the border with Burbank, all three are affected by commuters using their streets as short cuts to busier thoroughfares, officials said.

“The majority of traffic that is using this street is not necessarily generated by the residents,” Glendale Traffic Administrator Jano Baghdanian said of Cleveland Road.

An engineering survey found that some of the streets saw thousands of cars per day, with many going above the posted speed limits.

And while a few residents submitted letters in opposition, most signed petitions in support of the humps, officials said.

Commissioners said they were hopeful the speed humps, to be installed in coming months, would serve as an effective deterrent.

“I’m especially sensitive and supportive of residents who I often term are caught between Point A and Point B,” said Commissioner Maro Yacoubian, adding that many commuters seem to have “reckless disregard for who lives between those two points.”